Review and comparison of Schertler AG6

[Spook]

Hmm.. do you mean this manual?

https://www.schertler.com/public/dow...man-en-ag6.pdf

It's better than the one that was available when I bought mine which had even less information but not exactly detailed and complete. Shows all the Schertler cable assemblies as being "stereo". Implies you can split out the mic. Also, would be helpful to show + and - on CR2032 install (as well as labels on the pickup). It will go in either way and if you get it wrong, it's a pain to re-insert.

[Spook]

Originally Posted by lkingston

I agree that trying to connect the RS connections to an audio input shouldn’t have damaged the pickup. I wouldn’t expect it to work, but I also wouldn’t expect it to do any damage.

Not to be insultingly obvious, but you did check the battery right? That and the endpin cable.

This is a pretty expensive pickup. You shouldn’t be getting two bad ones in a row.

It was one of the more expensive bad luck gear experiences for me. Pickup (wood version) $270, mic $100, shipping $50. While I don't know what the MTBF for an AG6 might be, I think the odds of getting two failures in a row are very slim. What I think happened is I had one fail and the one they returned me was another failure they thought they had fixed or somehow got mixed in with the working ones. However, I'll never know and there was not a new warranty offered on the replacement pickup.

As for checking the battery.. wait.. they take batteries? (just kidding)



<Note: With additional testing, things didn't work out quite as planned.. please see update at end of thread>

[Schertler USA]

Originally Posted by Spook

Hmm.. do you mean this manual?

https://www.schertler.com/public/dow...man-en-ag6.pdf

It's better than the one that was available when I bought mine which had even less information but not exactly detailed and complete. Shows all the Schertler cable assemblies as being "stereo". Implies you can split out the mic. Also, would be helpful to show + and - on CR2032 install (as well as labels on the pickup). It will go in either way and if you get it wrong, it's a pain to re-insert.

The stereo female jack just means 3 poles. Two poles are for the signal, third is to turn the power on.
So here’s how it works
The cable has three poles

TIP this is the signal
RING this is the switch to power the AG6 on
SLEEVE this is the ground

Once you plug an instrument jack inside the female connector, the plug unifies/connects the RING and the SLEEVE turning on the AG6

Hope that helps clarify.
~ Dave

[Spook]

When Ikingston brought his experience and insights to my attention, I was forced to go find my AG6 where it has been drawing dust for a couple of years in a music junk drawer. Long discarded and declared busted. Just to make sure, I set it up again on the bench and tested it via screwdriver tapping. Fully expected to confirm my earlier result. However.. it worked. I then set it up in a guitar. It worked.

So.. I hate eating crow. Especially after being so very righteously indignant at the loss of an expensive pickup and mic. But when crow is served..

For whatever reason, I failed to properly test the replacement after the initial broken one. Could not tell you what piece of that test failed.. cable type, battery, bad connection, unknown. But it was operator error and I was the operator. In any case, there were not sequential failures.. just the initial one that was handled properly under the terms of the Schertler warranty. My apologies for the inaccurate inputs on this topic.

[lkingston]

Originally Posted by Spook

So.. I hate eating crow. Especially after being so very righteously indignant at the loss of an expensive pickup and mic. But when crow is served..

I’ve gotta tell my wife...I was actually right about something! This happens so rarely! I’m not sure what to do next!

[lkingston]

Now that it’s working, please post what you think of the way it sounds. Remember, just barely turn the mic up to 10% or less if you are running it through an amp or monitor. Turn it up all the way (or to taste) if you are recording.

[Woodstock School Of Music]

Originally Posted by Spook

When Ikingston brought his experience and insights to my attention, I was forced to go find my AG6 where it has been drawing dust for a couple of years in a music junk drawer. Long discarded and declared busted. Just to make sure, I set it up again on the bench and tested it via screwdriver tapping. Fully expected to confirm my earlier result. However.. it worked. I then set it up in a guitar. It worked.

So.. I hate eating crow. Especially after being so very righteously indignant at the loss of an expensive pickup and mic. But when crow is served..

For whatever reason, I failed to properly test the replacement after the initial broken one. Could not tell you what piece of that test failed.. cable type, battery, bad connection, unknown. But it was operator error and I was the operator. In any case, there were not sequential failures.. just the initial one that was handled properly under the terms of the Schertler warranty. My apologies for the inaccurate inputs on this topic.

Most of the time it's the battery. I had a customer return an AG6 because it was inoperable according to his tech. When I got the pickup back the battery was in backwards so I turned it around and it worked fine.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Spook

When Ikingston brought his experience and insights to my attention, I was forced to go find my AG6 where it has been drawing dust for a couple of years in a music junk drawer. Long discarded and declared busted. Just to make sure, I set it up again on the bench and tested it via screwdriver tapping. Fully expected to confirm my earlier result. However.. it worked. I then set it up in a guitar. It worked.

So.. I hate eating crow. Especially after being so very righteously indignant at the loss of an expensive pickup and mic. But when crow is served..

For whatever reason, I failed to properly test the replacement after the initial broken one. Could not tell you what piece of that test failed.. cable type, battery, bad connection, unknown. But it was operator error and I was the operator. In any case, there were not sequential failures.. just the initial one that was handled properly under the terms of the Schertler warranty. My apologies for the inaccurate inputs on this topic.

Well did you give it a good listen in a guitar or just test on the bench? If you did test in the guitar, what is your impression of the sound of this pickup?

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by lkingston

Now that it’s working, please post what you think of the way it sounds. Remember, just barely turn the mic up to 10% or less if you are running it through an amp or monitor. Turn it up all the way (or to taste) if you are recording.

One of the tricks to using magnetic/mic style pickups in a live application is to turn it to mostly mic (yes I know they feedback easily), and start your EQ'ing from there, starting with a low volume of course. Then turn it back to the magnetic side. That way you can usually get more than 10% of the mic in the mix, even with omni-directionals. Not only does it allow more mic in the mix it helps with any honkiness the mic brings to the sound.

And of course you have to be more aware of your distance from the speakers than you would normally be with just a magnetic to help with that feedback.

[lkingston]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

One of the tricks to using magnetic/mic style pickups in a live application is to turn it to mostly mic (yes I know they feedback easily), and start your EQ'ing from there, starting with a low volume of course. Then turn it back to the magnetic side. That way you can usually get more than 10% of the mic in the mix, even with omni-directionals. Not only does it allow more mic in the mix it helps with any honkiness the mic brings to the sound.



And of course you have to be more aware of your distance from the speakers than you would normally be with just a magnetic to help with that feedback.

I tried that and didn’t have much luck, at least not with an EQ section that had a sweepable mid, a notch filter, a high pass filter, and a phase reverse. Maybe with a multi-band parametric I could get a little more mic.

The good news is that with 10% mic, I really like the sound. I get lots of mic air, and rhythmic taps on the guitar are about where they should be.

[meb]

Just curious, Spook...did you try out the AG-6? Are there any late-breaking
findings to report? Thanks.