Wait... who's Mic again?

[Mandostringer]

Hey, fellow pickers!
Microphone question: I play mandolin in a blues/americana band. Lately, I've found myself a lil' displeased with the tone I get on stage. I play a Tacoma M1E Mandolin... It's well-seasoned. It has a VERY nice acoustic tone which I'm quite fond of and is equipped with a single-disc transducer. Currently I direct line into a marshall AS50D Amplifier, which gives a decent volume and a nice tone. My band is an acoustic guitar (using a tandem marshall amp to mine) an amplified upright bass and drums. I have issues with the "electric-tinged" tone and have been contemplating switching to a microphone in search of a more "acoustic" on stage tone. I have enough feedback issues with my direct in and am wondering if there are any suggestions of preamps/eq's which might "acoustify" my tone and/or reccommendations of a mic that would be budget friendly, not be a horror to use in an on stage setting, but still have the juice to sit on top of a thumping "jumpgrass" band!
Any advice?

Peace (both inner and outer)
Gregory Morland
www.myspace.com/cliftonroy

[Mike Bunting]

A preamp such as the Baggs Para-acoustic DI would help smooth out the impedance mismatch between the pick-up and the amp. It would probably help the guitar too.

[Tim2723]

The Baggs Para DI gets probably the most consistent high marks among mandolin players for solving those kinds of problems. By your description, I wouldn't think a mic would be as satisfactory, although it would have the best acoustic tone. You might have more technical problems on stage.

[Dan Johnson]

SM57... industry standby for live sound... look on all the TV shows... they can get whatever they want, and they've got Shure 57s... not the clearest tone in the world, but affordable, tough, and reliable...

[lenf12]

Check out the Art MP Tube Preamp from Musicians Friend. Very inexpensive and they work great with my Rigel A Plus Deluxe straight into the mixer/PA.

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

[mandroid]

If you only have an amp for your instrument , no PA,

Pickup, impedance matched thru a preamp made for piezos , line input.

or a dynamic microphone, on a stand , Mic input , or, impedance matched [different type] into instrument [guitar] input.

... of your amplifier

maybe both if you can adjust the levels of each separately...pre to line one ,
the controls on the combo-amp the other ..

~o) ~o)

[pops1]

I have been searching for a long time and here is what i finally came up with. i use a transducer, but feel it is too bright so i also use a magnetic pickup with both going to a blend pot mounted in the f hole so no holes drilled in the mandolin i can blend between for a good acoustic sound or a smoother sound using more of the pickup form the blend pot it goes to a volume/tone pot in the other f hole. volume and tone is a coincentric pot so both are in one with the outside being volume and the inside being tone. Works great and no feedback and the volume for leads. I can roll it to the acoustic side for chords and to the electric side for leads (warmer). Best of all no box to fool with goes directly into the amp.