u/BeatlestarGallactica

I have a Taylor 714ce and I'm looking for ideas. Love the guitar itself; it's really ideal for what I do and like. The pickups are not something I've ever been happy with. Harsh in the upper mids when I dig in. Kind of just "plastic-y", undynamic, and not representative of the guitar's true acoustic sound.

A few options I've considered: maybe something like the Tone Dexter? I'm assuming that the quality of electronics don't matter much since all of the tone comes from the Tone Dexter (or am I misunderstanding how it works?). Has anyone tried this? I'm a bit skeptical as I tried the Line 6 "modeling acoustics" back in the mid 2000s and while they were fun, they were very undynamic and just weird to play. Hopefully that technology has improved these shortcomings from 20 years ago.

I've also considered investing in a high end preamp like what Grace offers. The thing is, I already have high end preamps in my studio (with adjustable impedances and such) and it sounds better but still harsh through these. I do play live through a Behringer XR18 (and its preamps) and this is where I mostly hear it so maybe this is a good route to go?

None of the retrofit systems seem to be much of an improvement. I suppose I could go with something like a K and K with a high end preamp.

Maybe there is an adjustment to the pickup or the screws are too tight? It seems like it picks up very nicely balanced so I'm not sure I want to mess with this but I would if I thought it would help.

So, in general, just curious if anyone has found themselves in a similar spot and, if so, what seemed to make a difference?

Thanks.

Hopefully a free (at least for starters) DAW that will run on Windows 11. I just want to do some super quick recordings of band practices off of my XR18 to my laptop and will bring the .wav files into Cubase on my main machine later for mixing/editing. My Cubase is still tied to a dongle/authorization software so I don't want to install on my laptop. Please let me know your suggestions.

Behringer XR-18 channel 5. I have an acoustic-electric guitar running through a looper (unbalanced/ac-powered) into 1/4" combo input. Always worked fine for years (same location), then yesterday started humming like crazy (low hum). Does this with or without phantom power being active on the channel. I ran the 1/4" into a Radial JDI and then XLR into channel 5 and it also hums.

What I tried:

1. Guitar direct in, bypassing looper. No hum.
2. different 1/4" cables/Different guitar. No hum.
3. Different looper...still hums.
4. Copy/pasted all settings for Ch. 5 to channel 8. No hum on channel 8.
5. no other channels hum under these conditions.

I'm really confused because it only hums with the looper one one channel and does not do it under any other conditions, but other channels with the exact same conditions do not hum. Any ideas?