Go Acoustic vs. L.R. Baggs Hifi

[JBarlow12]

Originally Posted by Petty1818

On a side note, I follow Molly Tuttle on Instagram and noticed that she has what appears to be the HiFi as her main pickup now. She's been a longtime K&K user. I listened to some more recent live recordings and she's getting some seriously great tones.

I have heard she also uses a Tonedexter, but I am not 100% sure if she still does. However she goes about it, monster player and great tone.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by JBarlow12

I have heard she also uses a Tonedexter, but I am not 100% sure if she still does. However she goes about it, monster player and great tone.

She has in the past, but I haven't seen the TD on stage in a while. She did experiment with the K&K pure mini paired with their soundhole pickup for a year, but it looks like she switched to the HiFi. Interestingly enough, I saw a shot of her pedalboard and the Fishman Aura Spectrum is on it.

[JBarlow12]

Originally Posted by Petty1818

She has in the past, but I haven't seen the TD on stage in a while. She did experiment with the K&K pure mini paired with their soundhole pickup for a year, but it looks like she switched to the HiFi. Interestingly enough, I saw a shot of her pedalboard and the Fishman Aura Spectrum is on it.

Not putting myself in the same league as her as a player, but I used a couple of the Fishman Aura Spectrum DI's for various instruments (I play violin and mandolin along with guitar) for a long time until switching over to a Grace Design Felix. I never really used the IR's, but liked the tone of the rest of the unit. To each their own, I suppose...

[JBarlow12]

To bring this thread back full circle, I ended up pulling the trigger on the Go Acoustic system. Long story short, I had a lengthy discussion with Paul last Thursday, and decided to give it a try. Living in Nashville, he was kind enough to install the pickup in my guitar quickly, and I will be giving it a trial run this weekend. I intend to write a post about my experience with it, albeit delayed as the show is on a cruise and I fully intend on not doing much of anything until I get home.

[Groberts]

Originally Posted by JBarlow12

To bring this thread back full circle, I ended up pulling the trigger on the Go Acoustic system. Long story short, I had a lengthy discussion with Paul last Thursday, and decided to give it a try. Living in Nashville, he was kind enough to install the pickup in my guitar quickly, and I will be giving it a trial run this weekend. I intend to write a post about my experience with it, albeit delayed as the show is on a cruise and I fully intend on not doing much of anything until I get home.

Keep us posted. The demo's sounds really great.

[Petty1818]

Originally Posted by JBarlow12

Not putting myself in the same league as her as a player, but I used a couple of the Fishman Aura Spectrum DI's for various instruments (I play violin and mandolin along with guitar) for a long time until switching over to a Grace Design Felix. I never really used the IR's, but liked the tone of the rest of the unit. To each their own, I suppose...

Sorry, not to go back to this but it seems as though she's experimenting a lot this past year. I see the Spectrum on her board but it looks as though she only uses that when she plays a certain guitar with a Fishman Matrix. However, she seems to be favouring what looks like the HiFi.

On a side note, why didn't you just get the Platinum Pro if the aura imaging wasn't to your liking?

[Thumbwrapper]

I had a HiFi installed on my Gibson Hummingbird Artist (Songwriter but Mahogany/Spruce) 6 months ago. Was using a Fishman Platinum Pro with it until our lead guitarist said to ditch the Platinum Pro cause the guitar sounded beautiful on its own.

I'm not playing out a lot, just getting back into the gigging world and playing in a band after many, MANY years of being relegated to the basement so please don't take my opinion as any kind of expert, because I am not. Having said that, the guitar I installed the HiFi in has a tone that I've gotten so many compliments on and the HiFi just amplifies it very transparently. IMO, if you like your guitars tone acoustically with no amplification, you'll like it with the HiFi.

Regards,
Mike

[JBarlow12]

On a side note, why didn't you just get the Platinum Pro if the aura imaging wasn't to your liking?[/QUOTE]

Had I not tried the Felix when I was replacing the Aura Spectrums, I probably would have gone with the Platinum Pro. The eq's have somewhat similar functionality, although I find the bass response of the Felix to be more natural. There are a lot of low mid/midrange shaping options in the Felix as well. Probably the biggest thing is there is a significant and unquantifiable feel difference. The best way I can try to describe it is the Felix "feels" more like I am interacting directly with my instrument as opposed to interacting with the preamp.

One other thing is these preamps see heavy road use, and I was constantly breaking the power jacks on the Aura Spectrum (even on a pedalboard in a road case), and the Platinum Pro appears to be mounted the same way.

For whatever it is worth, I was able to get Fishman products for free/heavily discounted at the time, and I still chose to pay full price for the Felix. After having the Felix for about five years now, I would 100% make the same decision.