Ischell Inside BOX + CPJ

Pros: Tone, ease of use, feedback resistance

After trying some other options with varying degrees of success, I tried the Ischell on Michael’s recommendation a while back. I have been extremely pleased with the tone and have not had feedback issues. I have used it on three different archtops and a gypsy jazz guitar, through an Acoustic Image Clarus with Ten 2 cabinet and an AER Compact 60 often in a loud band that includes drums, sax, and trumpet. I had my luthier make small brackets to fit on to the tailpieces which works very well for holding the jack in place and allowing easy removal.

Submitted by: MarkA on 04/06/2018 06:22:52 AM

Pros: Great tone, feedback resistant

Cons: a bit expensive

The transducer/mic install was straight-forward and required no permanent guitar modification. Transducer placement was per recommendation in included instructions. The resulting sound exceeded my expectations! Sound is very natural, clean, and truly represents the best tone from my MDC50, with a nice bite available in the high end. Gain before feedback is MUCH higher than a mic, and low end feedback can be controlled by the low pass filters built into the preamp.

Submitted by: jeffsMDC on 05/11/2016 05:06:37 PM

Pros: Easy to fit, natural sound, unobtrusive

This is an excellent product from Ischell. It's incredibly easy to fit (it took me a matter of minutes after reading the manual), and incredibly easy to use. I've tried it going into a Fishman Loudbox mini and it sounds brilliant, really natural and doesn't feed back unless you are sitting almost over the amp. I would recommend this to anybody looking for a natural amplified sound!

Submitted by: mattd92 on 06/17/2015 03:49:52 PM

All three guitarists in my band decided to take a chance and order Ischells in advance of an upcoming performance that we knew would be a challenge due to high noise levels. We've been using AT condenser mikes with good success in quieter environments, but we've pretty much pushed them to their limit. The Ischells came through with flying colors. We were able to get very good volume with almost no feedback issues. There was a bit of occasional feedback from one guitar, but this was our first attempt at using them, the space was weirdly laid out, and the background level was extremely high. Plus we were running the pickups through a rather simple PA system with no dedicated sound person to manage it, and there was a vocal mike right in front of that guitar, which might have been picking something unwanted up. I'm sure with experience we will get better at using them. We had previously tried magnetic pickups, which give the best volume vs. feedback performance, but we really didn't care for the electric sound. We are looking for something more nearly acoustic. The Ischells delivered very good and realistic sound, far better than any soundboard pickup I've ever heard and reasonably close to what a mike would produce. It is after all a mike, it's just that it is mounted very close to the top, so it is not picking up a lot of air. The AT condensers would have been absolutely buried at this latest gig. One note: the double-sided tape that comes with it does not stick to an unfinished wooden tailpiece insert, so you would either have to look for another means of attaching the jack or varnish the insert. It sticks very well to an all metal tailpiece. Fischer Ischell hinted that it might be possible to special order one with a longer wire so it could be mounted elsewhere. A Velcro strap might be another solution, or Velcro mounted on the tailpiece. If you plan to run it into a PA, I do recommend a good quality preamp such as a Baggs Para DI that will allow you to fine tune the sound and deal with any feedback that might arise in loud situations. If you're just going into an amp, you should be fine. If you're looking for a solution to the problem of getting acoustic sound at high volumes without feedback, this is probably the best thing going.

Submitted by: klaatu on 03/26/2012 01:38:54 PM