3 Pickup System

Frequently asked questions about the 3-pickup amplification system.

3000 Series Pathmaker™ with the 3-pickup amplification system won

in the November 2003 issue of the magazine.

In his review of the 3-pickup amplification system, Guitar Player Senior Editor Andy Ellis writes: "The Pathmaker’s sexiest feature is its electronic package, which comprises a preamp/mixer, a condenser mini-mic on a flexible stem, a single-coil magnetic soundhole pickup with adjustable polepieces, and an undersaddle piezo transducer. The sidemount preamp allows you to manipulate the level and tone of all three signal sources using a minimum number of controls."

"For starters, there’s a slider to adjust the balance between saddle and soundhole pickups, which can range from 100% of either to equal amounts of both. A volume knob controls the output level of the blended pickups, and a 3-band EQ lets you cut or boost signals at 80 Hz, 800 Hz, and 3 kHz by ±12 dB. The mic has two sliders that operate independently of the pickup section. One adjusts the mic level, and the other boosts the mic’s upper mids. Additional goodies include a 9-volt battery-access port, a handy low battery warning LED, and a phase button that flips the signal polarity of the saddle pickup. You can use the latter to fight feedback onstage, or subtly emphasize different overtones in the studio."

"The Pathmaker has two outputs—a low-impedance XLR jack and a high-impedance 1/4" jack—mounted on a plate near the endpin. These jacks carry identical mono signals, so you can’t split the pickup and mic outputs. But what you can do is feed your sound simultaneously to a P.A. and stage amp, and then wrangle the results independently. In the studio, the dual outs suggest creative options like recording a clean signal from the XLR jack, while connecting the 1/4" jack to an effects unit and then bussing the processed tones to a second track. If you gig a lot, you’ll really appreciate how the system runs happily on 48-volt phantom power supplied from a mixer via the XLR cable—slick! A dedicated LED indicates when the phantom juice is flowing."

"Plugged in, the Pathmaker has a huge repertoire of blended mic and pickup sounds. Whether you’re after crunchy chord riffs or warm lead lines, you’re bound to find what you need—plus variations thereof. The guitar’s mag and saddle pickups sound clean and robust, but it’s the hot mic that provides the magic. Some claim that a mic placed inside an acoustic picks up more sonic garbage than useful timbres. However, I found that by pulling the capsule out of the soundhole—so it hovers between the soundboard and the bass strings, angled toward the treble strings—the Pathmaker delivered a very credible miked tone. This proved especially useful in a studio setting, where I’d often let the mic do most of the work. Onstage, the mic is forced to play a more subservient role to avoid feedback. Fortunately, it doesn’t take much mic signal to animate the direct pickup tones."