Pickup advice please

[saez]

Hi

I am thinking of adding a pickup to my Czech mandolin as it is extremely quiet, the small soundhole is oval and is approx 50 x 30mm , the body depth is about 58mm.

I am drawn to using an external pickup system like the L R Baggs Radius simply because the ease of installation and can easily be removed when not in use.

I dont want to drill holes in it because I dont want to cosmetically lose the medieval look of the thing, I will not use it too often plugged in but I suppose its best to have the option. Any advice would be truly appreciated.

Regards

Steve

[MMDavis]

I dont want to drill holes in it because I dont want to cosmetically lose the medieval look of the thing, I will not use it too often plugged in but I suppose its best to have the option. Any advice would be truly appreciated.

Regards

Steve[/QUOTE]

You might look into a clip-on mike such as is used (to great effect!) by Hamilton de Hollande - don't know what kind it is, but I've heard it and it is a great sound. You are right - you don't want to deface that gorgeous looking (and VERY COOL) instrument you have. Where did you find it,BTW? I've never seen anything like this!

[Markus]

From my shopping on this, I would point at two possible solutions:

Schertler. Use the putty to put it on the soundboard when needed, clean it after. Expensive, but said to have fairly natural sound.

Clip on mic. Seems like there's quite a number of happy users of the clip-ons who like the natural sound from a mic.

I have a K+K piezo system, I like it ... I think that a discerning ear in a good listening environment will be able to hear a bit of piezo in the signal. It's not bad ... just fine at loud volumes [natural enough], but I can hear it. I don't think the Radius would be a bad solution ... but if you're looking for the most natural sound, not my top choice.

[saez]

I dont want to drill holes in it because I dont want to cosmetically lose the medieval look of the thing, I will not use it too often plugged in but I suppose its best to have the option. Any advice would be truly appreciated.

Regards

Steve

You might look into a clip-on mike such as is used (to great effect!) by Hamilton de Hollande - don't know what kind it is, but I've heard it and it is a great sound. You are right - you don't want to deface that gorgeous looking (and VERY COOL) instrument you have. Where did you find it,BTW? I've never seen anything like this![/QUOTE]

Hi

First apologies for the delay in responding, been quite busy, many thanks for the very informative replies, I will certainly look into these options.

The mandolin was bought off ebay, I took it to a luthier and had it set up, he told me the peghead was a later addition and not the original, but whoever did it has done a great job.
I replaced the ebony pegs with wittner geared violin pegs because tuning it was a nightmare, I love it because like you say I have never seen another one like it.
I use light strings because it is vintage, hence needing to amplify.
Don't know the makers name, I added a scroll effect to the sounhole just to finish the look off.

Regards

Steve