Fishman Neo-D Dark Brown Single Coil Soundhole Acoustic Pickup

There are many great pickup options for acoustic guitars these days. My absolute favorite pickup, all things considered is the K&K soundboard line of pickups. No battery, no ugly and superfluous controls added to the guitar, just pure perfect sound. However, the quality of sound produced by the K&K is highly dependent on the installation. Since my hands are way too large to enter the soundhole and accurately place the pickups, I have to rely on someone else to do it. One installer did a great job but said never again. A second installer (2nd guitar) did not spend the necessary time to properly locate the pickups so the sound is not as great as it could be. So... Lately I have gone the soundhole route. I own the M1 LR Baggs soundhole pu, and it is great. I like that it is designed (strap jack feature) to connect to the amp cable through the strap button at the rear of the guitar. But, it is a bit pricey ($130+) and is rather bulky. Sounds good though. This time around I decided to try the Fishman Neo-D and I am about to order another one. It sounds amazing. I have tried it direct to the mixer, to the mixer through a DI box (UltraSound DI+), and direct to a guitar amp. Either way it sounds great. What is amazing is that it retains the character of the guitar, not just picking up the strings. I know, that is impossible right? I tested it using headphones thus blocking out the natural sound of the guitar, and I could hear the nuances of the guitar acoustics. It is well made, I appreciate the cork pads on the clamp surfaces. My only gripe, and I knew this going in, the cable extends outside the soundhole and down the front. I route around and past my strap to kind of get it out of the way, but I prefer the LR Baggs M1 method (strapjack). Also, and maybe it is just the guitar I am using, the pickup is a bit narrow for the soundhole, I had to position it at the very top of the soundhole. Regardless of the incredible price ($40), this is an excellent pickup and I plan to order a second for another guitar. PS: After writing this I forgot to mention that I purchased the single coil version. I have not experienced hum and it is perfectly quiet,

Great sound and good value. Installs easy with two screws. Attached cable.

Fischman quality assured, and the tone is excellent. That is, if you are not experiencing the predictable hum which can arise with single coils. At a house party I found my homemade acoustic bass (a conversion of a regular guitar) to be unusable due to hum which even turning off the flourescent light did not fix. My other bass, with a humbucker, performed well. If you are playing outdoors or in a venue where you have control or prior experience, however, you can expect this pickup to deliver excellent tone at all frequency ranges. This was the case even with the low bass notes, which as far as I am concerned makes this pickup usable for bass as well as treble clef instruments. The other drawback, which some people might regard as a plus, is the very long cord. Although it spares you from having to carry a separate cable, it is kind of annoying to have to coil it up when putting the guitar in its case, or if the axe is on a rack or leaning in a corner. This is however a very minor inconvenience one can easily get used to, or, for the more adventurous, you can simply cut the cord and install a jack. Another plus is that you don't need to worry about batteries. Batteries do tend to last quite a long time in the instruments that use them but man oh man it is really just an unwanted bummer when they go out on you while performing live. So, overall, I like having this good-sounding pickup in my arsenal, and it is child's play to simply switch it out onto other guitars, requiring only the proper sized phillips head screw driver. Note that on some guitars, perhaps parlor guitars or concert size, you might have to file down either the side of the soundhole or, more likely, the sides of the pick up in order to get it to fit in. But on a regular dobro I don't think you will have any problem. And, it's a Fishman, so you can expect long life, good engineering and reasonable resale value. Why scrimp and buy cheap junk when you can get something solid?

I’ve never been a fan of acoustic pickups but I feel like humbucker style pickups do the best job of sounding great. I needed something fast for a live performance so I picked this up after watching video reviews. Very simple, just plugged it into a DI box. Slips into the soundhole without having to loosen the strings, which was important because I own two acoustic guitars that have no built in electronics. They are vintage guitars so I didn’t want to permanently attach anything either, this works great for what I wanted.

Thought I was getting a cheap Fishman knock off, but I’m pleasantly surprised! Sounds great through my amp, and through the sound system at my church. Thanks for quality!

Was excited about this product. Hooked it up to my acoustic Martin OM-28. I have a Fishman amp (Loudbox Mini), which normally sounds amazing with my other Martin electric acoustics. Set up couldn’t be easier. But this single coil pick up comes through with extremely low volume and a very loud buzz. The product seems defective. With all the amazing reviews, I only saw a few who described similar issues. I wonder if some of these things are defective. Has anyone else had this experience and noticed the problem was fixed after replacing the product?

I have a 1976 Takamine "lawsuit" acoustic guitar. It sounds great, but its value is mostly sentimental to me, so I don't want to drill it. The Fishman Humbucker is a great alternative. Really nice sound, and I found it to be perfectly loud enough through a Bose S1 Pro. Super easy to install and I don't have any issues with the cord hanging out of the soundhole. I would definitely recommend it for these reasons. Price is right too.

I knew very little about pickups, and got this single coil because my Strat has single coils. But I didn't think about active versus passive pickups. This one is passive, meaning there's no power and it doesn't amplify the signals. It sounded good but the signal I got from it is at instrument level, not line level, and I had to compensate in my DAW to the point that it gave a hum. I'm probably misusing it, but I ended up returning it and getting an active Fisher humbucker pickup. Same manufacturer, but it's got batteries to power a preamp that raises the gain before it gets to my audio interface. I'm much happier now. There's no hum (duh, humbucker) and I like the warm sound, particularly the bass.