AVALON PICKUP SYSTEMS

[MIKE 450]

I was talking to two very well known acoustic guitarist's who play Matton 808's I was telling them about my Korean AS-201CE "don't laugh" and how I loved playing this guitar which I bought secound hand 3 years ago. they both agreed how wonderful Avalon guitars are I almost sure both said they where proud owner's of Avalon's but they remined me they preferred the pickup system in the matton, although unpugged they said my guitar might have the edge. Do Avalon for the same money have a acoustic guitar fitted with a pickup system to match the 808 and if not, why not.

[JB]

Hi Mike, when you say 'for the same money' what do you mean ? same money as what, the Maton ?

[Ross A]

Maton are one of the guitar makers that have focussed alot of their efforts on making electro-acoustic guitars for use through an amp or PA. Plugged in they are good guitars. When unplugged they are not quite the same.

Avalon are in the business of making fine sounding acoustic guitars, and they use their expertise and craftmanship to make beautiful looking and sounding guitars. My Avalon guitars have sounded excellent everywhere I have played them - in my spare room, at a friends house, in the pub, etc. I don't need to plug into anything to get the Avalon experience. If I do want to plug in I might lose a bit of the magic, but the comfort and playability of the guitar more than makes up for this.

If you were to compare the two plugged in and unplugged, overall the Avalon would win on aggregate.

[MIKE 450]

Hi guys, What I mean is do Avalon make a elec acoustic for £1200 with a pickup system as good as the matton 808 APMic--I agree with Ross 100% but I am talking plugged in here. And I must add that I'm more than happy to play my Avalon plugged in, the Fishman Prefix on my AS-201CE sounds fantastic, to be honest I keep my Matton friends going about the fact that I payed £300 for my guitar "second hand" and like Ross says it sounds better unplugged, and they agree also but plugged in well OK there right the Matton wins. So back to my question or rather there question do Avalon make a guitar with a pick up system as good as the 808 with it's APMic. I get asked this question a few time's and my answer is Avalon make better guitar's but I'll ask J.B. about the Pickup system's.

[rocksteady]

I have two Avalons...An A201/ce and a D32/ce and they both sound very good plugged on unplugged. I also use an Fishman aura which does it's magic also.

[SeanTracey]

Interesting that I came across this post as I was just about to start a similar thread myself I had a chat with JB at the Avalon workshops during the summer about all things guitar, and pickups obviously came into it. I own a Maton EBG808 Artist which has the APMic pickup system, and an Avalon DS-100E which has the Fishman Prefix. I said that unplugged, I prefer the Avalon in almost every aspect, but plugged in it doesn't even come close to the Maton, so the Maton's always my number one choice for gigging.

Personally my ideal guitar would be an Avalon with a Maton pickup, and what's interesting is that people are saying that AER's AK-15 pickup system (piezo/mic combo) seems to be the closest-sounding pickup you'll get to Maton's, apparently very similar to the AP5 pickup at least (which is the same as the APMic except without the condenser) and it can obviously be retrofitted, which I don't think Maton's own pickups are available for.

If you Google the AK-15 you'll read a lot of positive feedback about it, so for those wanting the Maton sound plugged in -without the Maton- it might be worth a look? It would seem you could buy a Silver Series and the AER pickup (and probably have it fitted) for quite a bit less than the price of a Maton EBG808!

I recently saw Foy Vance play in Belfast and was wondering what he was doing reaching into the soundhole of his Lowden to get a great howling effect, and he even sang into the sound hole, so I assumed it was a mic-based pickup - turns out it was most likely the AER because the controls sit just inside the soundhole and Foy's sound was great.