Best place to put an internal transducer???

BluesBop Harry

I'm getting ready to mount a Schertler Basik pickup inside an Oval hole, this means I have a lot of options for placement (under the bridge, braces, struts), I intend to experiment a little but given the small soundhole it's not gonna be too easy to manipulate the pickup inside, therefore it would be nice to have some general guidelines.
So, theoretically speaking where is the ideal place to stick it on??

BTW For Basik users I'd always used a ring of putty around the magnet, but just recently discovered that putting the putty directly on the element increases the gain and gives a better tone.

Thanks.

Tele295

I can't speak to a Selmer-type instrument, but I have had good luck with a similar kind of pickup on archtop and classical guitars on the soundboard, 1" south of the bridge on the treble strings side, and 1" toward the tailpiece end of the guitar.

I think Jorgenson puts his pickup between the bridge and the tailpiece

Stringswinger

Enrique,

I have a Mcintyre SBT installed in my Favino. The oval hole is over-sized so I have been able to move it around and have found that the sweet spot is indeed on the treble side of the bridge just behind it (between the braces) and a bit south of it (2 inches). YMMV on a Selmer braced guitar like the Dupont. Paul Hostetter installs the Mcintyre between the braces in the middle of the bridge on Duponts.

I have to say that after using bigtones, Schertlers (basik and Dyn G) , the Mcintyre SBT and the Audio-Technica clip on mike, the bigtone works the best for me. Imperfect for certain, but the best combination of decent sound and convenience on the gig.

Cheers,

Marc
www.hotclubpacific.com

BluesBop Harry

Thanks.
I'll do my little project over the weekend and tell you how it went.
I agree with you Marc, so far the Bigtone has proved very reliable but i'd like to try something a bit more natural sounding, I'll keep the BT in case I need to put it back.

It's just a little experiment, I'm hoping to turn the Basik into a plug and play setup and see if it can manage the levels we play at live. If it works as good as I hope it to, I might buy the Schertler preamp with the Resonance control to help with feedback.

djangology

the bigtone works the best for me. Imperfect for certain, but the best combination of decent sound and convenience on the gig.

i think the same as you...

Craig Bumgarner

I used a bigtone into a LR Baggs preamp into a Shertler Unico last week and I thought the sound was terrible. Very "electric", not acoustic sounding at all. The amp and the pre were both set flat. I switched back to mic for the second set, whew, much better. If you guys are getting good sounds out of a bigtone, would you mind telling me how you do it?

Craig

MichaelHorowitz

Craig Bumgarner wrote:

The amp and the pre were both set flat.

That's the problem...usually piezo type pickups need to be "tamed" by cutting a lot of highs and boosting lows. The "warm" button on the Unico does this for you....AERs more or less do it automatically.

'm

Craig Bumgarner

Michael Horowitz wrote:

That's the problem...usually piezo type pickups need to be "tamed" by cutting a lot of highs and boosting lows. The "warm" button on the Unico does this for you....AERs more or less do it automatically.
'm

Thanks for the reply. I had the "warm" button on and after a while cut the highs even further, but still sounded pretty bad. Any other ideas?

Craig

Stringswinger

Craig,

I have never been able to get a good sound out of a bigtone with any amp except an AER or an Acoustic Image Clarus. I've messed with a bigtone through a Schertler and it's just not a great match.

Also, I've never been able to get a good sound out of Dell Arte Bigtones, no matter what amp I run them through (I even tried one on my Dupont). Dupont's bigtones sound great as do Shelly Park Bigtones.

I currently have a bigtone (Shelly Park) on my Dupont and run it through an AER Compact 60 and it sounds great, even in a loud room.

Hope that helps,

Marc
www.hotclubpacific.com

BluesBop Harry

You can get a decent sound out of a (good) Bigtone. They match great with AERs however it's just that, decent. Very loud, no feedback, plug and play won't let you down in that sense, you get the power, articulation but somewhere along the line you lose the warmth of the acoustic sound.

I enjoyed the sound of the Basik a lot more but found it a bit of a hassle to stick it on and off and it's not as feedback resistant.

I'm taking the BT off right now and will put a new bridge on, stick the Basik under the top and wire it to the end block jack. I'll have a couple of chances to try it live next week and if I can get loud enough it's staying. I guess it's gonna be borderline but if it's close I'm considering getting a preamp to work on the feedback...we'll see...

MichaelHorowitz

Craig Bumgarner wrote:

Thanks for the reply. I had the "warm" button on and after a while cut the highs even further, but still sounded pretty bad. Any other ideas?

That's probably the best you can do....the bigtone itself might be harsher then others. They are not all the same...