GOACOUSTIC PICKUP SYSTEM
individual sensing elements and circuits, which meant the saddle could no longer be a passive strip. It had to house independent transducers while still being everything a saddle is supposed to be: shapeable for height and radius, installable by any competent luthier through the same procedures they’ d always used, and acoustically transparent. Those demands pull against each other and resolving the conflicts took time.
Shaw adds,“ But we also had to have something that acts like a bone saddle, not only for action adjustments, but for aesthetics, for sonic performance. So how do you marry those two ideas— a solid bone saddle and individual transducers— together? Well, that’ s what the Go Acoustic saddle pickup is.”
McGill describes as being akin to a yin and yang principle, the same logic behind Japanese
Lost in Translation
There’ s an understanding among players that when a guitar matures into a collector’ s piece, it’ s often retired from the gigging life. The very language of the trade seems to usher it into a velvet-lined case: provenance, condition, originality. These terms, while important, can inadvertently silence an instrument. We understand the instinct to protect these rare birds; many represent a pinnacle of craftsmanship and tonewoods that are now the stuff of legend. That alone commands a certain reverence.
However, at Collectible Guitar, we believe an instrument is created to be played, to be heard. The voice that develops in a great instrument over decades of use is where its true character lies. It’ s the way the tonewoods breathe and the top resonates with a warmth and complexity it couldn’ t possibly possess when it was young. This seasoned, articulate voice is the very essence of its value. It’ s a voice that an audience, and indeed the player, deserves to experience in its full glory.
The challenge has always been translating that acoustic richness to a larger audience. For too long, amplification has been the point where the soul of the instrument gets lost in translation. The very qualities that define a truly exceptional acoustic— the dynamic response, the woody depth, the way it blooms under a player’ s touch— tend to be compromised the moment the signal is sent from the saddle. This is a frustration that generations of guitarists have known intimately. They’ ve battled the brittle“ quack” of undersaddle pickups and the feedback-prone nature of microphones, employing myriad workarounds and ultimately accepting a compromised tone as the price of admission for playing live. The notion that this sonic sacrifice was an unavoidable reality of amplified acoustic music became a widely held, if unexamined, truth. Go Acoustic has decided to challenge that truth.
114 | SUMMER 2026