Hello all,
So yesterday I received my new Ehrlund EAP linear mic pickup and it's matching pickup. I only got around to testing it out last night. Here's some initial feedback.
Installation
So the pickup is a triangular shape and comes with a tack-like adhesive for attaching it to the top of the guitar similar to the Dyn series of contact mics from Schertler. Rolling three small balls of the tack and placing them in the 3 corners of the EAP I attached to a position on the top behind the bridge about 1.5 away on the bass side of the guitar. I will experiment with finding the sweet spot when i return from a trip next week so for now I've it attached in that one spot.
Initial Sound
Holy crap I turn it up and was amazed. It was an acoustic guitar, it was my acoustic guitar (OK it wasn't perfect but I reiterate that I didn't experiment with positioning). The preamp that comes with it has an Input jack and Output of course, a Volume rotary knob, a phase switch, and a high/low input switch.
Plugging the EAP into the preamp and then direct to my SR Technology Jam 400 yielded a great sound, pure acoustic, like a mic and all the highs I could ever want. A slight mid cut there made it sound even better. The highs are crazy, I had to cut them back abit when I turned up. I think experimenting with the positioning will get the sweet spot but I'm very surprised (even though I've read this...) at how little EQ this thing needs. The one thing I'll say is the output, even when run through the matching preamp and volume on that up to the max, is quite low. I needed to ramp the gain on my SR Tech channel quite a bit, far more than my previous pickup tests with a K&K, PUTW #54 and Sunrise (through various preamps).
I then tried plugging the EAP/Preamp in my TC Electronic 2240 which is a preamp with 4 band parametric. Now we're cooking, the extra gain stage brought it more inline with previous pickups used in the same setup. The TC I think is quite transparent when the EQ stage is switched off (there's a switch to allow pass through of the signal). The greater control of the parametric meant I could refine the tone much more. I did a slight mid-cut at around 1.2KHz, backed off a little at around 5KHz (or just below) which smoothed out the sound. I think I may have boosted the bass a little but can't remember (this was 2AM my time). This sounded great. Better than anything I've tried. Very balanced. Rapping/banging/thumping the body of the guitar sound like it does acoustically without the woofing/thumping/bass boom sound that SBT on the bridge would have produced.
I decided to turn up my PA and see how loud I could go before feedback. Pretty darn loud to be honest and that was before I went cutting the offending frequencies with my EQ. It did sound harsher at louder volume but then I'll be combining it with my Sunrise (and of course good EQ can resolve any issues I might have).
At that stage it was very late and I was wrecked tired so I hit the hay. Next week I will be doing extensive position testing looking for that sweet spot (don't think I'm far off though). I'll be trying the EAP direct into a Sunrise SB2 preamp @ 1Mohm input impedance and the same with my TC 2240 @ 1MOhm input impedance. According to
SoundOnSound article it works well going into a variety of inputs down as far as just below 1MOhm. I think I'll keep the Ehrlund preamp though because it has phase reversal and the Low/High switch in case I decide to find a double bass and stick it on that (Goran Ehrlund recommends the Low position on this switch for Double Bass). I will also be combining it with my Sunrise and will record multiple samples and stick them up for you guys to listen.
The Ehrlund EAP+Preamp is considerably cheaper than the Schertler Dyn and from my little experience it appears to be an impressive pickup. Lets hope my search is over and I can get back to gigging - I'm gagging for a gig
Back to work for me.
Take Care,
JP