Amplified acoustic players... need your help

[othomas2]

I just wrote a huge long post and deleted it.

In brief. Does anyone use a passive soundhole pickup and have issues with a lack of volume ?

What have you done to rectify this ?
or anyone have suggestions of a really nice preamp type setup ?

At the moment I'm using the Behringer preamp booster but wondering if there is something out there that will do the guitar more justice. I've not properly put it to the test.

I'm still not sure about the passive Seymour Duncan Neo-D pickup I have despite the good reviews ? It's as quiet as hell !!!

I'm need to make sure everythings in place and sounding decent before butchering my acoustic to fit an input into the end pin etc etc... let alone use it for gigging.

I kinda wish I'd bought an Electro acoustic from the start. Do the under the bridge piezo type pickups generally sound much better ? Costly ?

Any help would be appreciated
cheers
Owen

[Will]

Every acoustic pickup system is quiet unless you have a preamp. With the exception of the old Dearmond soundhole pickups.

A good acoustic preamp is your best bet with any system. Fishman and LR Baggs both make good ones. The main thing is finding something that boosts the volume without adding lots of hiss.