The Best Acoustic Guitar Pickups for Steel & Nylon Strings

The Best Acoustic Guitar Pickups for Steel & Nylon Strings

Are you wondering what the best acoustic guitar pickup is for your particular needs? Here, we’ll give you our thoughts on our top picks for the best acoustic guitar pickups for steel and nylon strings.





Best Hybrid Pickup






LR Baggs Anthem Tru-Mic Active Acoustic Guitar Pickup




The LR Baggs Anthem is a high-fidelity acoustic pickup that blends a piezo system with microphone signals.

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One of their best offerings is the Anthem, which blends piezo and microphone signals, giving you the most natural, pristine sound possible. This allows you to enjoy good sounding mic’ed tones and the feedback suppression of a regular piezo pickup.


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Sweetwater







Best Passive Pickup






DiMarzio Black Angel DP234




DiMarzio, often associated with electric pickups, gets our recommendation with their bright sounding and feedback resistant Black Angel acoustic pickup.

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DiMarzio Black Angel produces bright acoustic tones and minimal feedback. Its a magnetic pickup ideal for dynamic playing styles and in tandem with external mics and other pickups. Offering dynamic response and minimal feedback, it installs easily with a 3.5″ endpin. Combines well with piezo pickups or mics for natural, bright tone.


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Best Humbucker Pickup






Fishman Rare Earth Humbucking Pickup With Mic




The Fishman's Rare Earth is a soundhole pickup with incredible clarity and great sounding warm tones, which works well for stage and recording use.

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Fishman’s Rare Earth soundhole pickup offers easy integration with amps or PA systems without instrument modifications. Setup varies in ease, from simple attachment to potentially drilling for a permanent output jack. Recommended for its quiet operation, earthy tone, and versatility in live performances and recordings.


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Sweetwater








Best For Beginners






Seymour Duncan Woody SA-3 HC Hum-Cancelling Pickup




The Woody SA-3 is a premium wooden pickup that delivers consistent, noiseless tones while being easy to install and use, ideal for beginners.

Read More

It is revered for its hand-crafted, wooden construction, ensuring consistent tonal excellence. Designed for simplicity, it offers pristine sound quality with minimal noise, delivering a bright, crisp tone complemented by unexpected richness in low to mid frequencies. Installation is effortless, making it an ideal choice for beginners venturing into the realm of pickups.


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Best Bridge Plate Pickup






LR Baggs iBeam Active




The LR Baggs iBeam is a good alternative to conventional piezo strips. It attaches to the bridge plate, offering clarity, feedback suppression, and easy installation.

Read More

LR Baggs’ iBeam pickup features a unique transducer placement on the bridge plate, capturing rich body resonance and reducing piezo “quack” when played. Its quality is trusted, often recommended as an upgrade. Installation is simple, with peel-and-stick adhesive, and it offers clarity with effective feedback suppression.


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We’re reader-supported. When you click product links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you.

At the dawn of jazz and the big band era, a guitarist was surrounded by plenty of instruments that could easily overpower an acoustic guitar.

Soon, microphones became available, which became the only option to amplify a guitar’s sound by putting a mic a few inches away from the soundhole.

Then came the invention of pickups – a way to capture the vibration of the strings and convert it into audio signal that can be amplified. This made it easier for guitarists to get their sound heard.

These days, there are now pickups developed specifically for acoustic guitars. These have opened the way to freedom of movement and sonic possibilities in terms of sound isolation and tone shaping.

Featured here are the best of these acoustic guitar pickup systems, which you can install to your acoustic guitar, to transform it into a stage-ready instrument.









Table of Contents

The Best Acoustic Guitar Pickups Round Up

LR Baggs Anthem Tru-Mic

DiMarzio Black Angel DP234

Fishman Rare Earth

Seymour Duncan Woody SA-3

LR Baggs iBeam

Kremona NG-1

LR Baggs Lyric Classical

Things to Consider When Buying Acoustic Guitar Pickups

The Best Acoustic Guitar Pickups Round Up

Best Hybrid Pickup






LR Baggs Anthem Tru-Mic Active Acoustic Guitar Pickup




The LR Baggs Anthem is a high-fidelity acoustic pickup that blends a piezo system with microphone signals.

Read More

One of their best offerings is the Anthem, which blends piezo and microphone signals, giving you the most natural, pristine sound possible. This allows you to enjoy good sounding mic’ed tones and the feedback suppression of a regular piezo pickup.


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Loyd Baggs, a guitarist and woodworker had a deep fascination with guitar tone manipulation and construction. Founded in 1979, LR Baggs is famous for their high-fidelity acoustic pickups. This passion for guitars is reflected in their products.

The LR Baggs Anthem is a hybrid of microphone/piezo pickup. There’s no need for special tools other than gluing, using velcro or adhesive tape to attach the battery pack and pickup inside the guitar. However, in some cases, you might have to drill a bigger hole for the endpin to fit.

While it is not a hard install by any means, it’s still advisable to get a luthier for good measure.

You have the standard volume for levels and a mix dial for blending the piezo and the microphone signal. Turn it to the right you get more of the piezo pickup. To the left, you get more mic signals. Next to the dial is a phase inverter to avoid phase canceling.

This pickup gives you so much tonal control. For the most part, piezo pickups isolate the sound of the strings, producing a tinny sound. While microphone pickups tend to capture the full-bodied resonance of the guitar, you’re raising the possibility of feedback and noise.

With the LR Baggs Anthem, you’ve both the brightness of a piezo and the full resonance of a microphone pickup.

If you’re the type of guitarist who’s particular in shaping your sound in different venues, the LR Baggs Anthem will fit you like a glove.

Pros:

Captures natural and authentic tone well

Versatile due to hybrid pickup

Reliable feedback suppression

Cons:

DIYing is a challenge. Best installed by a luthier

Controls are a bit more complex

Specifications:

Type: Piezo / Microphone

Required Mods: Endpin, Setting Pickup in Bridge, Mounting Soundhole Control

Installation Difficulty: Moderate

Controls: Volume, Mix, Phase, Battery Check, Mic Level

Best Passive Pickup






DiMarzio Black Angel DP234




DiMarzio, often associated with electric pickups, gets our recommendation with their bright sounding and feedback resistant Black Angel acoustic pickup.

Read More

DiMarzio Black Angel produces bright acoustic tones and minimal feedback. Its a magnetic pickup ideal for dynamic playing styles and in tandem with external mics and other pickups. Offering dynamic response and minimal feedback, it installs easily with a 3.5″ endpin. Combines well with piezo pickups or mics for natural, bright tone.


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If you hear someone mentioning DiMarzio Black Angel without having prior knowledge you’ll probably think it’s an electric guitar pickup. If you take just a second to visit their lineup of artists, you’ll see Steve Vai and Joe Satriani as the first two artists.

This pickup, however, is tailor-made for acoustic guitars. It captures the intricacies of the dynamic playing styles and is responsive to pick attacks.

Feedback is next to none provided that you have the right levels dialed in.

While it still has the tinny characteristics of a magnetic pickup, you can easily combine it with a piezo pickup or an external mic. You also have the option to invert the phase with a phase switch to ensure that the sound waves don’t cancel out.

The installation is almost a trip in the park. Just keep in mind that the endpin is designed to fit a 3.5″ hole. With that in mind, there’s no need for further modifications.

Overall, this mid-priced acoustic pickup system is meant for those who are seeking a natural acoustic tone on the slightly brighter side.

Pros:

Brilliant, pristine sound without being too crisp

Responsive pick attack

No further modifications needed

Good resistance to feedback

Cons:

Lower to mid-end resonance is a bit lacking

Lacks the trebly bite of piezo pickups

Specifications:

Type: Magnetic Soundhole Mounted

Required Mods: Endpin (Optional)

Installation Difficulty: Easy

Controls: Phase switch

Best Humbucker Pickup






Fishman Rare Earth Humbucking Pickup With Mic




The Fishman's Rare Earth is a soundhole pickup with incredible clarity and great sounding warm tones, which works well for stage and recording use.

Read More

Fishman’s Rare Earth soundhole pickup offers easy integration with amps or PA systems without instrument modifications. Setup varies in ease, from simple attachment to potentially drilling for a permanent output jack. Recommended for its quiet operation, earthy tone, and versatility in live performances and recordings.


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The Rare Earth soundhole pickup is Fishman’s easy-to-use soundhole pickup, allowing you to go straight to amp, PA, or direct recording.

There’s no need for unnecessary modifications to your instrument. However, the consensus towards its setup is a bit mixed. It can be as easy as simply attaching the pickup to your soundhole, tightening the grip, and plug-in into your favorite amp or straight to PA.

The challenge would be drilling a hole to permanently place the output jack if you don’t want the cable dangling, but you can use it either way without sound issues.

Setting up acoustic guitar soundhole pickups tends to be a hit or miss depending on your skill level. I’d suggest going to a luthier when in doubt.

Speaking of sound, the Rare Earth is well-loved for its super quiet operation, thanks to its stacked coil humbucking design, which is based on electric guitar pickups. It has an earthy tone. Courtesy of the neodymium magnets and discrete circuitry that are tweaked for acoustic guitars.

Couple that with the mic that comes with it, you get a full-bodied, acoustic sound. This means being able to tailor your acoustic guitar tone for live shows and even recording.

The Fishman Rare Earth Humbucking acoustic guitar pickup uses active electronics, which means that it can fine-tune the sound a bit, to add more warmth and low end than expected from conventional magnetic soundhole pickups.

Finally, it is packaged in a smaller discreet frame which would not distract from the natural beauty of your guitar. You will find mostly favorable reviews for this highly recommended acoustic guitar pickup.

If you’re looking for a high headroom pickup that’s easy to setup and remove, then the Rare Earth humbucking Pickup is highly recommended.

Pros:

Full-bodied mids and lows

Rare earth pickup tailor-made for live shows

Built-in mic can be used for studio recording

Cons:

Installation can be a challenge

The pickup dial is hard to reach

Specifications:

Type: Humbucker/Microphone

Required Mods: No mods required

Installation Difficulty: Hard

Controls: Volume

Best For Beginners






Seymour Duncan Woody SA-3 HC Hum-Cancelling Pickup




The Woody SA-3 is a premium wooden pickup that delivers consistent, noiseless tones while being easy to install and use, ideal for beginners.

Read More

It is revered for its hand-crafted, wooden construction, ensuring consistent tonal excellence. Designed for simplicity, it offers pristine sound quality with minimal noise, delivering a bright, crisp tone complemented by unexpected richness in low to mid frequencies. Installation is effortless, making it an ideal choice for beginners venturing into the realm of pickups.


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The acoustic guitar pickups of Seymour Duncan are known for their hand-crafted, wooden pickups that just deliver great, consistent tonal quality.

You’re getting more than what you’ve paid for at an affordable price of less than $80 for the maple version. It also comes with a walnut version (around $106) as well although it’s more expensive than the maple one.

Simplicity is its strongest suit. It doesn’t have volume and tone controls to dabble with but it delivers great timbre anyway and produces a relatively noiseless sound.

Just like any other soundhole pickup, it tends to lean on a brighter and crisp tone. However, I was surprised that it also delivers a good sounding low to mid frequencies.

My only comment would be the non-detachable cord that comes with it. Also, it will not go super loud in bigger venues. For that one, I highly suggest getting a separate preamp. For bar gigs and house parties though, it wouldn’t be a problem plugging it directly to a guitar amp.

You don’t have to worry about invasive ways to mount the pickup. The installation is a breeze as it can be easily mounted to the soundhole. You have the option to put the cord either inside or outside, depending on your preference.

The Woody SA-3 is a great entry-level product for those who are delving into the world of pickups. It has all of the qualities of a simple but reliable humbucker acoustic pickup.

Pros:

Warm bass, crisp highs

No-nonsense installation

Hum canceling works like a charm

Cons:

Not enough output

Has non-dettachable cable

Specifications:

Type: Humbucker

Required Mods: None

Installation Difficulty: Easy

Controls: None

Best Bridge Plate Pickup






LR Baggs iBeam Active




The LR Baggs iBeam is a good alternative to conventional piezo strips. It attaches to the bridge plate, offering clarity, feedback suppression, and easy installation.

Read More

LR Baggs’ iBeam pickup features a unique transducer placement on the bridge plate, capturing rich body resonance and reducing piezo “quack” when played. Its quality is trusted, often recommended as an upgrade. Installation is simple, with peel-and-stick adhesive, and it offers clarity with effective feedback suppression.


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Instead of going the conventional piezo strip under the saddle, the iBeam pickup features a transducer that attaches to the bridge plate on the inside of the guitar.

This configuration captures more of the body and string resonance while reducing the quack of piezo pickups, specifically when attacking the strings hard.

And since this one is from LR Baggs, quality and reliability are assured, but you will have to invest a considerable amount to get your hands on this one.

As a testament to its quality, many musicians and stores recommend this pickup as a replacement for the default pickups that come with acoustic-electric guitars.

A good description of the sound is somewhere between a mic and a piezo, having enough clarity while still having good feedback suppression for small venues.

Installation for this pickup is relatively simple, the transducer itself has a peel-and-stick adhesive so it can securely attach to the bridge-plate.

Professional installation is recommended, but the instructions are clear enough for any guitarist with the tools to install the pickup. The preamp runs on a 9V battery that allows for around a thousand hours of playing time.

Pros:

Thrives live gigs and PA systems

Captures sliding parts quite well

Highs are clear, lows are thumpy

Cons:

Limited to just volume control

Not ideal for studio recording

Retains the characteristic sound of a pickup

Specifications:

Type: Transducer / Contact

Required Mods: Endpin, Gluing to Bridge Plate

Installation Difficulty: Hard Controls: Volume

Controls: None

Best Pickup For Classical Guitar






Kremona NG-1




Their NG-1 pickup offers nylon string guitar amplification without guitar modification, at an affordable price. Praised by students and pros alike, installation is effortless: attach the passive piezo strip to the tie bar under the strings. Its tonal quality is a great fit for classical and flamenco applications.


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Kremona was founded by Dimitar Georgiev, a gunsmith turned guitar builder after he saw how guns wrecked havoc in World War I. He started by building mandolins in his home country of Bulgaria and expanded into violins and guitars.

Fast forward to today, Kremona is still building acoustic steel string and nylon string guitars and has joined in on the acoustic guitar pickup market.

The Kremona NG-1 allows nylon string guitar players to get their instrument amplified with zero modifications to the guitar, add to that its affordable price tag and it becomes a great detachable pickup for classical guitar.

And it’s not just students because even experienced players found this pickup to be very convenient and impressive sounding. Installation is very doesn’t take much effort. All you have to do is loosen your strings. Then, secure the passive piezo strip on the tie bar of your nylon string guitar.

It will be held in place by the string tension and will be able to capture the sound of your instrument in that position.

It also comes with a detachable cable which you can cheaply replace if needed, making this pickup easy to service. Note that since this is a passive piezo pickup, you will need an external acoustic guitar preamp.

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly detachable pickup for your classical guitar, then check this one out.

Pros:

Delivers rich low mids and detailed sound

Aesthetically-pleasing wooden design

Easy installation

Cons:

Connected cable can be prone to vibration against the guitar body

Prone to hum

Specifications:

Type: Piezo

Required Mods: No mods required

Installation Difficulty: Easy

Controls: None







LR Baggs Lyric Classical




LR Baggs Lyric Classical, a microphone-only pickup system, captures nylon string guitar nuances with precision and warmth, enhancing live performances. Tailored for classical and flamenco guitars, it balances natural sound with stage practicality using noise-canceling tech and precise undersaddle placement. Professional installation ensures optimal performance, delivering full lows and highs for impressive live sound.


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While standard undersaddle piezo pickups should work fine with nylon string guitars, having one that’s specifically designed for your instrument is much better. The LR Baggs Lyric Classical is a true microphone-only pickup system for nylon string guitars.

The mic is tweaked to better capture the sound of classical and flamenco guitars, while the preamp section specializes in processing the sound to make it sound as good, if not better than how it sounds when un-amplified.

When it comes to recording acoustic guitars, there’s nothing better than having a good microphone, but mics are not practical for stage use because of feedback issues.

So LR Baggs developed a way to make a microphone work even in live situations, and they did so by using modern noise-canceling technology and precise undersaddle positioning. In line with this, the pickup has to sit less than 3mm from the top of your guitar, so professional installation is advised.

Nylon string guitars need their lows and highs to be full sounding, so the preamp is tweaked appropriately, as evidenced by the many users and experts who are very pleased with their live sound after installing the Lyric Classical.

If you’re looking for a premium pickup for your nylon string guitar, then the LR Baggs Lyric Classical is highly recommended.

Pros:

Produces a natural sound

Shines the most in classical and flamenco guitars

Responds well to dynamics and transients

Cons:

Professional installation required

Not DIY-friendly

Specifications:

Type: Bridge Plate

Required Mods: Drilling, Endpin, Gluing to Bridge Plate

Installation Difficulty: High

Controls: Volume, Presence

Things to Consider When Buying Acoustic Guitar Pickups









Cost

Saving on the cost of having to buy a separate pickup is one of the main reasons why acoustic-electric guitars became popular. These days, acoustic guitars with no electronics are mostly either entry-level models or uber-expensive ones.

If you’re planning to add a pickup to an expensive acoustic guitar, we would recommend that you invest in a premium non-invasive pickup because the value of the guitar will drop when the body is modified.

For cheaper guitars, you’ll want the pickup to be of good quality without being more expensive than the actual instrument. It will also be easier to do body modifications because you won’t be worrying too much about value depreciation.









Steel vs Nylon String

Since an acoustic guitar pickup deals with vibrations, steel string and nylon string guitars have different tonalities and work in different ways. You can’t use a magnetic pickup on nylon strings. As such, you’ll want pickups that are specialized for the particular instrument that you are going to use it on.

Some pickups are agnostic to whatever strings you’re using like transducer and piezo pickups. For example, K&K Sound Pure Mini and Kremona NG-1. But know that transducer pickups and piezo pickups will have different sound response.

These days, most of the pickups available on the market are meant for, or at least tested on steel string guitars, which means that you’ll have a lot of options for your acoustic guitar.

Some of these popular pickups will also work with nylon strings, but it is much better to go for specialized pickups that are tweaked to handle the nuances of classical/flamenco guitars.









Invasive or Non-Invasive

If you don’t want to make any modifications to your precious acoustic guitar, then you’ll want to go for non-invasive pickups.

These pickups temporarily attach themselves to the guitar, be it on the body or inside the soundhole, and they are easy to remove when you want them to.

The disadvantage of these non-invasive pickups is reliability and consistency. Since they are not permanently and precisely positioned, they can move around or worse be detached while performing.

If you want a more reliable and “fixed” solution, then you’ll want to consider under-saddle transducers, just know that they may require permanent modifications to the body.

This is where invasive setups come in. Modifications like drilling a hole in the guitar require the expertise of a luthier. While it costs money, it’s hassle-free and doesn’t require you to do a trial-and-error. In the long run, it is less expensive this way.









Passive vs Active

Active pickups require batteries to power the preamp which is built into the pickup design. This is the design that the majority of manufacturers use because they get more control over the resulting sound via the preamp.

Passive pickups, conversely, are powered by an external power supply. There are only a few good-quality passive acoustic guitar pickups in the market. A passive system is a great option if you want full control over your sound via an external preamp.









Pickup Type

There are four types of acoustic guitar pickups and they are listed below for your convenience. Each one links to an explanation of how the pickup types work, along with highly recommended examples that are available in the market today. See the list below:

Undersaddle Transducers

Soundhole Pickups (Magnetic Pickups)

Soundboard Transducers

Microphone Hybrid Pickups

For best results, you’ll want to blend different types, professionals have been doing this to achieve higher fidelity and flexibility. Investing in multiple pickups is recommended if you’re looking to do professional gigs and recording. They will give you a broader tonal range to work with and will help minimize the weaknesses of each type.

Conclusion

So there you have it–our round up for the best acoustic guitar pickup. If you have good or bad experiences with any of the pickups above, or you want to recommend an acoustic guitar pickup that you particularly liked, you can share your thoughts with everyone in the comments section below.









TechnicalLead Author

Alexander BrionesContributor: Editor and Supplemental Writing




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