Issues with lyric

[nstrand]

I have had the Lyric installed in my Martin D-16gt for about 6 months. I love the natural sound of this guitar, however, from the beginning I have had difficulty getting the guitar to sound natural when amplified through a PA. The sound can best be described as boxy or hollow. Another issue that I have noticed is that there is a noticeable amount of delay between when I strum the guitar and when the sound comes out of the PA. The sound is kind of like the effect of a delay pedal. This can be very distracting when trying to maintain rhythm and timing.

Here is the general setup and gear that I use:

1. Martin D-16gt guitar
2. BBE Acoustimax pre-amp
3. Marshall AS50d acoustic amp
4. Aviom A-16II personal mixers (for in-ear monitors)

I connect to the house system directly through the DI out on either the Acoustimax pre-amp or the Marshall amp. I have used both the Marshall amp and the Acoustimax pre-amp separately to connect to the house PA with the same results.

When playing through the house PA using the EQ on the Marshall or the Acoustimax helps the guitar to sound more natural, however, the boxy delayed sound is always present.

When playing at home through my Marshall acoustic amp or any amp the effect described above is not present. I am able to effectively use the EQ on my Acoustimax pre-amp or the built-in pre-amp of the Marshall to get the guitar to sound natural with no delay between strum and the sound coming from the amp. So the sound is pretty tight and natural.

Any suggestions?

[Caleb_Elling]

Hey nstrand,
Thanks for posting.

If you're getting a hollow sound, then EQ is definitely the most effective way to deal with that. You can try playing with the mic placement in the guitar, but beyond that, EQ will be the way to go.

As far as the distant or delayed sound your getting, are you hearing the same thing through your in-ears? Or just through the house? I know that in rooms I usually play in, the sound has to bounce off of the back wall before it gets back to me. So there's often a delay that isn't present in my in-ear mix.

[nstrand]

Hello Caleb. Thank you for getting back to me.

I am considering mic placement inside the guitar. Do you have any suggestions as far as where to begin?

As far as the delayed sound, I don't hear it in my in-ear monitors. I only hear it through the house.

One thing I have noted though, other acoustic guitars that plug into the house in a similar way don't have nearly as much delay in their sound. The delay that I hear with my guitar is much more prominent. Another thing to note is that no one else has an internal mic inside their guitar. They have under saddle pickups and such.

[Caleb_Elling]

If you want to email me at [email protected], I can send you a mic placement diagram. That should help to get you started with tweaking the placement.

I can send you some extra mic adhesives too, if you need some.

[MathewLevy]

OK, team, I have one. I love the bass of on my guitar, a Breedlove Jumbo Ed Gherhard Custom Signature.

I have the Lyric mic installed under the bridge a bit off-center to the bass side. I'm finding a narly honk wah hum and sometiems feedback around 150-200hz-ish and also around +500hz. Such critical guitar freqs so I hate eq-ing it out or at worse killing it completely. Here are some screen shots of eq as my phone listens. Interesting how my fishman humbucking pickup drops the exact freq where the lyric increases it above 500hz. I'm starting to think that mixing in the Humbucking pickup would by great, but I hate having something in the sound hole as it gets in the way of my fingerpicking sometimes. Thoughts/advice, please?
guitar.jpg humb.jpg Lyric.jpg

[Caleb_Elling]

Hey Matthew,
If you want to deal with this with less EQ, changing the mic placement may be the way to go. I've personally never had great results with the mic more toward the bass side. So I would try moving the mic toward the treble side, or even behind the bridge pins toward the treble side.

Those two frequency ranges are important, and changing the placement should help to balance the sound enough to make a little bit of EQ more effective.

BTW: Sorry for the late reply on this. As an older post, I didn't get a notification about your reply.

[MathewLevy]

Thanks Caleb I can try that. I was afraid that you woudl tell me that the mic was broken as you did with that other guy having probs with the same frequencies. And if I add the humbucking pickup to the preamp woud it attach pre or post volume -- or said otherwise, can I then use the volume to mix in the mic with the humbucking pickup or are volumes on both pickups effected together?

[Caleb_Elling]

The Lyric actually has a solder connection on the preamp so you can add a passive pickup for stereo output. Unfortunately, there isn't a good way to blend the two signals on the guitar for mono output. Sending the stereo output from the guitar would allow you to blend the signals through a preamp, amp, or mixer.