I chanced upon Supernatural while on a business trip with Jeffrey to Guangzhou. We were brought to the home of Bradley Clark, where I first met him. Now at that point in time I still had no idea who he was, but I was familiar with artist such as Tommy Emmanuel, Jack Johnson, Keith Urban, and Lloyd Spiegel. Digging a little deeper I eventually found out that this man was behind the design, sound and development of Cole Clark Guitars, and had served as the CEO of Maton Guitars.
I became obsessed with pickups in the last year or so. Reason being is that I had always intended to build guitars that people would use- that would be the workhorse of gigging musicians. And that, without any question would require some sort of amplification system. Now I’ve had the privilege of testing out many pickup systems, having formerly owned a music store in Subang Jaya. I’ve tried many systems, Magnetic, Mic, Piezo, Blended Systems, Wireless, etc, and often never found myself quite satisfied with any of them. Usable, sounds pretty good, sure, but still one thing or another that annoys me quite a bit. And with that, I’ve concluded that no pickup system can really be a 100% true representation of your guitar, but they can come really close- Enter Supernatural.
I personally liked this system for a few reasons- First, being the original system (in Matons and Cole Clarks) are a tried and tested system by many reputable artists around the globe, and many whom are my personal favourites as well. Second- it solves my pet peeve of having a soft coaxial wire/piezo that sits under the saddle, robbing the instrument of some tonal transfer from strings/saddle to the guitar’s top. Third- I thought the design was brilliant, no need to route any additional holes in the guitar’s side, no magnetic pickup sitting across the sound hole, easy access to the battery via a tool (not needed in my designs though), and of course, the 9 presets that come with it.
This comes across to me as a pickup system designed for the gigging musician. There are times where a musician steps into a venue, not knowing what kind of sound systems are available, whether great or plain crappy speakers. Having these 9 presets to choose from allows the player to pick a starting point that would work with the system, and having all the EQ sliders to fine tune it quickly. I will not run through the specs here, you can read about it on the Supernatural Page.
My initial worry was that since the piezo itself looked big and heavy, it looked like it would rob the instrument of some tone, but after installing it on a few guitars now, I am assured that it does not affect the guitar’s natural sound, as it really is quite light. I think I’ve figured out the most optimum way of setting it up, after having *almost* destroyed the first two I installed in my personal guitars (I did not!)- I count those as my tuition fees. I am very happy with this system this far, and would happily feature it as the pickup system on all my future builds.
Installation on other existing guitars are available, and if you are anywhere near me (Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia), you are more than welcome to try the system out on my guitars. Do contact me here for any questions. Have a great day!
Jonathan Woo Guitars 