Great Mic for Sel-Mac Guitars

Dr. Hall

Hi, this is my first post on the forum, but I've read some of the past posts in which folks have expressed various gripes about amplifying your sel-mac guitars. I recently purchased an Audio-Technica AT831b mini cardioid condenser microphone which came with a handy guitar sound-hole mount. If you've seen recently posted videos of Stochelo and Romane on Youtube, you've seen this sort of mic, though I'm not sure of it's the same model. I run this mic through its supplied power-pack and then directly into my little 200-watt Galien-Kreuger bass combo with a 10" speaker using a simple impedance adapter, and the results are outstanding. With very little eq fiddling, I get a lot of volume feedback-free. I was worried that the mic mount wouldn't fit because of the D-hole on my Gitane DG-320, but the thing slides right on (and off), no troubles. Anyway, having struggled with piezos and boom stand mics and magnetic pickups for a while now (issues I've never had in many years of archtop playing), I think I've now found the solution.
-Stefan

klaatu

I found a similar solution, an AT Pro 35 mike, a small condenser mounted on a clip-on gooseneck. It's very popular with horn players. It clips nicely into the D hole on my Dell'Arte, and I run it into a Roland Acoustic Chorus AC-60, which provides the needed phantom power. It also works well on mando or archtop by clipping to the pickguard. I point it towards the end of the fretboard, away from the soundhole to avoid boominess. Feedback can be an issue, so you have to be careful about placement of the amp. The Roland does have a feedback control, which can help.

I was a little concerned about the AT831b placing the mike so close to the soundhole, but perhaps that's not the issue I thought it would be.