An affordable, non-invasive pickup (review)

[AeroUSA]

[RogerPease]

Thanks as always, Aaron.
Sounds pretty good. And only ~$70 from Amazon.

What about feedback resistance, do you think?

_Roger

[AeroUSA]

Originally Posted by RogerPease

Thanks as always, Aaron.
Sounds pretty good. And only ~$70 from Amazon.

What about feedback resistance, do you think?

_Roger

I tried it at my gig. No feedback. I’m not sure how that is possible but it did result in a loss of low end but that can be added back with EQ. I have been very impressed with it.

[wood nacho]

It sounded quite alright with the preamp and EQ. Thanks for sharing.

[jkilgour2000]

Sweet review - thanks!

[Marshall]

Nice review. Well done. I ordered one to use as on a couple of back-up instruments. It'll be fun to see what ToneDexter does to this signal.

[AeroUSA]

Originally Posted by Marshall

Nice review. Well done. I ordered one to use as on a couple of back-up instruments. It'll be fun to see what ToneDexter does to this signal.

Please let us know how it trains!! I have yet to try that.

[Marshall]

Sure - I plan on trying it on a travel guitar and on a nice mandolin I have that has no pickup. I bought the extra magnet pack.

We'll see.

[lt20dbl]

Have pickups in all of my guitars except one, a Martin D-28 Authentic 1931 that I bought over three years ago and never played it out (well, once when I accidentally grabbed the wrong case and had to voice share with a mike.
I could never bring myself to enlarge the endpin hole. This may be just the ticket to taking her to the dance occasionally. I'll wait for a few more reports.

[Marshall]

I stuck the thing on my un-electric mandolin. It was hard, only because it's an A type with an oval hole. The spot to stick the magnet was beyond hand reach. So I had to rig something. I'm not sure I pressed the putty hard enough for the things to stay there. But we'll see. That's no knock against the pickup. It's probably not the best choice for what I chose it for.

But it worked nicely just the same. And I ran it through my ToneDexter and made a wavemap with a Neumann K184 mic. More Kudos for ToneDexter. It really improved the pickup sound GREATLY. My only complaint on the pickup is, while listening thru headphones (training & afterwards), there's a hum in the pickup signal chain. Sort of like a single coil pickup. I didn't run it thru an amp to see if it's noticeable in a live setting. It did irritate me thru the headphones after a few minutes.

[AeroUSA]

Originally Posted by Marshall

I stuck the thing on my un-electric mandolin. It was hard, only because it's an A type with an oval hole. The spot to stick the magnet was beyond hand reach. So I had to rig something. I'm not sure I pressed the putty hard enough for the things to stay there. But we'll see. That's no knock against the pickup. It's probably not the best choice for what I chose it for.

But it worked nicely just the same. And I ran it through my ToneDexter and made a wavemap with a Neumann K184 mic. More Kudos for ToneDexter. It really improved the pickup sound GREATLY. My only complaint on the pickup is, while listening thru headphones (training & afterwards), there's a hum in the pickup signal chain. Sort of like a single coil pickup. I didn't run it thru an amp to see if it's noticeable in a live setting. It did irritate me thru the headphones after a few minutes.

I was sure it would train great but I have not tried it yet. I am not sure why there is a hum, mine does not have that. It should not be different to any other passive pickup and as you can hear in my video mine is silent. Try reaching out to the manufacturer.

[shufflebeat]

Is it a piezo element like the old Schaller "limpet mine" or a contact mic like the akg c411? It looks like a cheaper variation on the Schertler Dyn-G but with a novel fixing system.

The c411(pp for phantom power) is an excellent emergency solution, particularly for fingerpicking. Aaron, if you haven't tried one I'd suggest it's a good one for the comparison mix.

[Chriscom]

That's... amazing. Aaron, apologies if you specified, but what sort of eq tweaks did you apply?

[Marshall]

Hum can come from anything in the signal chain. I'll plug it through an amp and see if it's a significant issue at all. I don't often ever play amplified guitar trough headphones. It might be nothing.

I'll check it out.

[AeroUSA]

Originally Posted by Chriscom

That's... amazing. Aaron, apologies if you specified, but what sort of eq tweaks did you apply?

Once I ran through a preamp I just added some low end and I was good to go.