Pickups for mandolin

[ELSOL102]

I was in a hurry and had a Dean Markley transducer put inside this mandolin for playing street & subway...so now there is a a jack to plug in. It sounded pretty thin at the repair guy's shop, but it sounded OK in the subway. I am a singer and instruments back up my voice...I was thinking about getting the Fishman M100 bridge installed...there is a small wire that goes inside the instrument...sometimes it's visible and a small hole can be drilled to put it through...But that would mean $130 for the bridge and another $50 to $65 for the bridge installed and set up and restrung. I can always mike the mando on a stage...but just wondering what folks think...I am on a tight budget these days. I kinda wish I bought the electrified mando but they didn't have it where I drove to get the mando...didn't want the mando shipped for fear of theft off my doorstep.

[Eddie Sheehy]

Schatten, Schertler, K&K, and McIntyre have non-invasive pick-ups. I'm currently checking out McIntyre's.

[Crowder]

I have a K&K Twin Spot installed inside mine with a Tapastring jack (no drilling) and a K&K Pure XLR Preamp. The p/u can be had for about $65. The best low-cost preamp that matches well is a Boss GE-7 stompbox EQ pedal. It has the ideal input impedence for the K&K and allows good tone shaping. I have also experimented with the p/u run straight into an amp and it's better than you might expect.

[mandroid]

Some inexpensive stick on piezo pickups are out there, a disc with the wire attached and a yard or so of cord,
plug into a less costly stomp EQ, Behringer or Danelectro sell some too, less than half the cost of Boss/Roland.
likely more within your budget.

[NB: UPS has signature required deliveries, they don't just leave it on the doorstep]

[OzMando]

I ... had a Dean Markley transducer put inside this mandolin for playing street & subway...so now there is a a jack to plug in.
As you already have a pickup installed why don't you give an Equalizer/pre-amp type stomp box a go? Might be able to give you a bit of boost in just the spot that's lacking at the moment. Someone else might correct me if this is a bad idea just thought if you already had a pickup on board this might be a way to get the sound you are after.

You could probably do this on a budget if needed, could get a behringer pre-amp pedal which has bass and treble controls, or in the same brand a 7 band equalizer pedal. These retail for about $40 Australian, I don't know what they are like where you are? Just seems the least expensive option right now. And an eq pedal is always useful http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
And you can probably go somewhere to check out how they sound without having to buy one yourself.

[OzMando]

Fairly portable too