Mandolin Pickup Suggestions

[Demetrius]

Im searching for a really high end, pristine sounding pickup for mandolin. It will be in a setting with drums, bass, acoustic guitar, a couple electric guitars, a trumpet and some keys. I will start by saying in the guitar world I can't stand the sound of under the saddle pezio style pickups, so if there is a mandolin pickup equivalent to that style of pickup then I'm really not interested. Also, a good pre amp that matches well with whatever pickup you recommend.


Thank you,
D

[Mandobart]

You don't need a pickup in an acoustic mando for this application. You need a solid body electric mando. A search will reveal many reasons why. Mainly you're just not likely to get sufficient volume without feedback in a loud ensemble like that.

Under saddle transducers are always under strain from the string tension creating downward force, so they are biased toward saturation. Soundboard pickups provide better tone, IMO. The main reason piezo's sound harsh or brittle comes from ignorance regarding impedance mismatch.

[pops1]

You can put a magnetic pickup on an acoustic mandolin and help with feedback. If you get something like a 6-7.5k it will be fairly clean. I have suspended them from the pickguard and had a fairly acoustic sound. The louder you play with any pickup magnetic or piezo the less natural it will sound.

[Tom Wright]

Some find good results with a Godin emando, which yields an "acoustic" tone reliably. I saw an Eagles of Death Metal video where the opening notes are a guy on a Godin. ("I Really Want To Be In L.A.".)

I played in some loud settings on an acoustic instrument with a magnetic pickup, which was a useful sound. But that is a tricky thing to install on archtops---no ready-made rigs that I would recommend.

The under-saddle design, which most new guitars have installed, can sound bad or good, depending on the player's knowledge of EQ. It's a fair complaint that the result is usually synthetic-sounding. I find the trick is to get rid of most of the high end.

Drew Emmitt and Don Stiernberg both have under-saddle pickups which sound pretty good to me. They have the discontinued Baggs, but Fishman and Headway also makes this style. I'm using the Headway HE4 now and find it very good, once I got familiar with its response and found good tone settings. Even this style will feed back at high volume, but covering the f-holes or soundhole will take care of that.

Bridge pickups are always bright in tone, whether violin, mandolin, or guitar, being so close to the strings as sound source. The natural acoustic tone is much less bright, as the highs don't carry far and are not amplified by the body. So the trick is usually just cut the highs a lot, and some in the midrange if needed.

[soliver]

I've had good results with the JJB Marcato Piezo style pickup (http://www.jjb-electronics.com/The_Marcato.html) and an LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI on my Eastman. I don't play plugged in that often, so I'm probs not the best source, just wanted to offer my suggestion.

[Drew Streip]

I've had great results with my K&K Twin Fusion (the "branded" version of the JJB listed above) on my Eastman. It gives a good natural sound, and I've never had problems with excess noise or feeding back. I guess results may vary on an instrument that's naturally louder or more resonant, but mine is not at all lacking in acoustic tone.

I usually use a Schatten preamp with it, but that's mainly for the onboard volume control. Tonally, there's not a real difference when I plug straight into a PA.

Also -- I've been using flatwound strings (D'addario) and I feel like it gives a good amplified tone. I don't love them as much as J74s for acoustic sound but it's a good trade-off.

[mandroid]

Agree, Magnetic pickups win in loud stage environments,

any sound board attached pickup turns an acoustic mandolin into a spruce diaphragm microphone.



Maybe your stagecraft can be designed to not ring the top with the monitors , IDK..

I like My Mix Acoustic with Schertler Passive Dynamic installed pickup, It just uses a microphone channel
the channel has the preamp..

Others like Piezos, they need a preamp, but then you have a line level signal





.....

[abmatt]

Hi Soliver. Do you leave the Marcato on your mandolin, or is it easy to take off and then put on only when you need it? Thanks.

[Demetrius]

Thanks for the replys everyone. I'll look into all of these nice suggestions...

I should probably mention we do not use stage monitors we are using in-ears.

[colorado_al]

I'd use a JBB Prestige 220
http://www.jjb-electronics.com/prestige-220.html

And a ToneDexter by Audio Sprockets
http://audiosprockets.com/

Use a few different mics to setup some different ToneDexter presets and you'll have a great natural sounding setup with a few options.

[Eric C.]

Im searching for a really high end, pristine sounding pickup for mandolin. It will be in a setting with drums, bass, acoustic guitar, a couple electric guitars, a trumpet and some keys. I will start by saying in the guitar world I can't stand the sound of under the saddle pezio style pickups, so if there is a mandolin pickup equivalent to that style of pickup then I'm really not interested. Also, a good pre amp that matches well with whatever pickup you recommend.


Thank you,
D

A new thread about this is created weekly in the equipment sub-forum. I would start there.