| In
2004 i bought a cheap magnetic soundhole pickup for one of my acoustic
guitars. I already knew that it wouldn't sound acoustic, but i
thought it might be cool with slide and through a practice amp. That
pickup was an Abilene PU100 that i got from
American
Musical Supply for around $25 (i think). I have put electric
guitar pickups into acoustic guitars many times over the years, and i
can say honestly that this Abilene "acoustic guitar" pickup
sounded far
worse than any of my acoustic/electric 'modifications'.
The PU100 was un-modified for use with acoustic guitar strings.
Just like an electric guitar pickup, the Abilene's string-to-string
balance was completely uneven, with the B string louder by several dB.
And since this is a sealed pickup, there's not a darn thing you can do
about it.
The first PU100 i got from AMS was missing this little clip that
holds it in. Also, the volume knob was scratchy, and the tone knob
was scratchy and didn't actually affect the tone at all. This
pickup was so bad that it was really kindof funny.
[zZounds still has the
Abilene
'discontinued' page up, and it's actually very highly rated.
So maybe it's just me.]
I called AMS and they sent me another, telling me to keep the one i
had. The replacement that they sent was even MORE scratchy than
the original. At this point i wanted to send them both back, and
the customer service guy was really cool, but insisted that i let them
send me yet another, which he would personally make sure was a brand new
(unused/unreturned) pickup.
AMS refunded my money and i got to keep all three of these really
awful pickups. For my trouble, i sold two on eBay for $10 and $5
(one without the clip). I kept the third which i know is buried in the
studio somewhere with all of the other stuff i'll never use but never
throw away or sell.
Fast-forward to this year (2008).
Kent Armstrong
is a pickup designer. He started out working with Bill Lawrence.
On his own website, it is said that "Today, Kent is one of the foremost
pickup designers in the industry...".
"Foremost"? What are they saying there?
So, WD Music
Products is the sole distributor of Kent Armstrong pickups in the
US. Here's a link to a
Kent Armstrong single-coil acoustic guitar pickup. Yes, it's
the exact same crappy pickup i bought back in 2004. Except that it
doesn't say "Abilene" and it now goes for $90. $90! Wow.
So i don't know if Kent Armstrong had owned Abilene before, or
acquired it recently, but it's definitely the same pickup. What i
think is probably going on is the same thing that happens with the
Chinese-made microphones (referred to in the recording industry as
re-badging). A Chinese manufacturer produces cookie-cutter
products that anyone can buy; they just put your logo on it before
shipping.
Now it makes me wonder about Kent Armstrong's other pickups. I
mean, if they're not really his designs i guess i still don't care.
But to sell such a low-end product for so much money? I paid at
least $60 less for this same pickup four years
ago... That is one crazy profit margin! |
