Magnetic soundhole pickup for mandolin?

[saltybrian]

something like the fishman rare earth guitar pickups.. does anything exist out there?

[John Flynn]

Most of those pickups are just too wide for most oval holes. The Weber "D" hole mandos might take one. I have been intrigued by the Lace pickup linked below. Instead of going in the sound hole, it sticks on the top with non-marring tape. Never tried one, but Lace has a good rep.
http://elderly.com/new_instruments/items/LS1.htm

[mandroid]

not off the shelf, but, making a sound hole insert with a 4 pole sized pickup, for 4 strings, like mandocasters, a 2/3 stratocaster pickup format would just fit inside an oval sound hole with a couple mm to spare.
measured my old 21 A soundhole, and the pickup, a Seymour Duncan stacked humbucker, on a custom conversion of an A50
Don Lace may make a custom sized pickup, 2/3 of the length of a guitar pickup.
Steve Ryder winds pickups for electric mandolins too.

so No it wouldn't be transferable,from your guitar, unless you had a big hole flattop mandolin made around the pickup, of course.

Most e-mando builders just use a full guitar pickup, because there are so many of them made, they are lower cost,than custom shorties.


http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/coffee.gif

[david blair]

I've seen a really expensive setup for violin that integrates a magnetic pickup on each of the tuners attached to the tailpiece. It works with a pre-amp that has individual volume controls for each string. From the sound clips it sounds really good.
Maybe a unit could attach under the strings between the bridge and tailpiece, with adjustable height. I've been using a piezo mounted in a rectangular brass cover stuck under the strings in front of the tailpiece with a bit of putty. Combined with a small ceramic piezo on the bridge it works well. It picks up the overtones beautifully.
Lacey was coming out with a mandolin magnetic, #has anyone tried it?

[Dagger Gordon]

Mike Vanden put one into my Sobell 10 string mandolin in the early 90's, which I still use. Also in an 8 string cittern. He sold the design to Fishman and it became Rare Earth. It used to be called Mimesis.
Perhaps you should ask him. He lives in Strontian.
Are you in Orkney? I'm in Invergordon.