GOACOUSTIC PICKUP SYSTEM
“ IN THE END, ELECTRONIC FEEDBACK REJECTION REPLACED MECHANICAL ISOLATION, AND ONCE THAT HAPPENED, THE SADDLE WAS FREE TO BE A REAL SADDLE AGAIN.”
ness between strings that plagued even advanced designs— is addressed with the same approach: solve the problem at the source. Where earlier systems combine the signal first and deal with uneven output afterward, and trying to correct after the fact, here each string is given its own individual gain stage. This allows its output to be set precisely before being summed with the others.
Digital processing has been the other path the category has leaned on, and both McGill and Shaw have spent time with it. Shaw explains,“ There are IRs [ impulse response ], there are the various modeling approaches, but all those are trying to fix a bad source. The problem is that source signal from the piezo is compromised. So, those approaches are band-aids, they’ re reparative. What we’ re trying to do is fix the source. And that’ s a fundamentally analog source.”
An impulse response captures the behavior of a room or a speaker and applies it to a signal. In the right context, it can be effective. In most acoustic rigs, it ends up working on a signal that has already lost range and detail before it reaches that stage, which brings McGill back to the instrument itself.“ The signal coming from the bridge is always going to be analog. It’ s AC voltage. The act of plucking a string is analog; it’ s never going to be digital. Everything you’ re doing that creates the tonal wonderment of playing an instrument plugged in is analog. And you have to have that interaction between the electrical and the physical properties managed correctly.”
With a stronger signal at the source, digital processing shifts into a different role.“ If you do want to plug it into an IR system, you now have a much better source to work with,” Shaw says.“ People say you can improve our system’ s sound by adding an IR because it’ s shaping the timbre instead of trying to fix dynamics. We’ re answering a question that hasn’ t been solved yet, so the digital side stops trying to repair things and can be used in a more deliberate, creative way.”
What this all leads to, when the technical argument finishes and the room gets quiet, is something that both men circle back to: what it feels like for a player to finally have the instrument come through. Shaw describes Go Acoustic’ s purpose in terms that set aside the engineering entirely:“ We’ re enabling artistic freedom. We’ re equipping players to take their prized instrument and their artistic ability and share it with the world through the PA without the technical limitations and concerns of feedback, or lack of nuance and dynamic response. I think that’ s exactly what we’ re trying to address: giving people the best possible amplified sound in any environment.”
Learn more at goacousticaudio. com.
118 | SUMMER 2026