Gear Review: Seymour Duncan SA-1 Acoustic Tube Pickup!

An Acoustic Guitarists Dream

Product:  Seymour Duncan SA-1  Tube Acoustic Pickup

Price Range: £60 -£80 including p+p

Product Rating: 9.5/10

Seymour Duncan are well known for the creation of Electric guitar pickups that can produce both clean sounds, to the punky and aggressive tones. On the other hand they are also known for their natural woody series of Acoustic pickups that you just chuck in the sound hole. I’ve personally had a chance to hear the use of this woody series and I feel it lacks the natural push that you want from your guitar. However what I have noticed is that the one’s I have heard used, you can immediately tell that the performer is using a removable pickup. Admittedly they are great for picking and give you a great pluck that you want and shows off the natural treble brilliantly, but I still feel that you want it to sound like a purpose build Electro-Acoustic. Another negative I feel needs to be pointed out is how prone to feedback they are if misused, making them impractical for stage use as you have no immediate control over volume.

Personally I know that a lot of acoustic guitarists have that one perfect sounding acoustic guitar, but there’s one problem! How do I get this great sound amplified through speakers without it sounding half hearted through a SM58? Which as we all know, when you put the microphone too close to the sound hold, 9 times out of 10, you’re going to get feedback or some form of hiss. Also, I want to do it without breaking the bank! Thus, I bring you the Seymour Duncan SA-1 Tube Acoustic Pickup. At a mere £67 on GAK.co.uk with about £6 postage, you’re getting a steal for what you get.

So what’s so good about it? First thing you notice about this pickup is it is so much more aesthetically pleasing than the boring woody series, unless that’s what you’re into of course, but in this modern era, we’re all after style aren’t we! Secondly it’s heavier than it looks, but not too heavy, showing they haven’t skimped on quality in this product. One thing that surprised me was its flexible and adjustable legs which allow you to lower either side of the pickup to allow more treble or bass to be picked up depending on your style, or even drop the pickup a fair distance away from the strings to allow more natural acoustics of the guitar, but less response from the strings, giving you the best of both worlds.  One thing to note is that they do deceive you on one count of their advertising. It is not the easier pickup to fit in your guitar, it is a “two hand bend your finger in a weird way and flick that onto their” job, but it’s worth the trouble getting it in. Another great thing is that unlike some of the woody series it features a ¼ Jack output with lasso you can hook onto your strap button, allowing you to use your high quality long length leads as opposed to being limited to movement like the other pickups do. Something that might give you problems is the thin lead that hangs out of the sound hole from the pickup once in place. Unless you are going to drill a hole in your favourite guitar, you are going to tape it down and it won’t cause you problems anymore.

I’d probably go as far as to say this pickup rivals some of the more expensive one’s you’ve seen your heroes use. It gives a brilliant response to any of your playing styles from finger picking to strumming and produces an impressive natural tone which near enough amplifies the exact sound of your guitar. A word of warning though, chances are if you are using an awful acoustic guitar, it won’t make it sound like a Taylor. Another thing I had wondered was whether this pickup would give the same quality response to a 12 string acoustic. Guess what? It does! It gives a great natural sound that you would want to amplify, maybe not to the same quality that it sounds unamplified, but near enough.

Showing extremely brilliant feedback resistance it is unbelievable how great this is for live performances as well. Once again though, it’s all about your equipment as well, if you run it through an awful P.A System or Amplifier, chances are it’s going to sound awful. I’ve had it run through both Electric and Acoustic Amps, and the results remain the same, amazing and consistent tone. Notice I used the words ‘feedback resistant’, this does not mean you won’t ever get feedback. Although I’ve never had feedback with this product, it’s not impossible. This is where my favourite feature that is currently exclusive to this pickup in the Seymour Duncan range comes in: The easy access volume control. If you were to receive some form of feedback, you can easily control your volume straight from the pickup, unlike other pickups. This feature is also great if you feel like your audience is getting a little bit louder or quieter, you can whack the volume up or down a notch to suit the venue.

In conclusion, this masterpiece coming from the Duncan range creates impressive sound, is a beautiful piece of gear and is worth the money, and I’d recommend anyone who wishes to buy a removable pickup to give the SA-1 a try and see what you think. Better than any old SM58 makeshift setup any day!

By Ashley Howell (ACH Music Reviews) 29/01/2012

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Music Review No.1, George Henry King: 'Silhouette Trees'

Name: George Henry King

Instrument: Guitar and Vocals

Genre:  Acoustic  

Review of: 'Silhouette Trees'

Overall Production Rating: 9/10

If you were to think of a Singer songwriter, you’d probably think of the likes of the very mainstream Ed Sheeran, or the acoustic fingerstyles of Jose Gonzales, or the even more rhythmic up and coming Ben Howard. However if you were to ask much of the young music scene of Essex, one name that would be brought up among the most prominent would be George Henry King.  Throughout the months of gigs circling Essex supporting bands, the Ex- Wasted Youth guitarist made a name for himself after winning Colchester Arts Centres battle of the bands and then releasing the highly acclaimed debut E.P ‘Silhouette Trees’. George Henry King now has over 20,000 hits on his YouTube videos and has been a featured artist in the Local newspapers, had airtime on radio stations, and his first recording featured on the compilation album ‘Anglia Underground’ showcasing unsigned and relatively unknown artists, showing he is making a name for himself all on his own.

After being recorded in a backyard recording studio, the E.P has been downloaded and listened to by a huge crowd throughout Essex and beyond and the twin track release has been received incredibly well. Being an acoustic guitarist myself I was anxious to see what George had to bring his 400 plus Facebook and Twitter fans. After listening to the seven and a half minutes of cover and original, I was very pleased with what had been produced by the Sixthform student George.

One of the two tracks featured is a cover of 80’s British Alternative Rock band ‘The Smiths’ where he plays his rendition of their song ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’. Something to note about this, is the first time I’d actually heard this song was on George’s E.P. I happy hold my hands up and declare that now having heard the original, George did it justice! The first thing to notice about the recording of this song is the dense texture that the guitar offers, which helps to fill the instrument space missing from the original track. Without drums and bass you’d think a cover of a Brit Rock song would sound empty, but I kid you not, you don’t miss it. Another feature in this track that personally impressed me the most is the dual vocal that can be heard, not only does it offer us some natural chorus to replace the original string section but it gives this cover originality and complements George’s voice brilliantly. As much as I like all the components of this champion cover, I do miss maybe just a little bit of bass guitar to cut through the bright treble of the acoustic, nothing fancy, just give it some more depth to contrast the high vocal parts. Some may disagree but I’m just addicted to the sound of the bass anyway.

The second track produced by the singer-songwriter is his self-written piece ‘Silhouette Trees’ where he has produced a song which fits in with the usual solo pieces of today with the verse chorus structure. Something to notice about this song is the very easy on the ear finger picking pattern which displays this gentle and bright sound which once again really works with George’s subtle and soft voice. Also the strumming pattern he uses really works following from the picking unlike some of the songs today where the chorus is almost completely foreign to the verse.  He also makes use of that wonderful overlaying vocal technique on the chorus and just a subtle hint of reverb on the verse which fills out the vocals a lot more.  We then move onto my personal favourite part of the song which is the middle eight which features chords of a sombre and darker nature which all good middle eight parts should have and this gives a nice change to the previous chords in the main part of the song.  What I would add would be perhaps some subtle drum within the chorus, not too much but something to give it a slight lift and really build it away from the verse.  Nevertheless, George has created his own style with intriguing yet delightful lyrics, an obvious passion for this profession and has produced easy listening for everyone who wants to hear his stuff and I think he’s done a really good job with his debut E.P.

To all that haven’t heard George’s tracks yet, I urge you visit his Soundcloud profile and check out his YouTube page for his self recorded video originals. My overall view of George’s E.P is that is it a well thought about and well produced product, I still believe that the songs could use some additional filling purely for personal preference, but they still hold their ground as great recordings with just acoustic guitar and vocals. I and other fans of George will be waiting to see what he has to offer from his solo career aswell as his new band which is still yet to break out on the gigging scene in Essex. 

By Ashley Howell (ACH Music Reviews)

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