GOACOUSTIC PICKUP SYSTEM
■ The Sound Hole Mount System offers individual string adjustment for balanced output, natural tone response, and feedback rejection. Installs at home with the included DIY kit.
top of the guitar is going to go into all six inputs together. Because they’ re out of phase with each other, you’ re subtracting the signal of one from string two, which means anything going into both is going to get subtracted to zero.”
McGill demonstrates the dramatic effect of this for clients. He’ ll hold an E chord, drive the guitar hard into an amplifier, and force feedback until the strings are rattling against the frets. Then, he hits the polarity switch.“ It stops immediately,” McGill says.“ The physical dynamics of that are just so impressive. The phasing actually changes how the string is able to move in such a way that it would get out of control. It’ s just eliminated. This is the reason why we can build single saddle pickups that don’ t feed back. It’ s the core of it.” In the end, electronic feedback rejection replaced mechanical isolation, and once that happened, the saddle was free to be a real saddle again.
Headroom is another persistent failure of live acoustic electronics. As Shaw notes, the issue stems from a basic constraint.“ Most pickup systems have almost no headroom. If you start strumming hard, they’ ll clip and won’ t track the dynamics. Most systems run off a 9-volt battery, which drops down to about six volts before it dies. If they even use op amps, I have found that those op amps aren’ t rated in the data sheets to run at such low voltage. You’ re running well below their specification.”
To solve this, the system employs a bipolar power supply, a standard in professional audio that provides a higher, more stable working voltage. This requires a deliberate trade-off. While a conventional pickup might last over 100 hours, the Go Acoustic system runs for about 80.“ That’ s a conscious design choice,” Shaw says.“ You get longer life from a compromised circuit. We prioritized audio quality first and then engineered for a practical battery life. 80 hours isn’ t bad.” Finally, string balance— the persistent uneven-
116 | SUMMER 2026