Best cheap pickup?

DjangoJay

My favourite is Manouche Pick's contact pick up. It has more of an acoustic tone than my krivo djangobucker (which sounds more archtop with my guitar/amp). The volume across strings is also better. It doesn't need a preamp and you can leave it on your guitar which is convenient.

I believe Jokko is increasing the price in 2019, tbh it is currently underpriced for it's quality. He can also make them out of his pick material, mine is made from green Ivorin scales and looks amazing.

Buco

For 65 EUR and coming from Jokko this has got to be the best cheap pickup.
By the way I looked for it in the past but he doesn't have any info on his website, he does on Facebook though.

MarioPercinic

Hey guys, greetings from Luxembourg,

For those who are living in Europe and can get the stuff from Thomann, I'd warmly recommend new Harley Benton TrueTone T-20 pickup, which you can find here:

⁣Harley Benton TrueTone T-20 – Thomann

Seriously, let the price not confuse you just because the pickup costs 15€. Before I got this pickup I did my homework and I've spend 2 weeks analysing different options for transducers which can be directly mounted on the gypsy guitars, so I knew what I was searching for. Tonaly this thing sounds very very close to Manouche contact pickup, and after you place it on the correct spot on the guitar, the acoustics from the instrument get very well transfered to the amp which is Fender acoustic 100 in my case. The pickup sounds very well balanced and the signal is quite strong, considering the case that this is passive transducer, so no preamp is needed, especially for those of you who can regulate gain input on your amp. In case of any more questions, just shoot them over here.

V-dub

I'm of the thinking that with piezo-based pickups, you're basically paying for the cover they put on it. A piezo is a very simple component that you can acquire for a a few cents, and you literally solder a cable directly to it, stick it to any source of vibration, and it just works. When comparing them I find little difference in sound and I'd be surprised if anyone is making bespoke piezo elements that are tuned specifically for instruments (though I'd be happy to be proven wrong).

I bought these stick-on pickups (2x for $12), attach them with poster putty, run them through an Optima AIR pedal to with a custom profile for SM57 and it sounds great:

https://amzn.to/3HQ8lkx