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I found this product today searching for light weight transducers and this feature seems to be a highlight of this companies offerings. I like bridge plate transducers like K and K but I also like to built guitars that are responsive as possible and retain as much pure acoustics as they can. They are obviously aware of this and have apparently designed a very light weight system.

I'm just wondering if anyone here has any experience, comments, other suggestions etc...

http://www.bgmelectronics.com/index.html

Never heard of them.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

So you don't have any any experience, comments, other suggestions etc.. then Chris?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Well Mr McKenna, those sound like they may be worth throwing a few bucks at!
I look forward to hearing any insights anyone may have.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

All I can say is that they look suspiciously like the fairly ubiquitous 20mm piezo disks coupled to a thumbwheel. Maybe there is some proprietary wiring on that thumbwheel?

Don't know what they cost because their webpage appears broken. However their prices for just the jack and piezo is reasonable and pretty close to JJB. Certainly not a major investment to buy a set and see if "lightest in the industry" means the same as "nothing cleans better".

Looks just like K&K transducers also. The weight can't much different than a K&K.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I used a set and they are identical to K&K both in look and sound. I think the transducers are purchased from the same supplier as K&K.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

Fred,

Are you talking JJB, or BGM? Because k&k's weigh around 11-13g, as do the JJB, whereas the BGM ones weigh only 1.2g. Pretty significant difference.

Pretty sure I made a comment.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

In a way though Chris's comment is actually helpful. I have only found one third party review on the Acoustic Guitar Forum. So it suggests that perhaps they are unheard of for a reason? The reviews were good but some others are mixed. It might be better to let the market decide over the next year or so. But then for what the price is worth I might just give them a try too.

Probably worth knowing for sure your own opinion of them...

The likelihood that they actually weigh just 1/10th of the JJB's or K&K seems low. There seems to be more than 1g of plastic rubber backing on each piezo. Still, I have an open mind. I would love to see what you find out.

I've weighed them.

So you have used these? I was under the impression no one had tried them.

So did the difference in weight make a difference in tone? What were your impressions on the sound compared to K&k? Did you like them? Would you recommend them over JJB or K&K?


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Never tried them (BGM) --- but couple of observations, high quality piezo discs are two cent a ton whether pharmaceutical, brass nickel alloy or not, "really" just a few cents a piece, ones with starter leads cost a tiny bit more. Any of us that fooled around in electronics has seen this at various supply houses.

I believe BGM and Archangel at one time, maybe still were working with JJB electronics.

I recall reading that the potting material added to the back of the disk was considered an improvement I'm pretty sure Jessie at JJB could explain why.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

What was it that you actually weighed? Was it the whole system or a single transducer?

The BGM site says one of their transducers weighs 1.2 g. I'm not buying their claim that that weight is significantly different from a K&K transducer since I just weighed one I have waiting to install and it was between 1.0 and 1.5 g. I also weighed a single Dazzo transducer I have waiting for install and it was also between 1.0 and 1.5 g.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Your best bet is probably to collect your own data.

The claimed light weight may have as much to do with the skinny Mogami cable as anything. Which, BTW, is great stuff, even if it's not, "Pharmaceutical grade".

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https://soundcloud.com/jeffreylsuits/he ... -runnin-13

I couldn't use them due to the way I use small finger braces at the sound hole. Looks like this requires a flat brace there, and I'm not willing to reduce the structure there to that degree. Just my $0.02.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I use the same kind of finger braces. I would just be interested in the passive system anyway as I like to have all pre-amps external. But yeah that's a problem with any one of those style systems I guess.