Vics 5 Band EQ Preamp Piezo C-MIC Mixer Acoustic Guitar Pickup built in Color LCD Chromatic Tuner

This is a nice upgrade to many of the less featured built-in acoustic preamps. It has 5 bands of EQ (if you include presence), plus a very nice and easy to read/use tuner that mutes the sound when in use, phase button, and an odd notch filter. As very high quality and inexpensive pickups/transducers are available on the market from such places as JJB Electronics, I would not recommend using the UST piezo pickup included with this kit. I didn't try it, but it didn't look so great. I would recommend an SBT from JJB like the PPS-200P which plugs directly into this preamp, a much higher quality however much lower volume than my factory UST. The factory UST worked fine too if you don't want to install a new one. I would also recommend a dab of superglue to keep the pickup cable attached as the jacks seemed to not hold so well.Soundwise, I don't think this preamp changes the sound much on the transducer. If it was good/bad before, it will still be that way. However the 5 EQ bands allow for greater adjustment. The included mic is very odd and has a hollow sound, as you would imagine if you were going to stick your head inside the guitar where the mic is, however I found the sound quite nice at 90% SBT and 10% mic. The mic is not a great sound by itself, but adds complexity and boom compared to the SBT alone. However the mic can create a feedback nightmare depending on the amp, room, etc.Feedbackwise, I tried the notch filter but while it did sort of reduce feedback, it changed the sound significantly. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it almost adds another band of EQ. However, you can't rely on it to remove feedback without affecting the sound. The phase button was the most useful way to reduce feedback. But I really didn't see much feedback unless I turned a lot more mic on or turned the guitar directly at the amp.Installation is a breeze, templates are included in this review. They are a hair larger than the preamp, but it needs to be in order to fit the gasket and everything and the installation looks very clean even if your drilling is not. Just put some painters tape where you want the preamp, cut out the template and stick it to the painters tape, marker around the perimeter of the template, remove the template, drill small holes around the peremiter but within the marker lines, and then cut/punch/file out the hole and trim until the unit fits. This unit has a curve that nicely fits the guitar.So while this is not a revolutionary preamp, my testing showed that with a UST (or better yet a SBT) and the mic input, you can use the controls to dial in quite a large range of sound and feedback reduction options. The display is also very clear and easy to see in the dark and only turns on when a cable is plugged in.

A/v engineer and musician from Nashville installed in my acoustic sounds just as good as the big name brands for such a better price only complaint knobs are fairly small so big hands beware

Great Product. NO OPERATION OR INSTALL MANUAL. NO TEMPLATES.

Works very well !This is same as ACME Model Bs5MHere's a link to the manual from ACME[...]