Under-saddle pickup

A thin piezo strip fitted in the slot of an acoustic guitar's bridge, underneath the saddle, which senses the changing pressure of the strings.

It is the most common form of acoustic amplification because it is unobtrusive, resistant to feedback and consistent from instrument to instrument, needing no microphone inside the body. Its weaknesses follow from where it listens: it senses the saddle rather than the top, so the sound is direct and even but often described as thin or quacky in the upper midrange, and it can pick up a thump from the hand resting on the top. Most systems add a preamp with equalisation to compensate.

Example: an under-saddle piezo with a notch filter and its low end trimmed becomes perfectly usable at stage volume.

Under-saddle pickup

See also