Mi-Si Acoustic Vio/Mando pickup

[Hubert Angaiak]

Hello! Has anyone gotten this for their mando. Saw this at Elderly's magazine. I'm wondering how thick the Kremona pickup is, since you have to jam in place. This is to pickup the signals of the strings as well as the sound board. Below is from the manual:

Installing the Pickup for Mandolin
Be sure that the surface of the bridge is clean and that surfaces are flat smooth.
Slide the Kremona piezo pickup between the top and bottom halves of the bridge, as close to center as possible.
If the pickup does not slide smoothly between the two halves, have a qualifi ed repairman expand the opening.
If the pickup does not fi t securely between the two halves, have a qualifi ed repairman insert a shim– made of spruce or cedar.
The Kremona piezo pickup senses the vibrations of both the strings and the body of your instrument.
It is important to understand that it requires pressure to work properly

It also has a pre-amp built in and comes with a charger and says 60 second charge will allow 8 hours use or use 9 volt batter to recharge it as well.

Quyana! (thank you)

[pops1]

I had Mi-Si make one using a fishman bridge so i didn't have to shim the transducer. It's a nice concept and sounds good, still heard the tiki tiki from the pick and i need a volume control so i didn't work for me, but no battery and decent (transducer) sound, not too bright.

[Hubert Angaiak]

Thanks pops1. I wonder what would be the better place to shim? Maybe.. if you shim on the bridge top, you'd get more of the body sound and shimming on the body side would pick up the strings? Or shimming both sides would give you more of a balance between the two. Or would shimming this p/u in would alter your acoustic tone or would it matter if you shim in the center and the arched bridge has two feet and of which the vibrations go down via the brass screws form the bridge top.... whew!!

[pops1]

I believe it's designed to shim between the top and the bridge foot. I haven't installed one of these yet, but would assume that you don't want it too tight so it shouldn't change the acoustic sound. Transducers that are too tight to the wood usually are brighter sounding. Thats why the putty, i think they sound the best with the stick on putty so it needs to be tight enough to stay and sound good, but not too tight. you might even try a good thick (3M brand) double stick tape instead of a shim just to see how it sounds. post what you did and how it sounds.