I've been plugged in forever and find myself more intimidated by
traditional bluegrass mic setup than our electric rig. Just so you
know, you can learn this stuff.
What I've wound up doing is using a mic and a DI/pickup. The mic is
for the house and then the sound guy will dial in a little DI to
thicken it up. Much trial and error has resulted in my insisting to
sound guys to use the mic as the primary source with the DI as a back
up. The pickup I use is a Fishman bridge and is probably the model
you're getting, Mike (M-200)
The DI is for the stage. The other guys use it in their monitors and I
use a Fishman Loudbox amplifier to dial in my sound. These are the
advantages:
* No feedback on stage (from the mandolin, at least)
* Microphone sound in the house sounds really good
* I still get to "play" a mic
* The use of an amp for my personal monitor lets me sound the same gig
after gig, no matter what sort of sound desk we're plugged into. It's
not acoustic, but I've got a tone I like dialed in.
* I use an in-line tuner to tune up, which is really handy when
weather is messing with your instrument or your crowd is really loud.
* You can crank the fishman pickup up really loud without feedback and
it sounds really cool with effects, if you ever play around with that.
Disadvantages:
* It isn't acoustic and it's hard to stop meddling with your mix
("maybe if I give it a little more midrange...")
* Did I mention it's not acoustic?
Neutral...
I've been plugging in since I started playing (my first mando was one
of those fenders with the single coil pickup--hey, $100, whaddya do?)
and the day I got my F style (a Parsons) I installed the Fishman that
day, so it was only in the shop that I ever heard it with the original
bridge. I've been reading in this thread and on the Mando Cafe that
the Fishman bridge pickups alter the sound of your instrument. I've
been curious about it this but I have no comment.
My backup mandolin I outfitted with Fishman's harp pickup (it costs
$60, attaches and comes off, and was the only one available when I
needed a back up pickup NOW). I just recently attached it to the F and
like the sound a lot. In fact, I'm putting the original bridge on this
week to really try it out. My concern with this harp pickup is that it
mabye can't handle high volume.
Gear:
So I run the Fishman bridge into a Radial J48 active DI. I like this
because it's built solid, sounds awesome and doesnt' have a lot of
knobs for me to dink around with. this goes to the house if the sound
guy needs it and to my band mates through the monitors. I also run it
to my amp, which is the Fishman. I like this amp a lot, it is really
user friendly after you spend the 30 minutes or so dialing it in. It
also weighs less than 20#, which is a plus.
The microphone I use is a Shure SM-81. It's good dynmanic mic. A look
into most sound guys mic box will show this mic, so my thought process
is that it wasn't an intimidating mic to for a sound guy to see me
pull out of my box.
I also use a Boss tuner and an MXR micro amp boost pedal.
When our banjo player first plugged in he was at a loss. The way I
would help him out is he would play and I would be on my knees dialing
in his sound. That way he could just play and then he'd say "oh I like
that" or "oh, not that." It is a little easier than doing it yourself,
especially if you don't know what's going on. Maybe one of the more
electric-experienced Sugarcanes could do that for you?
Finally, remember that as long as your sound has been coming out of
speakers, you've been a little bit plugged in. This is just a more
involved plugging in.
Good luck!
erik
On May 27, 8:31 am, mistertaterbug <[email protected]> wrote:
> I don't know enough about all this to even talk about it. Wait a
> minute, is this oldtimey?
> Taterdog
>
> On May 27, 8:17 am, Mike Romkey <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>
> > I have one of those Fishman bridge pickups. I can't say that I like
> > it. Or use it. I'd look into something like the Aura Don
> > recommends ... if that's the Fishman sampled sound/life sound blending
> > thing I've heard about. They're supposed to do amazingly good things
> > with acoustic guitars. Maybe they have a Gil mandolin sample you can
> > load. I heard they were developing profiles for fiddles and mandolins,
> > but I never looked into it. I feel your pain.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
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