Pickup for my Weber Sage #1

[MooglePower]

I have a Weber Sage #1 bouzouki/octave mandolin and want to get a pickup for it finally (I do a LOT of recording with it). What do you all suggest to get the best sound without having to drill a ton of holes?

[Wesley Turner]

A K&k pure mini is good. Highlander is good. Several high end builders of bouzouki use those two. You could have that installed, then also use an external mic and blend it. And have a professional do the install. Too many people think a little too highly of themselves and totally screw the install up. Lots of "amateur luthiers" around tinkering their instruments into a mess.

[Mandobart]

I've used the JJB PPS-200 on quite a few instruments, including two OM's, 2 mandocellos and 3 guitars. The only drilling required is to accomodate the output jack. Its easy to screw anything up I guess but I've installed these and K&K pu's in about 15 instruments now without any issues. Use your judgment on whether you should do it yourself or not. I've had "pros" totally mess up simple jobs for me on occasions too. I've found the JJB pu's to be equal to K&K's in performance, sound, quality and customer service, they just cost less.

On stage with a band the piezo has advantages, but if I were looking for recording I would use a mic instead of a sound board piezo.

If you have some time to kill head over to the Equipment Forum and search on "pickup." There are hundreds of threads on this subject.

[foldedpath]

I agree with Mandobart above, that if this is primarily for recording you'd do better with an external microphone.

If it's a little of both -- recording and amplifying for performance -- then I'd suggest a clip-on mini condenser mic. It will sound far better and more natural than a pickup, requires a bit more attention to feedback control, and is totally non-invasive and removable.

Here's a photo of the DPA 4099 clip-on mic I use on my Weber Yellowstone F octave mandolin, and also my mandolin and guitars:

[mandroid]

Schertler dynamic , an external temporary installed transducer that is a Mic, in contact with the top,

so treated in the signal chain as another microphone..

They have an installable version too.


A contact transducer hears a Lot of What it's attached to. So maybe a pickup channel 1

And a freestanding microphone channel 2, can be mixed in your recordings?








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