Timeline for How do I record zither, harp etc. with a pickup?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 14, 2021 at 22:03 | comment | added | Pete Kirkham | A few decades ago I remember seeing crimp on ferrous sleeves for using magnetic pickups with classic nylon strings, so there are approaches which mean you don't need to have the whole strings ferrous. Though I can't seem to find any reference to them searching the web, so maybe they didn't work that well. | |
| Jun 14, 2021 at 20:06 | comment | added | Graham | @ToddWilcox At the really high end, I wouldn't disagree. Still though, I'm betting on 100 of Crafter, Godin, Takamine, Yamaha, Ovation and all the rest going through folk clubs for every dual-pickup Taylor or Martin doing properly paid gigs. | |
| Jun 14, 2021 at 16:20 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | @Graham That doesn’t match my experience with acoustic guitars. I see a lot of guitars both in the wild and for sale with factory installed pickup systems - some are just piezo systems but many (particularly Taylor’s Expression System and Martin’s two different systems) include multiple pickups with signal processing in the preamp to improve the raw piezo tone. I see a lot of pros playing mandolins and violins with combined piezo and mic systems. The fishman blender system was popular for many years. | |
| Jun 14, 2021 at 16:15 | comment | added | gidds | ‘Brittle’, and ‘hard to make musically pleasing’ isn't my experience at all. My first mandolin had magnetic-coil pick-ups, which I found harsh and unnatural (though no doubt suited to some styles of music). Now I have one with a piezo pick-up; it's close to the acoustic sound, and works great for amplification and recording. (It came fitted as standard, despite being an Ashbury which I very much doubt counts as high-end (even though I love it!).) | |
| Jun 14, 2021 at 15:54 | comment | added | Graham | "People rarely actually do this" True for harps. But it's worth noting that it's very rare (as in substantially less than 1%) to find an acoustic guitar using anything other than a piezo pickup on its own; and ditto electric violins, mandolins, and other similar instruments. No major manufacturer fits them as standard, so they are always custom fits, either with a high-end luthier-built instrument or as an aftermarket add-on. Harps are a small enough market that there is no financial incentive for anyone to produce a dedicated solution. | |
| Jun 14, 2021 at 4:10 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | @ElizaWilson Absolutely. I believe DPA is the most respected brand for these applications and they make a mic just for that: sweetwater.com/store/detail/… Looks like Audio-Technica and Countryman also make similar products | |
| Jun 14, 2021 at 2:19 | comment | added | Eliza Wilson | Would the technique of using a small, close microphone in addition to a piezo work well for violins? I use just a piezoelectric mic on my violin (mostly in jazz contexts) and sometimes am dissatisfied with the tonal quality. | |
| Jun 13, 2021 at 16:57 | history | answered | Todd Wilcox | CC BY-SA 4.0 |