IMO, mic’s and a good room are the way to go for recording acoustic instruments. And if a tiny bit of a mic is mixed in (the SWR is two channel and has an XLR input) it masks the artificial quality pretty well. Transducer>tube pre>RNC on supernice mode>SWR Calif.
To me it's only useful live where a mic is just a feedback headache. Sounds like sh*t if there's an input mismatch though. I've used a Dean Markley Artist transducer for live amplification and it sounds very good with the right buffer. It’s just a bit of practice but it does help me hear different things in the music sometimes. While I like recording that way, beyond listening back once or twice I never save the files because they sound so artificial compared to a good mic. There's something satisfying that's hard to describe about making music within a self contained environment totally isolated from the outside world. Sometimes I wake up really early, like 4 AM, and nothing's better than firing up my system, putting headphones on and recording through my electric classical. I like contact mic's/transducers for specific things. But if you're already getting a recorded acoustic sound that you're happy with, there's no need to get one just for that reason.
You might be able to use that signal effectively in some way (like using the piezo signal to bring out string noise a little bit, for example). Now, if you happen to already HAVE one or more of these systems available, and you've got an extra channel to record it, it certainly won't hurt to track it, so that you have it available at mixdown. A meeting place for owners of and those interested in learning about Blueridge guitars. Dean Markley is in my price range and I was wondering if anyone has had experience with them and what d. They are a compromise that people put up with just so that they can use the guitar on stage. A while back, I posted about acoustic pickups.
But neither system sounds particularly "realistic." They do NOT sound anything like what a real acoustic guitar sounds like in a room. Yeah, I'm going to agree with Scrubs (and just about everybody else that's replied here.) Both the magnetic soundhole pickups and the piezo pickup systems (which fit under the bridge) are designed to help you amplify the acoustic guitar so that it'll be heard in a live setting.