Another question

[sandcastlefaith]

I really need an electric in my possession, because I often play at bluegrass festivals and things live where I need something electric. I have seen Sam Bush's video, where he shows a little mic that he has on his soundhole. It is somehow connected to the endpin jack, and I was curious as to whether anyone here could help me figure out a good place to get something like that for a reasonable price, and give me a ballpark estimate of how much it would cost. Thanks again!

[John Flynn]

My understanding is that Bush's rig is a Countryman II mike, along with a Barcus Berry pizeo under the bridge. I read that his sound guy runs the mike through the mains and a mix of the mike and pizeo through the monitors. Nice set up, although I am sure it's expensive and he does have a professional sound guy to set it up, maintain and run it.

I have a "poor man's version." I took a $50 Radio Shack headset mike, removed the head band and velcro'ed the base of the gooseneck to the tailpiece. I curve the gooseneck around until the mike peeks in the lower F hole. In my opinion and the opinion of our chior leader, who is a professional guitarist and a local expert in sound reinforcement, it sounds great, much better than the $400 pizeo/preamp setup I used to use. I have also tried the mike and the pizeo/preamp setup together, but the mike alone is the best option I have found. Also, the rig is 100% removable.

[Dennis Gordon]

You know I admire the ingenuity and cost efficiency of your Radio Shack solution. I wonder if it would work with my Tacoma since the F (...er "paisley") hole is on top. I imagine the gooseneck would get in the way. How much output do you get before it feeds back? Would it work in an electric band?

[John Flynn]

I think it could be made to work with the Tacoma. I have actually thought about it, since I am considering buying an M3 to go with my Rigel. I think there would be a couple of options. If you could live with having a velcro spot on the front side of the scroll/hump/lump/whatever, the gooseneck could bend around to peek in the front of the soundhole. The other method I thought of is to put the velcro actually inside the sound chamber and having the goose neck actually coming out of the soundhole, bending back around just enough to face the mike back in.

Also, Radio Shack makes a similar thing in a clip-on mike. I just don't know if that mike is made for music. If it does have the right response pattern, though, you could modify the tie-clip mount on that, by filing the teeth off the clip jaws and covering the jaws with heat shrink tubing (also available at Radio Shack). The mike would then just clip onto the sound hole and it wouldn't scratch the wood. I have done the same operation for a clip on sensor for an electronic tuner, so that I can clip the tuner onto the side of my bridge witout scratching it. I find that gives me a stronger signal than clipping it on one of the tuning pegs like a lot of people do.

I have had no feedback problems with this mike set up the way I use it. I run it directly into a sound board, which goes into the built-in PA system at my church. We are running hot enough that the vocal mikes will feed back if we are not careful, but my mike has never been the culprit. I am told I can be heard loud and clear against the rest of the group (electric bass, acoustic guitar, flute and six singers, plus mandolin). With an electric band, though, I would proabably go back to mixing the mike with my pizeo through the two channels of my Boss AD-5 Acoustic Instrument processor. I would run the mike as hot as I could until I got feedback and then use the notch filter on the AD-5 to take the feedback out as much as possible. Then I would fill in with pizeo to get the volume where I needed it.

[Dennis Gordon]

Thanks for doing your homework...;-) I was also considering a Soundchecker or K&K Hotspot, although I think the latter requires an arched bridge to slide under, which my M2 lacks. I'm not too keen on the piezos, but in combination with a mic it might cut it...

[sandcastlefaith]

Hey, that radioshack idea sounds great! Is there anyway that you can get the mic to go through the endpin jack?

[mandoJeremy]

Also, Sam uses the Isomax IIC (cardioid) because the cardioid pattern only picks up what is mostly in front of it which would be the sound coming out of the f-hole. Countryman also makes the Isomax in an H (hypercardioid), O (omnidirectional), and there is one other that I can't think of. They are quite expensive being that our dealer cost on them at work for the IIC is $187.00!

[John Flynn]

mandoJeremy:

What is your selling price on the IIC? Also, how does Bush acctually attach the IIC to the soundhole? Is it clipped, velcro'ed, glued?

[mandoJeremy]

PM me and I'll let you know. It comes with an alligator style clip that attaches to the f-hole.