Acoustic Guitarist's Woes

I play in an acoustic Celtic group. I play mandolin, tenor banjo and acoustic 12 string guitar. Our guitarist uses two guitars one in standard, the other in DADGAD tuning. His guitars each have a Highlander bridge pickup and microphone. He USED to have a rack with two RANE AP-13 preamps and a Lexicon effects unit. He used to get compliments on how good his guitars sounded. But due to financial stresses, he sold the rack.

Since then, he's used a small Mackie mixer assigning each source to a channel and panning one guitar to the left and the other to the right. That had limited success. The downside is that I don't think he's getting phantom power to the microphone. I think the battery just powers the bridge pickup circuitry but not the mic as they come out separately. And there's limited EQ. We spend too much time at sound check trying to get his giutars dialed in and the results have usually been a compromise.

He's not in a position to track down any RANE AP-13's. They're discontinued and when you can find them pricey. What he needs is something with a blender or two channels that provides phantom power to the microphone. One thing I thought of was a TC Electronics G-Natural. Even that might be out of his budget.

Any ideas for stellar acoustic guitar tone on the cheap?

Does Highlander have a solution? I recall a 2-channel outboard preamp of sorts.

I don't know anything about those Highlander pickups, but it looks like the bridge pickup is a standard under the saddle transducer. I have a basic Fishman transducer under the saddle on my Martin. By itself, it sounds like crap! Very fake and plasticky. But... I run it into a Fishman Aura pedal and it sounds GREAT! It really sounds like a mic'd up guitar, with no feedback issues. They're a little pricy but look like they're cheaper than the Rane. Very easy and quick to dial into a sound system.

Trying to picture the setup. Are you sure the mic needs phantom power? Does the mic join the bridge pup and connect inside the guitar at the same jack or does it have it's own cable?

The Highlander has a battery powered preamp for the under saddle pickup. There's a separate mini jack to plug a mic into it. I don't know if the mic gets any juice from the battery or if it just goes straight down the wire. I know the RANE provided voltage to the mic. The cable is TRS at the guitar end and splits to two TS plugs at the other end. The sound guy said he was getting no signal from the mic into a DI box.

I have a PreSonus AcoustiQ preamp/blender that provides phantom for a mic if used. Another good preamp that isn't made any more.

I've heard good things about the Aura system.

Thanks for the ideas. Keep 'em coming!

I've had a Fishman dual system in both my 6 str.guitars for years but my Fishman Pocket Blender died a while back so I just use the under saddle w/ Boss GE-7 which gets the honk out. I am considering the Aura system although pricey. You can get one for a specific guitar ala dread naught, twelve str. etc. which is considerably cheaper. I just don't have a problem with my current system but I'd like a better sound for my 12 str. which has a Sunrise. I hated the Taylor Expression and had it disconnected.
I'd have your guitarist check out an Aura, he really doesn't need the internal mic IMHO.

Don't understand all of your problems but here is a nice little mixer with phantom power (see reviews on Guitar center) $40.

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Behringer-Xenyx-502-Mixer-103846200-i1153498.gc

The problem with little mixers like the Mackie or Behringer is that the phantom is on the XLR but not on the 1/4" jack. I'm not sure how single TRS jack inputs like the RANE or my PreSonus get the voltage to the mic on a TRS cable without digging out some old schematics.

Has anyone tried the D-Tar Solstice preamp? It may be just the thing.

Paul you have said twice that you don't know how the mic in the guitar works, ie whether it definitely needs phantom power or can be battery driven. Instead of all the solutions being discussed here, I suggest that's the thing to sort out.

The Highlander website BTW says: "The Internal Mic can be powered directly from the iP-2, or in the case of the stand alone version via its own 9V Battery."

It could be that a simple call/email to Highlander gets this sorted out very quickly and cheaply.

I've been in touch with Highlander and yes, the battery does power the mic. Why the sound guy couldn't get signal from it on Saturday still remains a mystery.

The Highlander folks recommended the D-TAR Solstice preamp. Has anyone used it? It appears to be just what the doctor ordered.

Do you really need the pre? Clearly the D-TAR Solstice will give more control of what goes to the PA. Why spend money if you don't have to? I would be trying to solve the mystery of the mic having no signal or a very small signal first. Has anyone had a look inside the guitar to see if anything's loose or disconnected?

+1 for Black Doug - fix the problem (maybe it's a simple as a battery being flat) and then consider a preamp. I've never used/needed a preamp in 25 years of acoustic-plugged-in playing.

Trust me, we need something. Yes, it's good to make sure that everything is working right, but I don't see how it would be the same problem with both guitars. Batteries and strings were changed before the show.

We need to be able to get a signal from the guitar to the PA with a little tweaking at the guitarist's end. I think the mic problem was the sound guy's not the guitarist's. At the end of the show he was blaming my gear for his inability to make my mandolin sound like he wanted it to. It sound just fine in the monitor.