Post questions about guitars and gear in the Guitar Talk Forums . By Teja Gerken Many of today s acoustic guitarists take for granted the fact that they can plug in on stage and be greeted with a natural sound. It is all too easy to forget the pains associated with feedback-prone external microphones and pickups that sounded nothing at all like the guitars they were mounted in. Some manufacturers solved these problems by designing guitars for amplification, but this compromise often meant that performers couldn t play their favorite axes on stage.
Today there is simply no excuse for poor live sound.
The options for high-quality amplification are staggering. Many designers have contributed to these developments, but few have enjoyed the widespread success of Fishman Transducers. Larry Fishman founded the company in 1981. At the time, he was making a living playing jazz on upright bass in the Boston area, and he was frustrated with the state of amplification. After some initial success with his bass pickup design, he developed his first guitar pickup, along with a preamp, for Guild Guitars.