Mandolin pickup choice for Big Muddy

[SalFromChatham]

Howdy fellas.

I have a gigging mandolin with a Marcato, which does just fine. I can always fall back to that…

But… I have a Big Muddy M11 wide nut whose rich dark more mellow tone I really love. I was thinking I’d like to use it sometimes when I play in my trio. It currently doesn’t have a pickup.

I first thought I’d just move the Marcato between my other mandolin and the Big Muddy, but the BM is wider than the carpenter jack on the Marcato will accommodate.

Any ideas what might work with the Big Muddy? Are there carpenter jacks that can accommodate thicker mandolins?

Thanks is advance.

[keith.rogers]

How thick is the Big Muddy? Usually those carpenter jacks or arm rests use viola hardware. Just checked and my A's are about 1 3/4" thick and work with the viola sized threaded clamps. If you knew the thread size, you might be able to just get a long bolt at your local ACE and bend it for that purpose, assuming it's the kind of standard setup. (You'd have to cut the head off the bolt, of course!)

[SalFromChatham]

Hi Keith… the depth is 2”. I’ll try to head over to an Ace later.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Loved my Big Muddy (then called a Mid-Missouri). Great little axe!

Can't answer your size question, but here's a word of caution: The adhesive on a carpenter jack's pickups can lift the finish off your mandolin, leaving two sorry little craters where the finish used to be.* Given that carpenter jacks are also heavy and clunky and bump your hand, it's often better to have your pickup neatly and safely inside.

My current and last mandos have internal pickups with the jacks installed at their endpins. The last one had a K&K. I got a JJB for this one to save a few bucks. Both sound good.

Not necessary, but I also gave them both Tapastring mini-jacks and adapters to avoid wood reaming and tailpiece hole-widening.

Silver lining: Use internal pickups and you'll never have to worry about how wide your mandolins' sides are.

------------------

*Give me a shout next time you're blowing throug Augusta and I'll show you.

[Dave Hicks]

Originally Posted by Charlie Bernstein

...

The adhesive on a carpenter jack's pickups can lift the finish off your mandolin, leaving two sorry little craters where the finish used to be.* Given that carpenter jacks are also heavy and clunky and bump your hand, it's often better to have your pickup neatly and safely inside. ...

I've used a carpenter jack pickup only once. I got away lucky, but decided not to risk it again.

D.H.

[Mandobart]

I posted some ideas for longer chin rest barrels on the not-to-be-named other forum.

I've used carpenter jacks and never liked them. They're bulky and often interfere with closing the case correctly, particularly if you also have an arm rest. Exposed wires and jacks are noisy. Every time I brushed them with an arm or sleeve they made noise. And, IMO, they're real ugly.

It's more trouble than it's worth to me to move a pickup around from one instrument to another back and forth. Plenty of opportunity to damage something.

There are lots of better options for mounting pickups and jacks inside the instrument. I've successfully done it in several f-hole mandolins, violas and violins.

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by keith.rogers

How thick is the Big Muddy? Usually those carpenter jacks or arm rests use viola hardware. Just checked and my A's are about 1 3/4" thick and work with the viola sized threaded clamps. If you knew the thread size, you might be able to just get a long bolt at your local ACE and bend it for that purpose, assuming it's the kind of standard setup. (You'd have to cut the head off the bolt, of course!)

They're nominally a 6-40 UNF (which I could NOT find at any hardware stores or Fastenal), BUT they aren't universally interchangeable. And bending a machine screw that's been work hardened by threading often just breaks them.

I've done the searching here when fitting arm rests to my large collection of mandolin-family instruments, including a mandola, 30's resonator mandolin, octave mandolins and 3-1/2" deep mandocello.

You start with violin/viola chin rest hardware. Beware that the foot spacing and threads vary between brands and region of manufacture. One thing I recommend are Hill style clamps since the lower feet aren't connected. Go to a violin parts supply website like Shar or Dov and get the longest barrels they have.

Get a 6-40 UNF die and some 1/8" brass rod. Thread two straight sections for the upper barrels, make a 90 degree bend, thread the part that goes into the carpenter jack (or chin rest or arm rest), then cut to length.

[keith.rogers]

Originally Posted by Mandobart

They're nominally a 6-40 UNF (which I could NOT find at any hardware stores or Fastenal), BUT they aren't universally interchangeable. And bending a machine screw that's been work hardened by threading often just breaks them.

.... Go to a violin parts supply website like Shar or Dov and get the longest barrels they have.....

Didn't know you could just buy longer barrels, but that would obviously be a good option. Yeah, I figured you might need a pack of small bolts to end up with a couple that didn't work, but if you're in a hurry, I'd probably still give it a try. (The local ACE does have a board with a bunch of threaded barrels on it that let you figure out what thread size you're trying to match - that can come in handy, if nothing else.)

[mauricemcm]

In the Mid Mo days Mr. Dulak used the Mcintyre Acoustic Feather. He has been using the K&K twinspot for Mandolin lately. The only difference between the K&K for mandolin and the K&K universal that I can perceive is a shorter wire and a higher price for the mandolin version. That extra bit of wire may very well suck some of your tone.

[SalFromChatham]

I ordered a JJB Prestige 220… with the external mount. I’ll let you know how it works out when I get it…

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by SalFromChatham

I ordered a JJB Prestige 220… with the external mount. I’ll let you know how it works out when I get it…

Mine has an internal JBB. Sounds great. Same pair of transducers, but mounted under the bridge instead of next to it.

[Mandobart]

Originally Posted by Charlie Bernstein

Mine has an internal JBB. Sounds great. Same pair of transducers, but mounted under the bridge instead of next to it.

That's what I've installed in a couple dozen instruments - 4 fiddles, all mandolin-family instruments, banjos, several guitars, 3 double basses. I've found them to be consistent and trouble free for the past 15 years.