my pickup advice

[saltybrian]

having posted many questions on this subject, thought i'd update with some advice from my own findings.

i haven't had any luck with the schertler dyn system or the baggs radius - i have them both and find them to be pretty terrible. anybody want to buy either after that ringing endorsement ?!?

i'd had a headway snake on a previous mandolin with fixed bridge which wasn't at all bad but is a much trickier proposition to have fitted in a floating bridge (eastman 515).

i eventually got a loan of a shure beta 98 mini condenser, which has the right tone, but was just pushing it a bit level wise in the band i play with.

i then heard a great (plugged in) sounding jimmy moon mandolin at a festival and after enquiries found it to be the somewhat unfancied fishman bridge replacement pickup.

i've got that on now, along with the mic and have also found, contrary to received wisdom, that i get good results from having the beta 98 inside the mandolin (it's mounted in a square of sponge just inside the f hole). the boys out front use mostly mic, i have more pu in the wedge.

so, a blend of pickup and mic it is for me in the meantime, and worth a try if you're struggling with other options. it's all subjective of course, and chances are you might prefer the schertler or radius, as many here do, but thought after all the help and guidance i've had here, it wouldn't hurt to chip in with an alternative.

cheers for now

[dcoventry]

The McIntyre Feather and the Kent Armstrong blend together to be quite sonorous. Try it!

[Mandobart]

Brian - Did you ever try any internal piezo's like K&K?

[TDMpicker]

JJB Electronics has a twin external pickup that's inexpensive but sounds great.
You can try on the outside then install inside when satisfied.
http://www.jjb-electronics.com/EXT-100.html

[Rob Gerety]

With all due respect, you ask members to accept your advice - but you give us zero information about your expertise, your experience, no information about the environment you play in or the other components in your signal chain, etc. etc. etc. ?????

I'll be getting my advice elsewhere.

[Ron McMillan]

Hi Brian. Have you looked closer to home at the pick-ups from Skyinbow (http://www.skyinbow.com/) in Vidlin, Shetland? Designed originally for violins but said to be great for mandolins, I've read good things about them, but not met anybody who has used them.

ron

[Mike Bunting]

With all due respect, you ask members to accept your advice - but you give us zero information about your expertise, your experience, no information about the environment you play in or the other components in your signal chain, etc. etc. etc. ?????

I'll be getting my advice elsewhere.

????????

[Louie]

This thread title made me laugh. I half expected to read things like; "What's your sign?" :))

I guess now that I will be owning a mandolin, I will need to learn more of the terminology. :)

[saltybrian]

Originally Posted by Rob Gerety
"With all due respect, you ask members to accept your advice - but you give us zero information about your expertise, your experience, no information about the environment you play in or the other components in your signal chain, etc. etc. etc. ?????

I'll be getting my advice elsewhere."

Rob, I've looked at your other recent posts and you don't come across as easily antagonised or as someone who just plain gets things wrong, so, with all due respect right back at you, what on earth has provoked your ire in my post??

I've asked a good few questions on here, and have been very grateful for the advice I've had. I decided since I'd reached a solution that was working for me that I'd share it, for all the other folks looking on here and asking the same questions.

Do I really have to furnish you with information about my expertise and experience to offer an opinion? I reckon if I started off my post with a sermon on how good I am, and what experience I have, then that might have deserved a rude reply... as it stands, I was just sharing some thoughts with the intention that it might give someone else looking a few different options to try. If you don't like it, you can, as you so politely put, get your advice elsewhere.

Cheers

Brian

[saltybrian]

Jeez - I was so wound up by Rob's post that I didn't thank everyone else for their replies.

Ron, I spoke with Kenny Johnson who makes the skyinbow pickups, but missed him when i was in Shetland so didn't have a chance to hear the pickups. Having just spent a small fortune on other unsuccessful solutions, I chickened out of buying his without a test run - they're not cheap either - and in the meantime lit on the solution detailed in the OP.

Louie - now you have a mandolin, you'll get all the girls ;)

Cheers

[mandroid]

Many Prior postings on pickups offered dual source setups,
one.. use is a piezo for the monitor ,
and a microphone to the house soundboard.
you hear your self OK, notch out feedback as needed.

the quality signal goes out thru the board .. out of your direct control,
to the paying customers.

[Ron McMillan]

Originally Posted by Rob Gerety
Rob, I've looked at your other recent posts and you don't come across as easily antagonised or as someone who just plain gets things wrong, so, with all due respect right back at you, what on earth has provoked your ire in my post??


I'm with Brian on this one. Rob's baleful response surely wasn't merited.

ron

[Steve G]

I love my K&K twin on my F5!
I run it through an Orchid pre-amp. But it sounds great even in passive mode. Exceeded my expectations.

[almeriastrings]

I suspect the point being made (forgive me if I'm wrong) is that while it is perfectly OK to report that you find a Schertler Dyn and Baggs Radius "pretty terrible" it is equally not very meaningful without knowing precisely how you have been trying to use them. In other words, plugged into what? Installed how? Installed where exactly? Heard via what kind of system? In what context, musical genre?

I'm personally no great pickup enthusiast, preferring a good mic wherever possible, but I've heard very acceptable results from both systems mentioned, and from the K&K, among others. Getting decent results from a pickup is very tricky sometimes.. so much depends on the preamps used, the desk or amp you are going through. Even a small difference in position of the pickup, or how it is fixed, has a huge impact.

[i-vibe]

"With all due respect, you ask members to accept your advice - but you give us zero information about your expertise, your experience, no information about the environment you play in or the other components in your signal chain, etc. etc. etc. ?????

I'll be getting my advice elsewhere"




myself....as for useful and pertinent info prefacng ANY advice offered.....i prefer to know what color the mandolin is. color and material of strap is also helpful. how the player is dressed when performing and what day of the week the last gig occured. oh, and of course i need to know the dew point on said day. :disbelief:

[mandroid]

Must be small halls to play in, way up there, those islands are small .
do the 'vote' people off those islands? or just the MP.. :)) ~o)

[Shelby Eicher]

I agree with the Brian on schertler and raduis pickups. I have never heard one used that I thought sounded good at all. I also demoed them and had the same results that I hear when used by other people. I've been amplifying mandolins with pickups on a pro level for 20 years just to address the credibility issue. I had Baggs build me a pickup inside a Brazilian Rosewood bridge. I combine that with a microphone and find it produces tone and sound levels to play in any situation. My 2 cents.
Shelby