Mike Marshall's Crown Mic set-up?

[Steve Farling]

It's been mentioned in other threads that Mike Marshall uses a Crown GLM mini mic. My question is, does anyone know how he has it attached, or installed on his mandolin? The Crown GLM-100 is an omnidirectional mic, so I would think he probably has it inside the F-hole. Does anyone know for sure?

[Jim M.]

I've only seen him play into a mic with his Loar but here's a pic of Mike with his Monteleone mandocello:

[WJF]

These days he tells me he pretty much plays using a mic on stand (KM-84) when available. I know he used to use (and might still) a Countryman Isomax II with the hypercardiod capsule.

[SternART]

Last time I looked at the Loar closely ...... I recall there was a mic inside attached thru the end pin, and a thin silver strip pickup of some kind under the bridge, that I believe were mixed together. Doesn't Sam Bush use something like this too. Mike is definitely plugged in playing with Hamilton.....

[WJF]

Yup! Good catch Arthur ... I forgot ... he uses a "Pickup The World" pickup under the bridge and (I'm guessing here) either the Countryman or the Crown inside. Interesting that he plugged in with Hamilton. This summer he said he really only plugs in on occaision and had for the most part gone back to the mic ... Plugged in or not though I'd kill to come close to getting his sound!

[SternART]

Yeah I was just listeding to Todd Phillips CD "In The Pines" last night trying to learn Stuart Duncan's solo on Liza Jane and Mike's tone on some of those tunes is awesome. There is a trio of Mike, Darol & Todd on Midnight on the Stormy Deep that is DEEP......and I'm workin on Mike's solo from In The Pines and Reischman's on In The Willow Garden.... both with a lot of tremelo and doublestops in G.....if anyone doesn't have this CD, it has these guys playing it straight, very traditional, but with some seemingly simple licks till you try & learn them.....so if Psychograss is over the top for you this CD would be perfect. Todd is VERY careful about the sound & mix when he produces and this 1995 release still is one of my favorites for mando tone.

[Steve Farling]

So, does Mike have an end pin jack installed in his Loar, or just a hole big enough for the mic wire to pass through in a replacement end pin?

[SternART]

end pin jack

[Steve Farling]

HE HAD HIS LOAR DRILLED???

[mandopete]

If you go in through the hole for the end-pin you don't need to drill a hole. That's the (supposed) advantage to that setup.

[Steve Farling]

I put an end pin jack in my F5-G and had to drill the end pin hole out to 1/2".

[halfamind]

I put an end pin jack in my F5-G and had to drill the end pin hole out to 1/2".

same here.

[Alex_Rueb]

Lately I've been using a Sennheiser lavlier microphone that I clip to my pickguard and point directly into the bass-side F-hole of my Collings MF5 Deluxe V. This mic plugs directly into a wireless pack that goes in my back pocket and transmits to the snake/soundboard. This is definitely the best thing I've found yet, and it doesn't feedback at all. I've used the Schertler system (with their preamp) and a fishman bridge pickup in the past, and I never felt like either one sounded like a mandolin. My band (www.grassyknollboys.com) usually plays into two Audio Tecnica 4033's, but sometimes we need more volume in noisy situations or bigger stages.

[SternART]

Monteleone also had the back off & regraduated this Loar.........back in the early 80's.

[Paul Kotapish]

Lately I've been using a Sennheiser lavlier microphone that I clip to my pickguard and point directly into the bass-side F-hole of my Collings MF5 Deluxe V. This mic plugs directly into a wireless pack that goes in my back pocket and transmits to the snake/soundboard. This is definitely the best thing I've found yet, and it doesn't feedback at all. I've used the Schertler system (with their preamp) and a fishman bridge pickup in the past, and I never felt like either one sounded like a mandolin. My band (www.grassyknollboys.com) usually plays into two Audio Tecnica 4033's, but sometimes we need more volume in noisy situations or bigger stages.

Alex,

How do you control your dynamics with the onboard mic? Entirely by the amount of pick attack?

One of the reasons I switched back to a mic on a stand after years of fooling around with onboard gear--Mills condenser mic on a little isolation mount under the pickguard hovering over the bass f-hole mixed with a custom Baggs (or Fishman) saddle through a Rane AP-13 or Fishman Blender--is that I found it impossible to get sufficient range of dynamics with the mic and/or pickup on the instrument itself. If I set everything so it sounded good for normal solos, then delicate backup tended to disappear. If I set it so that a light tremolo sound good and fat, a hearty chop chord sent the board into apoplectic shock. I loved the freedom of being able to move around, but I could never master the range of dynamics I want to hear without moving in and out of the range of a stationary mic. I tried various compression and volumen pedals, but nothing seemed to work as well as varying the amount of air between the mando and the mic.

How do you do it? Curious about how Mike manages it, too.