Fire-Eye Development

Preamps for acoustic guitars and other acoustic instruments are great for bringing out a more natural and clear sound. Every kind of acoustic pickup has it's trade-offs and good preamps help emphasize the acoustic tone, add warmth and make the sound more realistic as well as reducing any unwanted frequencies. In most of them you can significantly tweak the tonal settings to make your instrument shine, although a few with less options are just so great we couldn't leave them out.

If you want to bring your sound directly to the mixing desk then you'll absolutely need the preamp to act as a Direct Input (DI) which all of these do. 

Fire-Eye Development Inc. (fire-eye.com) is a boutique pedal making company based in Austin Texas, USA  that may not be all that well known to a lot of people, however it was clear when reading customer reviews and forum posts that many gigging musicians swear by their Red-Eye.

Fire-Eye products have received exceptionally high ratings, in fact it is difficult to find any expert or customer review rating it at the equivalent of less than 4 out of 5 stars.

Although less feature packed than many other options, where it shines is in its simplicity of use and its clarity of tone.

Its transparency was cited many times in customer reviews. Many people commented on how easy it is to use - the phrase 'plug and play' also came up frequently. 'Professional' or words to that effect were in many user reports. The boost button came in for a lot of praise by finger pickers and those who like to switch between playing rhythm and solos on their acoustic guitar.

by Gearank