Harley Benton TrueTone SH-30H Pro Active

After reading the reviews, I really thought it was going to be great : prospect of the sound, easy installation, I even considered drilling the guitar to install it permanently.
I play an acoustic guitar, through a mixer, a PA, just a bit of chorus & reverb, with a singer, so I want a bit of energy from my sound. It doesn't have to be electric, nor fully acoustic but it still needs to come through loud and clear.
So a mix of a magnetic PU and a mic was a great prospect. Also, the idea of hearing the tapping for percussion on the guitar table was very appealing especially through a loop pedal. But honestly it really didn't suit me. I thought the sound was thin, especially in the high strings, and unbalanced with the microphone, even at the lowest setting, the mic "picked up" everything. No way to tame it. It really surprised me and not the right way. But the big let down for me that disappointed me even before plugging the PU in. The PU kept moving in the soundhole!! There are those little foam pads on the side of the pick up that looks like they are going to "sandwich" the hole's wood and squeeze it and securely keep it in place, but it didn't! At all ! The pickup moved immediately, it wasn't holding on to the wood at all, a simple tug on the cable, or just moving the guitar and the pickup would move diagonally too. That is the lowest point for me, because if I had spent time digging into the mixer's EQ and refine the sound, it probably would've worked out, but if the pickup doesn't even hold in place, even without playing the guitar, what good is it in a live situation?, when you move, tap, tug the cable etc... no way. If the pickup is not secure it would've fallen during the performance and that's a big NO NO.
So overall, I was really disappointed. It wasn't for me at all and I expected a much better product.
Build quality is ok, for the price it's fine. No big issue here.
But please work on a better attachment system, with cork and screws like the fishman, anything would be better than that flimsy foam. Even if it pushes the price by €5 it would bring peace of mind to know your pickup isn't going to fall off when you play.
I can't say I would recommend the product or not, it just wasn't for me.

Deze soundhole pickup geplaatst in een dreadnought. De humbucker geeft een zeer mooi gebalanceerd geluid, maar je weet niet wat hoort als de built-in microfoon erin blend. Echt een gewelding mooi, vol en sprankelende sound. Dit was in mijn eigen studio dus ik weet niet wat dit in live situaties gaat doen. Ik hoor bijna geen noise, hij is erg stil. Vergeleken met mijn andere goede piezo pickups (Takamine TK-40 en een LR Baggs VTC op een Epiphone J45) klinkt deze soundhole pickup zoveel beter. Ik heb de setup permanent gemaakt door de jack plug met strap button door de achter zijde van de gitaar te monteren. Ook getik en getrommel op de body worden nu ook interessant om met nog meer ritme te gaan spelen.