

For a start, it's easy to install and similarly easy to remove.


Unfortunately the NC-1 is currently only available in the US, but is still a fantastic option for anyone who wants an extra special acoustic pickup.Īs a fuss-free, wallet-friendly option, this hum-cancelling option from the Californian pickup titans is hard to beat. It’s lightweight and compact too, so your picking hand can carry on doing its thing without worry. It’s also designed to have perfect string balance and volume with bronze or phosphor bronze strings, hence the lack of adjustable polepieces, or the need for specific NC-1-friendly strings. The NC-1 is specifically voiced and EQ’d like a microphone to emphasize your guitar’s pure, natural acoustic tone. The two CR2032 batteries have up to 1,000 hours of life in them and with two bright LED indicator lights, you’ll never get caught off guard with a dead battery. It’s got a 6V active preamp that supplies the necessary power to suppress any extra noise and feedback, so it’s great for live work as well as for use in the studio. The Quiet Coil NC-1 is, as the name suggests, noise cancelling. Mojotone has apparently “solved the soundhole pickup problem”, and we think they’ve got quite a persuasive argument. Mojotone’s Quiet Coil NC-1 is a fantastic option for anyone who’s sick of acoustic pickups changing the personality of their instrument. There is also a battery check feature, too, so you know you’ve got enough juice to get through a show. The soundhole preamp is discretely mounted and gives you control over volume, phase inversion, mic trim and mix, the latter letting you dial in the right amount of low-end from the element pickup. It is noise-cancelling and has a flatter frequency response that is responsive to your instrument. The mic performs just as a studio mic would. The Anthem system positions a piezo-style Element pickup under the saddle and combines it with a condenser mic that’s mounted 3mm from the underside of the bridge plate. There is none of that thwacky artificiality that you sometimes get with acoustic pickups. It’s not cheap, but nor is it prohibitively expensive, and if you are serious about your tone and need a pickup option for the stage or studio, this is it. It is used by the likes of Jake Bugg and Marcus King, and perhaps should be considered the industry standard. Once again, when it comes to the best acoustic guitar pickups it’s nigh-on impossible to see past LR Baggs Anthem pickup and microphone setup. Using a mixture of pickup types with the traditional piezo kind and LR Baggs’ True-Mic technology, it captures the entire dynamic range of your acoustic, delivering epic guitar tones. The LR Baggs Anthem comes as standard on many top-of-the-range acoustic guitars, which is exactly why it takes our top spot here. Best acoustic guitar pickups: Guitar World's choice To see the best acoustic guitar pickups available today, keep scrolling for our top picks. If you want to learn more about acoustic guitar pickups then have a look at our buying advice section. It might be you want a more traditional pickup design so you can use effects with your acoustic, or perhaps you’re not a fan of the sound of your already installed piezo pickup and want something that better translates your unplugged tone through a PA or acoustic guitar amp.

There are multiple reasons you would want to add an acoustic pickup, even if you already own an electro-acoustic guitar, so we’ve put together this list of the best out there so you can pick out the best one for you.
