Plastic 301 Acoustic Guitar Preamp Pickup Guitar Pickup Tuner Preamp Black

I bought an Ibanez acoustic bass guitar with a dead "Fishman equipped SST" preamp. Seems to be a common issue, so I got this based on another review that said it'd fit with a little trimming. I'll confirm this can replace the type preamp that uses the cover plate pictured. Fitting took about 20 minutes with a Dremel sanding drum. It's easy, but take your time. The existing hole needs to be widened on the long sides a few mm, plus a tiny bit to accommodate the battery compartment hinges. Short sides are correctly spaced. The body contour curve on the control panel is a close match to this bass, and the plastic washer/bracket doo-hickeys make exact hole alignment less of an issue. I LOVE that this has the battery below the controls. This allows the original jack-plate to be reused, just resolder the lead from this preamp to the old 1/4" jack. I'm ignoring the original XLR, but may put a DI transformer in there later. I reused my piezo, splicing it onto this preamp's input cable. Included piezo is the soft wire type, and seems to be well made. Sound quality is quite good, amazing for the price, actually. I had a little hum, so I ran a ground wire to the G string inside the bass, and threaded a little bit of brass stock through the rest of the strings. Works great. For bass, the EQ is solid. Likely better for guitar. The notch is subtle, but seems to help with feedback, as does the phase switch. Tuner is a nice convenience and provides a mute; your standalone tuner will be better. The microphone is not good on bass. I didn't think it would be and I can't deduct points here. It's just in a weird spot, and this bass doesn't sound great acoustically anyway. There is a hidden trim pot accessible when the battery compartment is open. This seems to be tone for the mic, which is mounted in a rubber grommet and has lower handling noise than I would have thought. The mic is pre-master volume, and has easy to access wiring, so I may try to hack into its leads and wire in a magnetic pickup.

Am very pleased with this preamp. I've installed it in a classical guitar and it sounds quite good, as good as any brand name product I have installed in the past (I have been a luthier for 40+ years), and better than a couple I won't mention. Very surprised actually, especially as the microphone is located on the back of the housing, not a traditional location, but it works quite well. I do advise that the cable style undersaddle pickup be replaced with a solid "stick" type pickup, but that is a personal preference (and you will need to desolder the cable one supplied, and purchase and solder in the stick version, which will void the warranty... but at this price, not to worry!). I have purchased another to install on a fretless classical guitar I'm working on, and I'm sure it will sound just fine in that application as well.

Sounds great to me! Not too bad to install and pretty easy to use. Really nice sound overall with lots of room for adjustment. Things I didn't like: -The mid contour knob is very subtle. Idk if the internal trim pot -I'd recommend getting a soundhole cover to help prevent feedback when using the mic -The tuner on/off switch is pretty noisy/scrapey when engaging/disengaging. Might try some de-oxit and see if that will help Overall, not perfect, but pretty great for the money

Note to buyers: Check that the wires for the cord port are securely seated in the white plug in fixture. The red wire was not fully pushed in, but looked like it was) so at first the pickup didn't work. Upon close examination I noticed that it wasn't seated correctly, so using a small pointed object (paper clip, etc) was able to gently push it back into place. After that it worked fine. Sound quality is pretty decent, and the internal mic is very helpful, it allowed me to fill out the low end as I installed it into a shallow hollow body. I will say the tuner doesn't work very well, but for $20 it doesn't matter. And I did not use the provided under saddle pickup as I already had one installed so I was able to splice into after cutting the wire on the new one. Just be careful stripping the small wires. It would have been nice if it included a gasket but I could make one if I really wanted one. Overall, no complaints.

Only took 20 minutes to install, I used the Jack that was already in my guitar. It plugged straight in, I spliced the wire to the pickup soldered, it put electrical tape around, it put the battery in and screwed it in. It fit, perfect sounds fantastic.

not the best quality

My Ibanez AEG20 with a Fishmann SST preamp is back to perfect electrical working order after a relaxing evening installation of this pre-amp. Yes you will have to widen the hole in the guitar body slightly with a file or a rotary tool but its ALMOST a direct fit. The tuner is accurate, and being able to use the mic and pickup intermixed is an interesting feature. Slap a 9 volt battery in and try it out. I opted to reuse the pickup and 1/4 input within my guitar but I kind of messed up the shielding on the copper pickup wire and as a result have a slight feedback buzz. I would recommend just replacing the original with the copper wire they sent, no modification.

As near as I can tell, it's identical to the Fishman I have installed in another guitar. Performance is identical for way less than the "name brand version" The biggest difference is the price. Lack of instructions? No problem, the fishman install guide covers it and the rout template is exact.