Product: Dean Markley Barstow Passive
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted
08/17/2008
at
08:09pm
by
xuthal
Ease of Use
:
10
After installing the pickup its pretty straightforward.You just plug it in to an amp and adjust the amp settings.Because it is a passive pickup there is no on board preamp.
Sound Quality
:
9
I used my RCA stereo to do a test run of the pickup after installing.I picked this pickup because it is a peizo and the chance of feedback is from what i heard very low.I used my digitech rp200 pedal to plug into my stereo.At maximum volume there is some feedback,but when standing further than 3 feet away from the speakers and facing away there is no feedback.I tested this pickup with neil youngs my my hey hey from rust never sleeps and it duplicated it great.From what i hear the sound almost matches his live acoustic.This being a peizo pickup and not a frap that neil uses i am pleased with the sound.Also with the pedal i used,the only effects were some hall reverb and the first clean channel adjusted to my liking.I used it on a washburn ea30 festival series acoustic guitar i got off ebay as a project.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
I just installed it about a month ago so i cannot say yet if i can depend on it but it looks and feels like a reliable pickup.
As for gigging without a backup i have no choice untill i get another guitar and install a pickup but i would if i had to and probably will.
Customer Support
:
7
I've done allot of research before buying this pickup and contacted customer service many times.They answered most of my emails the next day.Heres a tip,try not to send an email during the weekend,if they answer it will be on monday or maybe not at all.It seems that when they get emails on weekends they simply dont answer them unless you send them a follow up on a week day,then they will find it and answer.
Overall Rating
:
10
This is my fourth acoustic pickup and im very pleased with it,I was worried about the peizo quack that most pickups have but,while it has some peizo like sounds i barely noticed it.I chose this pickup over a fishman because it adds more bass to the overall sound without needing an on board preamp.It is what it is and i dont need it to be anything else but a passive pickup.I do allot of neil young like songs with my acoustic and wanted a pickup that could duplicate his sound as close as possible within my budget and this pickup does that well.
