Re: MAS Already. I just got back to playing! MD514 or 614?
Mandolin store is great, and I am an Eastman fan too.
I have the MD505, bought it solely for the pickup, and it sounds fantastic, or with some processing it can. I have an older model with the schertler resocoil, I assume the new one is good too. I wondered if a $200 pickup in a $500+ instrument was overkill at first but now I really like that Eastman puts good pickups in their instruments.
As a part-time sound guy I've dealt with my share of bad pickups on guitars, and some just can't be fixed on the board. For the MD505, the output level is pretty weak, so I use a preamp.
I actually use my zoom MS-60B (a bass pedal) for everything, since it works fine for mandolin and bass which are my mains these days, one pedal to rule them all. :-)
Frankly, I have never met a pickup that didn't need a little fixup. So I spent a long time with a looper pedal getting my sound out of a PA to match my acoustic sound.
I ended up using EQ, a smidge of compression (makes the melodic lines pop over comping patterns), and bumped up the signal level up to active pickup levels.
For EQ, it's a low cut at 200 hz (right at the low G string's fundamental) and a slight treble shelving boost at 2.5khz - the resocoil loses a smidge of highs, so I put them back in. The low cut was necessary because the resocoil was picking up thumps and amplifying them considerably above acoustic levels, no surprise there in retrospect, just like bumping a mic. I didn't notice until I put it through a powerful PA to see what it would sound like amplifed.
As a sound guy, I prefer pickups over mics for when possible, nothing like a perfect rehearsal, but live they get exited and move around, or stand farther away from the mic. Mics are great for things that don't move, like pianos and drums, and most vocalists will hold a mic in their hand pretty steady, and the ones that don't I yell at, err, I mean coach them.
I also appreciate a properly adjusted pickup/preamp. Few guitarists will take the trouble (or know how) to dial in their sound before coming to the stage. As a result, we have guitarists all over the map, some sound great, some are hopeless, and many don't know how to operate even simple treble/bass knobs on a Taylor guitar, and come in with them set to no bass, massive treble boost, or a massive treble cut:
Sound Guy: "Please set your knobs on the guitar to flat"
Guitarist: "what?"
SG: "point them all that way."
G "which way?"
SG "straight up"
G "which way is up?"
Yes, I have had those conversations... :-)
Most guitar players are willing to listen though, you just have to be nice about it, they really do care about their sound.
Davey Stuart tenor guitar (based on his 18" mandola design).
Eastman MD-604SB with Grover 309 tuners.
Eastwood 4 string electric mandostang, 2x Airline e-mandola (4-string) one strung as an e-OM.
DSP's: Helix HX Stomp, various Zooms.
Amps: THR-10, Sony XB-20.
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