Mojotone Quiet Coil NC-2 Mic/Blend

Coming from other pickups as LR Baggs M80, Seymour Duncan Mag Mic, Schertler AG-6 with the mini mic and Fishman rare earth blend I must say that this Mojotone NC-2 takes the top spot easily.
I’ve have owned almost all, including sunrise during my 30+ year as a guitarist.

Incredibly organic sounding and balanced. Even the B- E strings are completely tamed on the NC-2.
Another plus is the weight. It’s really light-weighted and doesn’t impact the soundboard.
The mic is built in somehow, you can’t see it which is pretty cool.
The mic is way more feedback proof than any of the ones I mentioned above.

Of course there is some hints of the mag but it’s warm an full. It’s something I prefer in alternative tunings.

This pickup is up there with the AP5 Pro on my Maton 808 TE which is a bold statement. I will also remove a couple of LR Baggs anthems on some of my Martins.

It’s worth the money.

I bought this pickup after extensive research as an alternative to a Fishman Rare Earth Blend. Installed it in my Martin DM and was ultimately disappointed. Despite what they claim, the string balance was off for my instrument. High E and B too loud, bass strings too soft. This was with regular D'addario phosphor-bronze strings, which they recommend. For someone playing fingerpicking parts across all strings this renders the pickup useless. I did a head-to-head comparison with the Fishman and the string balance was much better. I might give the LR Baggs M1 with pole pieces a shot or I might just stick with the Fishman.

Soundwise it does seem to be a bit more natural sounding compared to the Fishman. Probably due to the fact that even with the mic mix at zero it picks up body/top resonance. Keep this in mind, this is not a pickup to be used with a tube amp or a lot of effects, it will feed back quickly. I'd only add a little bit of mic to the mix but it doesn't improve the string balance issue.

I really wanted to like this pickup so the fact that I'm returning it says enough. One more detail, the design is nice and compact with the built-in mic but I don't really like the fact that the chip/electronics are visible. They are not completely enclosed like in Fishman and LR Baggs products. Probably makes it sleeker and lighter but looks a bit vulnerable to me.

Other

I permanently installed the NC-2 in my Martin OM-28V, and have no regrets. The pickup sounds great and is very resistant to feedback, even with the mic wide open.

Very natural sounding, but you do get a sense of that mag sound, especially with the mic turned off or low. But that is SO much better than the piezo quack in my book, so no complaints.

I wouldn't trust this as a temporary install, with the cable hanging off of the soundhole. The belt clip is useless in my opinion.

Other than that no knocks on this pickup other than price, it is on the expensive side.