Amplify my gibson f5 master model

[Jamie1224]

I’m using an SWR california blond amp and schertler pick up and can’t seem to get a really true tone. Any ideas or suggestions?

[mando-bob]

Which of the Schertler line do you use ?
Anyway, a decent preamp could help (Schertler Dyn M, Schertler yellow ...)

To be true, there is no pickup that can reproduce the true acoustic sound of your fine mandolin. Only a decent mic will. That is why after 30 years of extensively gigging I returned to using a condenser mic on a boom stand. On bigger stages I go dual source (pickup/ mic, in my case K&K / DPA 4061 to a Grace Felix preamp/blender) or I use a ToneDexter.
A fine clip on mic as used by many here is a fine way to ampify as well: DPA 4099, AT350, John Bartlett mandolin mic, DPA 4061 (my favorite, but I might be the only one here).
I tried many pickups over the years and did some detailed comparison once while playing on stage ( as I did with clip on mics), driving my bandmates nuts when plugging in/ out on up to five pickups on one mandolin - crazy man !
Shadow, Fishman, Schertler, Schatten, K&K, Dazzo - the only pickup that came close to reproduce the acoustic sound of my Collings MF5 was the Dazzo.
Still have the K&K built in and did not change to Dazzo yet because of the mic on the boom stand. And because the ToneDexter preamp does an amazing job turning the pickup sound in something far better.

[Br1ck]

I'm still micing my mandolin, but I have Dazzos in six guitars. Huge fan. Did a gig last weekend with the board EQ set flat. I'm building a mandolin right now that is going to have Dazzos put in before the box gets glued up.

[Gunnar]

I know it's not a mandolin, but it might work the same?

[mandroid]

Passive Dyn M ? (Not active P48 version?) small mixer ? it have an EFX loop?, you can add a multiband EQ.
in that loop and shape the tone with it.

Likewise if you play into a mic.. Mic> mic pre> EFX loop? EQ , then line out from mixer.

[mando-bob]

I'm still micing my mandolin, but I have Dazzos in six guitars. Huge fan. Did a gig last weekend with the board EQ set flat. I'm building a mandolin right now that is going to have Dazzos put in before the box gets glued up.

Hey, very interesting !
What type of mando do you build right now ? Which placement of the Dazzos would you go for ?
In my comparison mentioned above I fixed it with beeswax (for temporally use, outside) right behind the bridge: two pickup elements, one behind the bass foot, the other behind the treble foot.
On my mandola a luthier installed it exactly there but inside with epoxy - sounds awesome.
Tried the same position on my mandocello and octave mandolin (beeswax, outside) - awesome.

[Kevin Briggs]

Hey, man:

I'll give a plug for the Schertler DYN-M and a Schertler Yellow preamp. It'll set you back about $900, but is a really great, non-piezo approach to amplifying a mandolin. You could take it a step further and go into a schertler acoustc amp, or get the Bose S1, but I don't think it's necessary.

I'll echo the microphone approach too. Ideally, that's what you can do, but it's not practical for all settings.

[UsuallyPickin]

A quality diaphragm mic and a broad spectrum preamp will cover your bases. I don't know about that variety of amp I did a quick search and it appears to be a good choice. I have a Fishman that I have had good luck with. The Bartlett attachable mic gets good reviews here. Bottom line there is no single solution to gear choices but the more possibilities you keep in your gig bag the better off you will be.
I went with a K&K and a Barcus Berry pick ups aTubepac preamp compressor and AKG C 10001 s mic and a Fishman amp. So far so good. R/

[pops1]

As has been said, there are a lot of pickup choices. I use a K&K with a FireEye preamp. Wonderful sound and easy to use, few controls. It doesn't seem to need all the controls most pre's have. You also have the tone controls on what ever you plug into. Not sure which preamp would help the Scherler, maybe a mic preamp as those were more contact mic's than peizo. Impedance match would be an important factor in looking for a preamp, which is why I suggested a mic pre.

[Br1ck]

Hey, very interesting !
What type of mando do you build right now ? Which placement of the Dazzos would you go for ?
In my comparison mentioned above I fixed it with beeswax (for temporally use, outside) right behind the bridge: two pickup elements, one behind the bass foot, the other behind the treble foot.
On my mandola a luthier installed it exactly there but inside with epoxy - sounds awesome.
Tried the same position on my mandocello and octave mandolin (beeswax, outside) - awesome.

I'm putting a StewMac kit together. I'm not using the three ply binding, but going for an F 9 look with a squared off fretboard. I live about three exits down the freeway from where Teddy Randazzo lives, so I'm going to trust his best guess on placement. Might take another mandolin and play with placement from the top. We'll see. I'm just totally sold on Dazzos.

[Br1ck]

As has been said, there are a lot of pickup choices. I use a K&K with a FireEye preamp. Wonderful sound and easy to use, few controls. It doesn't seem to need all the controls most pre's have. You also have the tone controls on what ever you plug into. Not sure which preamp would help the Scherler, maybe a mic preamp as those were more contact mic's than peizo. Impedance match would be an important factor in looking for a preamp, which is why I suggested a mic pre.

I had a nice conversation with the owner/designer of FireEye when I was considering my RedEye. The RedEye was developed because fiddle players needed a pre. Apparently a truly linear gain stage is expensive and hard to design. By linear I mean no peaks or valleys along the frequency curve. The other problem is the cost of quality transformers. RedEye found a high performance transformer that wasn't a hundred bucks. Now take the average two hundred dollar pre with its four or five pots for volume, multiple EQ, etc. and consider a really good pot can cost twenty bucks. Not hard to see a multiple bells and whistles pre going for $800. See Grace Designs. But I digress. The Fire Eye works because of a good design. You do not need EQ to compensate for the gain stage deficiencies.

I was a RedEye fanboy untill I tried my SunnAudio Studio 1. Same basic simple quality circuit philosophy.

[j. condino]

Acoustic Image

[mandroid]

I dont know what tone you seek , hence my guess, a multiband EQ would let you shape it, to make your ear happy.

I suppose you would tweak the EQ, accorting to the room acoustics

Im, old and just glad My fingers still work..

buying More gear always is welcomed..