PUTW vs Baggs Radius

[Simple Life]

I recently purchased an Eastman MD515 (LOVING IT) and was looking into different pickup systems for it. I intend to use a preamp made by the same company, PUTW or BR.

Will putting the PUTW under my bridge effect the acoustic tone of my mando at all? My intrest is mostly to reproduce the natural tone of my instrument for recording purposes more than volume amplification, although I do intend to use it for gigging as well.

These pickups and preamps are very similiar in price and I was wondering if anyone has experience with both of them.

Also, if I mount a capenter jack on my mando will this interfere with a tone gard at all?

[EdSherry]

In my experience, the PUTW will not affect the acoustic tone of the instrument. (My luthier recommended that I install one on a Phil Crump 'zouk I needed to amplify.)

I have a Carpenter jack and a ToneGard on my main mandolin, which work together just fine.

[Simple Life]

THANKS

I am definitely leaning towards PUTW

[jefflester]

My intrest is mostly to reproduce the natural tone of my instrument for recording purposes more than volume amplification...

Then you are better off using a microphone.

[Shelagh Moore]

I've installed a few PUTWs and have been very happy with them. You do need to use a preamp and PUTW's own is good. These days for gigging I tend more towards a clip-on mic and currently use a Microvox plus PSU.

[Bruce Evans]

OK, I live under a rock. What is a PUTW?

[Shelagh Moore]

PUTW = Pick-Up The World pickups.

[Mike Bunting]

Why a pickup for recording? Most use a PU for stage and a mic for recording since a PU is a compromise at best in getting a true and natural sound.

[LVH]

If you are looking for recording I would definitley go for a mic. Preferrably a Shure condenser mic. that is what i used and it worked great. I lean torwards mics in gigs too. I feel you get a better, natural tone.

[Rob Powell]

Why a pickup for recording? Most use a PU for stage and a mic for recording since a PU is a compromise at best in getting a true and natural sound.

I like to use both when recording any acoustic instrument as well as a couple of well placed room mics. This gives me a lot of signal which can be blended to give a nice live feel. But then again, I have OCD

[steve V. johnson]

I have PUTW #27s in my guitars and my Crump bouzouki, and I feel that they reproduce the sounds of the instruments very, very truly. For live use I send the PUTW #27s' outputs into a D-Tar Solstice preamp and from there to the PA.

I mixed a CD once for a guitar player who played Lowden guitars. He had recorded -only- the PUTW pickups in his guitars via some very nice microphone preamps, no mics at all. The tracks
he sent me were amazingly true.

NOTE: The #27 and the pickups in the Lowdens are acoustic soundboard transducers that adhere onto the bridge plate inside the body of these larger instruments, it's NOT mounted under the bridge, as the mandolin ones do. I haven't any experience with the PUTW mandolin pickups.

In my recording experience, players often want to record a track from their pickup outputs as well as from a microphone. 99% of the time they reject the pickup track when they hear it.
1% of the time that pickup track has some use.

The PUTW preamps are easy to use and very true, provide only gain, no coloration to the sound
at all.

stv

[Avi Ziv]

How do you mount a PUTW under a mandolin/bouzouki bridge if the bridge has two "feet" with clearance in between? Or does it work best with a solid continuous bridge foot?

[Shelagh Moore]

They make under bridge mandolin family pickups for both single and split foot bridges. Personally, I've usually fitted the PUTW Model 27 with an endpin jack or a mini-jack. The under bridge versions use a carpenter jack to clamp to the instrument. Of the various transducer systems, I've found the PUTW the most natural and uncoloured sounding.

I have, however, come back to using a mini-mic as mentioned above which attaches and detaches without damage in a few seconds.