Manouchepicks Microphone by Jokko

Buco

I finished the installation and tried the microphone shortly yesterday.
Few installation pictures here:
http://www.djangobooks.com/forum/discussion/16812/internal-pickup-mount-and-drilling-the-tailblock/p2

Then I heard something kinda remarkable. The amp I'm using, ZT Lunchbox Acoustic, has a 3 position switch that's supposed to help with feedback. Not only that it never helped with feedback, I never heard any audible change in sound regardless of the position; off, 1, 2, or 3, after using a (smallish) variety of microphones and pickups. With Jokko's pickup there was a clear audible difference in all positions, from off to 1-3. You could hear that the mids were being shaped differently. That told me immediately how accurate and responsive this mic is, amazing. That and also it was nice to finally hear that people from ZT really did put a function into this feedback suppression circuitry.

Next thing I noticed is that, at least when mounted internally, there isn't a whole lot of handling noise from the body of the guitar, especially the top.

I placed the mic where Jokko recommends, between braces 2 and 3, right in the middle, on the top of the center wood strip. Then the second remarkable thing happened. I turned up the amp to a 100% both gain and volume. No feedback!?! In a small room with the amp turned towards me a few feet away. Are you kiddin' me?! OK I could tell that even though it was plenty, plenty loud that the amp also had plenty more headroom. And it sounded great immediately. Usually I could hear a good amount of a midrange honk on some notes with other mics I used, especially around the B note. Then I'd use a preamp to EQ-it out. Much less here.

I plugged it into the preamp, Headway EDB-1 and with that much more gain I could get it to feedback but it was easy to notch it out with the filter on the preamp. In general this room being small is way more feedback problematic then a real world performance space so I see zero feedback problems during shows.

With this mic I don't hear the harsh attack and this kinda contained boxiness that was usually the thing that would turn me off when listening to the demos of other similar systems.
Well, Ischell sounds great and I haven't tried it myself but hearing for example the sound of Stephane Wrembel's guitar on videos, which is pretty awesome, and having heard Jokko mic on my guitar I have a zero feeling that I'm missing out on something.

The sound is direct, nothing is masked, it's very accurate and revealing, very balanced between highs, mids and lows. No boominess of any sort on lows and like a mentioned way less of a midrange honk when plugged in directly.
It's hard to say for me "I'm hearing my guitar" through the amp like I hear people sometimes say because I am hearing my guitar directly and it's hard to separate the two but they are pretty well matched. Or said another way, the sound from the amp doesn't stick out in any way like for example when using Krivo mag pickup. The only thing I find I need to do with it is add a little reverb. Which I've never felt I needed to do with what I used previously, the Myers mic. The Jokko mic isn't harsh by any means but let's say it's "harder" versus "softer" sounding Myers condenser mic. Ok I'll take that one flaw and everything else where Jokko's mic positively kicks butt.

I'll see if I think of something else to add but this looks plenty.

That black smudge towards the top is the mic:

conormckenna

Yes I have also recently acquired a mic from Jokko. I gigged it last night for the first time. I didn't have a huge amount of time to play around with mic position but I put it a centimetre or two from the bridge on the sound hole side, and roughly between the A and D strings. My mic is on the outside. Installation and removal is very easy. I put it through my K&K preamp into my Mambo amp. I left the amp settings pretty flat, and on the preamp I rolled off some of the treble. I immediately had a very good sound that was a very good reproduction of my guitar (Dupont Nomade oval hole).

I was playing in a loud pub so had to turn up but there was no feedback at all. I'm sure with a bit of tweaking I could get an even better sound from it as I had very little time to try different things out.

All in all I'm very happy with it and it was a great price to boot. Jokko even customised the attachment for me at no extra price because the Nomade has a slightly different tailpiece from most other gypsy guitars.

Buco

I don't how the heck he could improve on a concept so much or at the very least make it as good as any major brand. A single guy business who already has his hands full with his picks operation, competing with the companies who have been in the business for much longer and have staff of engineers and product developers with with years of experience and a lot bigger budget for R&D. It's gotta be the best quality to to price ratio for amplifying acoustic guitar. Actually I asked him all of the above and he said it's been seven years in development and he's using as high quality materials as he possibly can afford.

conormckenna

Yeah it's really great- fair play to him indeed.

tbleen

I just got one and have had a few gigs with it. I agree that it's a hell of mic. Very pleased. My one issue after playing an entire afternoon with it, I noticed a few times that the intensity (volume) of the pickup oscillated a little bit, and mostly got a little weaker. After I noticed that, I would stop playing and press down harder on it and notice the tone sounding solid again. The putty I have is very strong, so the stick doesn't seem to be an issue. But I do feel it weakens a little if I don't make sure it's really pressed firmly onto the soundboard. I'd be nervous to mount it internally for that reason, if the pickup gets knocked a little or the point of contact weakening over time would compromise some of the sound. Then you can't really press fix that easily when it's mounted inside. Was that ever a concern?

Buco

I only played live once with it but didn't notice anything out of ordinary. I was actually told "the guitar sounded very good" by another fellow GJ player. He didn't know I used a new pickup, just commented on the sound.
It's still easy to reach where it is under the top, once the strings are slacked enough, if it needed an extra touch. I was afraid that the recommended spot would be further down by the bridge for which I was trying to brainstorm some kind of a jig to reach that far but it was easy to stick it where he said. I'd check the seal on the microphone housing itself, maybe it's not sealed all the way. It could have been one time thing but if it repeats itself I'd ask Jokko what he thinks the reason might be.

bopster

Are there other putty or temporary adhesive alternatives that would work better?

Buco

Thinking about it @tbleen problem might be helped by changing the placement.
The putty that Jokko sends seems pretty good.
Maybe thing to try is cut out a circle from a stick on pick guard material, little bigger than the pickup, which are supposed to be safe for wood finish, place it where you would place the pickup and then use a permanent double adhesive tape on the pickup to stick it to the pick guard piece.

Buco

More positive comments about the sound of the guitar during live gigs, all from people unaware of a new pickup installed.

crookedpinky

I just used my Jokko pickup for the first time on a live gig and it's the best my guitar has ever sounded when amplified. I ran it through a Headway preamp into my Bugera ac60 and I was really pleased with it. I mounted mine about an inch below the lower moustache in line with the end of it. I attached it using double sided tape as I felt that the putty lessened the effectiveness of the mic. I drilled two small holes in the mounting plate and screwed it on using the two upper screws at the top of the tailpiece. I would thoroughly recommend this pickup.
I am really curious about what's inside the pickup. To me it doesn't sound like a piezo element but I don't know what kind of mic element is small enough to fit inside the capsule. It can't be an electret element as no power is fed to it, so I'm in the dark on this one.

Buco

I wonder the design and technology used too. Definitely doesn't sound like anything piezo I've ever heard.