Thread: Mandolin pickup

theres a lot of different ways to go......to me piezo sounds a bit harsh and unless you have quality pre-amps can sound un-acoustic....

Check out what people like Sam Bush ( one of my favourites) are doing ...i think he uses Barcus berry hot dots pickups but also a combination of outboard pre-amps with condensors mics as well for live....

this is from a forum i was reading

Do you have any idea what brand and model of pick-up Sam uses on his
mandolin. You help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Erin

Greetings Erin,

I wish I knew...if only I had his number or e-mail address...I'd love
to interview Sam on quite a few things...unfortunately, this may
never happen...

If you find anything out, please get back with me.

Wish you the best with your research efforts...Mickey

Sam uses a Barcus/Berry HotDot at the bridge, with a Countryman Isomax II
microphone over the bottom f-hole, wired to a stereo jack that goes to a
Richard Battaglia stereo pre-amp. He uses the pickup only in his stage amp
and the monitor system, the house sound receives the mic and pickup in
separate channels. -rs

I got this information from his stage manager...somehow!

What kind of mando is it Ray? If its a flat top its not too hard to route a saddle slot in the bridge and then use a ribbon pickup, like a B band A1 or an LR Baggs RT system. I've used both succesfully in mandolins, they cost about AU$180 usually
Jack

Flat top.
Tou mean something like this??
CLICKETY CLICK

can you cut those ribbons to length??
Just slide them under the bridge or do you have to rout a slot?

Yeah that looks like the Baggs, have a look here www.shorelinemusic.com
You can't cut them to length, just slide them in as far as needed. They can bend around quite a sharp bend to go down through the soundboard at the end.
The only downside to this method is that you need to drill a 2mm hole through the soundboard under the bridge, so just make sure you get it in the right place! I've used quite a few of the baggs and the b band versions in octave mandolins and bouzoukis as well as flat top mandolins
jack

seems like players like Chris Thile, Darol Anger and Mike marshall are using schertler gear ..

I like the sound of what I have read about them...I would really like to hear their guitar pickup models

Just more options to confuse you....
I've not seen the schertler gear around...definitely fishman, B-Band and LR Baggs stuff sounds good and more readily available.The sound of piezos definitely come a long way over the last 5 years or so

http://www.schertlerusa.com/index.htm