New highlander mic I'm going to try with Takamine preamp in my Tak

[Mischief]

I just bought a highlander mic from, Phastrone (thanks Jay) to use with my Takamine CT-3 cool tube preamp in my Tak P6NC.

The preamp has an 1/8" auxiliary input for use with a pre-amped mag unit or their single transducer. Cuki in other discussions turned me onto the highlander mic as a possibility. Since the option of this unit came up I bought it.

Now I have to just wait for it to arrive. I'll also have to get a battery bag and build an adapter say 1/8" female in with power feed to the mic and 1/8" male out to preamp. I'll mount a small switch near the sound hole to turn it on and off.

I should say out of all of the out of the box pickups (third party and factory), I'm happiest with my Takamine sound. But there's always room to improve. So I think this could be a good way to get a very usable plugged in sound even more natural with no fuss.

Cuki, I have not forgot about imaging which I'm still super interested in but I'm still dealing with other preventing issues on that path.

I'll keep y'all posted as this progresses.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Geoff@UK]

That sounds a very interesting solution to getting an even better sound. I have a Takamine EF261 with a CT4BII preamp, which gives a great amplified tone. Recently I invested in a TC Electronic BodyRez pedal and I am really impressed with how it enhances the tone. I have had numerous positive comments at gigs about my great sounding guitar. In my view this is well worth checking out.


Busted flat on Baton Rouge

[Mischief]

Just a short update.
The mic arrived. Looks great but I have not tested it yet.
I'll now wire up an adapter to make it plug in when I get a chance. Then I'll update this again.

[Cuki79]

Originally Posted by Mischief

Cuki, I have not forgot about imaging which I'm still super interested in but I'm still dealing with other preventing issues on that path.

Did not forget either

Cuki

[Cuki79]

Originally Posted by Mischief

I just bought a highlander mic from, Phastrone (thanks Jay) to use with my Takamine CT-3 cool tube preamp in my Tak P6NC.

The preamp has an 1/8" auxiliary input for use with a pre-amped mag unit or their single transducer. Cuki in other discussions turned me onto the highlander mic as a possibility. Since the option of this unit came up I bought it.

Now I have to just wait for it to arrive. I'll also have to get a battery bag and build an adapter say 1/8" female in with power feed to the mic and 1/8" male out to preamp. I'll mount a small switch near the sound hole to turn it on and off.

I should say out of all of the out of the box pickups (third party and factory), I'm happiest with my Takamine sound. But there's always room to improve. So I think this could be a good way to get a very usable plugged in sound even more natural with no fuss.

Cuki, I have not forgot about imaging which I'm still super interested in but I'm still dealing with other preventing issues on that path.

I'll keep y'all posted as this progresses.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Mischief are you sure you took the standalone version. If it was use with Higlander preamp it is going to be powered by the highlander preamp. If I remember well you have the Tak preamp version that does not supply power to the mic right?


On their website

Audio is connected via the tip of the 3.5mm stereo mini jack.

9V battery power is delivered to the mic preamp and capsule via the ring of the mini jack.

Ground and 'battery negative' are connected to the shield

When powered from an iP-2 the combination will run for 500 hours (approximate) on a single 9V battery. The Stand Alone Model will run for 1000 hours if used on it's own. As phantom power is not required, the Mic can be used with any one of the wide variety of amps and sound systems that are available today.

I am not sure to understand well the last sentence... Does it need 9V or not? I think by phantom power they mean 48V...

Cuki

[Mischief]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

Mischief are you sure you took the standalone version. If it was use with Higlander preamp it is going to be powered by the highlander preamp. If I remember well you have the Tak preamp version that does not supply power to the mic right?





On their website



I am not sure to understand well the last sentence... Does it need 9V or not? I think by phantom power they mean 48V...



Cuki

Hi Cuki,
I did not get the stand alone mic that comes with its own power supply and end jack. The unit I have is like the one you have pictured.
So it does have its own preamp and ends with the 3.5mm jack but does not include the 1/4" end pin and 9vdc connection.

My plan was to wire up a 3.5mm female socket with the ring (power) and ground wired to a 9vdc connector with a small switch that I can mount at the hole to turn it on and off. The common ground and tip wired to a male RCA as that is what plugs into the Takamine preamp.

Then I just plug the mic into the socket and the RCA into the Takamine preamp. A 9v in a Velcro bag.

From all I've read it operates on 9vdc and the phantom as they refer to is just the 9VDC traveling through the 3.5mm pin to power it.

I hope this all works simply as I think it will. If it does then one day I can have modeling on the standard pickup. When inconvenient to use a modeling pedal, I can have the option to still have some mic blend and hopefully a sound that's a step up when I need to just plug in without any pedals.

What do you think?

[Cuki79]

Originally Posted by Mischief

What do you think?

Sounds like the best of both world. The mic preamp ogf the highlander insure that is going to work.

Cuki

[Mischief]

Cuki in case you forgot you were the one who gave me the idea to use the highlander mic in the Tak. That was awhile ago and I didn't want to invest that much. So when this good deal (on a like new one) came up I figured I better jump on it or I'd kick myself.

Btw I'm going to start a thread on 432hz tuning I'd love to know your take on it.

[Mischief]

Just a little update.
I've been so swamped, but at coffee break today I finally wired up my adapter.




I'll have to dig into my storage to find a spare battery bag. Or get another online. But I know I have a spare one somewhere.

Now when I get a chance I'll try putting it in and report back. With the results and some install photos.

[Mischief]

Okay did a quick test hook up....
I don't know where my Velcro is so I could not install the battery. So I just hooked it up outside the guitar and did a rough test.

First off it works and the adapter is dead quiet. From what I can tell it sounds great.

I'm keen to fully install and find out how much practical gain I can use. So far though it sounded very promising.

I'll update and try and and get a chance to upload some sound cloud clips too once the install is complete.

[Cuki79]

Originally Posted by Mischief

I'll update and try and and get a chance to upload some sound cloud clips too once the install is complete.

Great installation!

We are looking forward, Mischief!

Cuki

[Mischief]

Okay it's installed. I'll get some photos and recordings when I get a chance.

I did not have much time to play with it.
But..... first off it works so that's good.
Second I sure appreciate just how good the Tak is on its own.

Now I was in a tiny area to test and hooked it up to my bass amp which is actually pretty flat sounding. At any rate it's not ideal so I am reserving judgement.

I adjusted my preamp gain for the auxiliary as low as it would go which is not zero. The preamp auxiliary volume at 25% and my main pickup volume at 50% then the amp at about 15% as that was fairly loud. But the mic seemed pretty hot still. I tried a few positions with the mic. None that made me totally happy though. But as I said it was not ideal circumstances. So I'll do some research on placement and do some experimenting.

Once it's as good as I can get I'll do some recording samples.

[Mischief]

Okay just a further update.
I did record some samples but I'll have to go through it all and sort it all out or see if I can get a chance to make something better for others to listen to.

Okay, I looked up the info on how to place this mic and I had it wrong. From memory I thought it went under the high E and the B string. It actually is suggested to point it directly up at the air space between the high E and the edge of the sound hole & about 1/2-1" below the strings. I placed it as suggested and about 1/2" or just over. It was slightly below the the guitar top height.

I also went directly into my interface and it was night and day different to my first experiment. Although my first experience produced a super hot feedback prone situation this position made it seem like it would not be that feed back prone but I will wait to see in a live situation.

I left the internal Aux gain job set to minimum. I could get about 80% mic ratio still by turning up the Aux volume to Max, interface gain high but quiet and then just turning up the main volume of guitar preamp to taste. This at least let me really hear what the mic was doing.

I thought the mic sounded really good. After a bit of recording and foolin around I played the set up through my TC play Acoustic pedal. I did not change any pedal settings. I used 25%,50% and as much mic as I could. They all sounded like a great improvement. Exactly what you would expect from adding a descent blend of mic. During the whole time I used my open back headphones.

Again I have not had the chance to play this through any PA gear. I'll try and put up periodic updates as I gain experiences using this mic in my guitar. So far though it seems very hopeful.

[Mischief]

Okay here's a video of the final install.

I'll get a video showing off the sound soon. Plus I have a performance coming up this Sunday so I'll see how it works in a live setting and report back on that too


https://youtu.be/PmcFJJCXsgg