Guitar that can pick up body percussion, and what a guitar needs to do it
Recently I bought an Ovation guitar, after seeing some videos of people using it for percussive guitar playing, for example
here, or here. Even talking "how sensitive and well-suited it is for this style", see here.
But after plugging mine in I discovered it does not pick up the percussion on the body.
Surely, it is another model, but as far as I can tell the Kaki king signature also just uses a Piezo like mine (it is beneath the bridge).
So I am wondering, how to see from the technical specifications if a guitar can pick up the percussive sounds from the body? And is it more the case that most guitars can not do it? What guitars do this well?
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Percussive guitarist Mike Dawes talks over his pickup configuration in a Premier Guitar interview available on YouTube.
He has four pickups and internal mics. Overview of his pickups starts at 10:40
Magnetic sound hole pickup - combines with piezo for primary sound
Piezo under the bridge plate (not under saddle) - combines with sound hole for primary sound
Transducer about 2" from the sound hole at about 8:00 (assuming 12:00 is the neck). This gives his kick drum effect
Internal microphone to pick up external percussion (slapping & scratching) - "You need an internal mic to really pick it up well"
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