"…whereas the Nanoflex is ideal for strumming and modern flat-picking, the NanoMAG adds body for finger-picking and lead lines…”

A bevy of new products from Shadow – but which one do you choose?

Shadow needs a little introduction as one of the leading manufacturers of pickups and preamps for acoustic instruments. It has certainly been at it for longer than most, and in the few years has added Chinese manufacturing to augment its state-of-the-art headquarters in Germany. Aside from retro-fit systems, Shadow pickups and preamps are factory fitted to numerous brands from small “boutique” makes such as Lakewood to massive mainstream brands such as Epiphone.

At this year’s Frankfurt MusikMesse, Shadow introduced four new Sonic preamps that come with the company’s latest Nanoflex undersaddle pickup and/or the innovative NanoMAG magnetic pickup.

Verdict:

With so many factors at play, not least your actual guitar and amplification, it’s always a tough job finding the “right” acoustic pickup system as a retro-fit. Certainly the Nanoflex and NanoMAG pickups – matched with their dedicated namesake Sonic preamps to produce the best results – sound very good. The Nanoflex creates a wide-sounding modern tone with plenty of body to the sound; the NanoMAG is fuller sounding with plenty of acoustic zing but, like many soundhole pickups, gets more electric sounding as you move up the neck. Its discreet size and ease of fitting, however, make it a serious viable choice – especially if you need more fullness to your tone, perhaps for jazzier, bluesier styles.

The Doubleplay preamp intends to offer the best of both worlds yet with only a bass EQ and limited blend it’s a little compromised. It does though produce, with the right mix of the two pickups, a very rich and full acoustic-accurate tone. The Basic is, well, basic. With just a treble EQ it’s a little limited and sonically it’s less transparent sounding than the others. But again, it’s good enough sound and its tonal hallmark could well suit your instrument’s deficiencies and idiosyncrasies – not to mention being easier on your pocket.