Alan, I nearly stopped playing because of a congenital hearing loss. Amplification saved the day. Ask any performing acoustic guitar player and they will swear by internal pickups over external mikes. Easy if you have a hole large enough in your soundboard. I find two mikes are needed because on a good lute, the sound source wanders around the top as you change registers. On my baroque lute, a mike about a foot from the soundboard and even with the lower back corner picks up most of what I want. This is below the lute in my lap, a foot in front of it, even with the back edge of the soundboard and aimed just behind the treble side of the bridge. A second mike anywhere near the rose picks up the rest. Without two mikes, the trebles start fading in one postion, and the basses fail to be heard in another. I feed this through a bandpass filter (equalizer) to correct my loss, to a set of studio grade headphones. Your setup will depend on your instrument and ear. You hear good even in a crowd, and you can sit upright. For performances, I hide the earphones using little bose earpods. You can quickly pop these out before the forthcoming thunderous applause between the mooshu and the pot stickers. Lou Aull
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