OK, here's my short treatise on amplification in general and more specifically on the HG.
There are several options for amplification: piezo pickups, onboard microphones, stage microphones, and magnetic pickups. 1) Piezo pickups - these are small discs that work on the piezoelectric effect to produce a small voltage. Most guitar pickups, harp pickups, violin pickups, etc are piezo pickups. advantages: - moves with instrument - much less prone to feedback - can be set to amplify specific parts of sound - best setup for using with effects pedals disadvantages: - can have a honky or quacky sound, especially if the preamp/buffer is far away - improves with good quality pickups, good position, and close preamp - needs a preamp or DI box very close - cable runs must be short. This is very important for getting a good sound from a piezo: the output impedance of the piezo is very high, so long cable runs (even a meter or two) will degrade the signal significantly. - position on instrument may not give full sound - a lot of experimenting is needed to find the "sweet spot" where the pickup gives the sound you are looking for - can pick up body noise from the instrument If you have more than one piezo pickup, you'll need to mix them together before sending them to the amplifier. This can be done with a built-in mixer or an outboard mixer. Bear in mind that if you're using an outboard mixer, you still need to buffer the signal from each pickup with active electronics (something that uses a battery) built in to the instrument or attached to it. 2) Onboard microphones - these are small microphones, sometimes mounted on a little gooseneck for better positioning. People have also experimented with placing microphones inside the instrument, but the results have never been very good to my ears, tending toward boomy with a lot of body noise and noise from bearings, etc. advantages of onboard mic - moves with instrument - more natural sound than a piezo - can have a more balanced sound disadvantages - more prone to feedback, especially if onstage amp is used - some models need a preamp very close - cable runs must be short - more prone to picking up body noise than piezo 3) Stage microphones - a good microphone will give the most accurate sound of the instrument. What qualifies as a good microphone is too long a discussion to have here. There are passable microphones, lousy microphones, good microphones, and awesome microphones. ;-) advantages - most natural sound, esp if a good mic is used - sound is as balanced as the instrument is and mic placement allows - no onboard preamp needed - least prone to body noise disadvantages - most prone to feedback - dependent on monitors for sound - does not move with instrument - youre stuck in one spot, and better not move very far - cant plug directly into amp (usually) 4) Magnetic pickups - like the pickups on an electric guitar, they produce voltage by sensing the movement of a ferrous metal string. If you have all metal strings on your HG, you can start looking around for a good set of pickups, or wind your own. I wouldn't recommend these except in very specific situations. I'm sure that this won't answer everyone's questions, but I hope it's a good start. ;-) Alden
