Post by snakehips on Oct 23, 2005 10:11:15 GMT
Hi there !
Michael Messer asked me how I am getting along with the pickup I got from Dave King.
I got one (actually made by Benedetti, for Dave King) and my band mate got one attached to his late 30's National Trojan he was having its neck reset by Dave.
We are quite impressed with the pickup.
Now, please no one come in with the "microphones are ALWAYS the best !!!" stuff, because I know that !
Many of us SOMETIMES need more volume than a mic'd up guitar will allow without feedback.
Some of us perhaps play in (mainly acoustic) duos, trios etc etc and want to use their National (because it looks cool) but need a fuller sound than the piezo/bug pickups will allow (eg. Highlander, and others).
Of course, we don't want it sounding like a regular electric guitar and lose all the "cone-tone" and we don't want to cut holes in our guitars to mount such pickups. (I've seen a guy going around with a beautiful late 30's style "O" with a (mini?)humbucker cut into the front - just plain SAD !)
Of course, I may sound two-faced here as I installed a P90 pickup into a NRP Raditone Bendaway that I got used, on eBay :
The problem with a pickup like this, unless you want to sound like Eric Sardinas, it doesn't quite work in the way I wanted/hoped.
On to the details about this new pickup. It is a humbucker, magnetic pickup - so is "hum-less" - ie. very quite when playing right next to your PA amp etc.
One great advantage of this type of pickup is that you do not get the nasty scratchy sound associated with piezo pickups.
It fits onto the guitar body (no drilling, hole cutting etc) with double sided adhesive, supplied with the pickup.
I've put my pickup on my NRP Style 1.5 Tricone. I found the strings buzzed against the pickup, when fretting higher up the neck. I removed the adhesive tape and glued the pickup to the body (reducing the pickup height) - but with "clear adhesive glue" - the type for sticking paper to paper etc - ie. not very strong and non corrosive to nickel finishes, anyway.
I managed to attach a jack socket (I bought one with a plastic "washer/nut to protect the nickel finish) to a soundgrill hole - without having to take the guitar apart.
(This is the only National I have ever managed to NOT open up and look inside ! I'm scared I'll not get the same tone out of it afterwards !)
I found the amount of bass a bit overwelming, but even on a simple 3 band eq per channel, small PA system, by reducing the bass control (alone) of that channel, it restored the guitar sound to a nice balance.
(and by that, I mean much more convincingly than when you try to reduce piezo "quack" by reducing treble, middle etc etc on transducer pickups)
Strangely, the string balance is VERY good. This is usually always a problem with magnetic pickups because the unwound strings tend to be much louder than the bronze wound strings.
My mate and I tested our pickups at my house, through my PA system, set up in my hallway. One at a time, weplayed a guitar in a room off the hall, facing away, with the door shut, the other listened to the PA sound (too far away to hear the reso acoustically). To be 100% honest, my bandmate was more impressed with the pickup than I was, at first, even though it is better than any other pickup I have tried.
Later we played in the same room as the PA and it sounded fantastic (here we could hear the rso acoustically, as well as the pickup sound, even if the PA sound was set quite loud).
From this, I deduce, that if you mic up the reso alonfg with the pickup, you will get a great PA resonator sound. I have heard suggested that for higher volume levels, using a Highlander pickup, you want 80% mic, 20% Highlander. With this new pickup, I think you can go 30% mic, 70% magnetic pickup.
I hope that makes sense. I like the pickup enough to have ordered two more. I'm STILL waiting on them.
Here is my tricone with relatively unobtrusive (cosmetically as well as for actually playing) pickup :
Acoustic Stage, Colne 2005
When I unpacked the pickup, it had gaffa tape stuck on the front - didn't manange to get all the "gunk" off it !). Before I replaced the supplied jack socket with a plastic one.
This is before I removed the thick adhesive tape and glued it on.
The pickup is available in black (like mine) and in nickel/chrome colour.
Michael Messer asked me how I am getting along with the pickup I got from Dave King.
I got one (actually made by Benedetti, for Dave King) and my band mate got one attached to his late 30's National Trojan he was having its neck reset by Dave.
We are quite impressed with the pickup.
Now, please no one come in with the "microphones are ALWAYS the best !!!" stuff, because I know that !
Many of us SOMETIMES need more volume than a mic'd up guitar will allow without feedback.
Some of us perhaps play in (mainly acoustic) duos, trios etc etc and want to use their National (because it looks cool) but need a fuller sound than the piezo/bug pickups will allow (eg. Highlander, and others).
Of course, we don't want it sounding like a regular electric guitar and lose all the "cone-tone" and we don't want to cut holes in our guitars to mount such pickups. (I've seen a guy going around with a beautiful late 30's style "O" with a (mini?)humbucker cut into the front - just plain SAD !)
Of course, I may sound two-faced here as I installed a P90 pickup into a NRP Raditone Bendaway that I got used, on eBay :
The problem with a pickup like this, unless you want to sound like Eric Sardinas, it doesn't quite work in the way I wanted/hoped.
On to the details about this new pickup. It is a humbucker, magnetic pickup - so is "hum-less" - ie. very quite when playing right next to your PA amp etc.
One great advantage of this type of pickup is that you do not get the nasty scratchy sound associated with piezo pickups.
It fits onto the guitar body (no drilling, hole cutting etc) with double sided adhesive, supplied with the pickup.
I've put my pickup on my NRP Style 1.5 Tricone. I found the strings buzzed against the pickup, when fretting higher up the neck. I removed the adhesive tape and glued the pickup to the body (reducing the pickup height) - but with "clear adhesive glue" - the type for sticking paper to paper etc - ie. not very strong and non corrosive to nickel finishes, anyway.
I managed to attach a jack socket (I bought one with a plastic "washer/nut to protect the nickel finish) to a soundgrill hole - without having to take the guitar apart.
(This is the only National I have ever managed to NOT open up and look inside ! I'm scared I'll not get the same tone out of it afterwards !)
I found the amount of bass a bit overwelming, but even on a simple 3 band eq per channel, small PA system, by reducing the bass control (alone) of that channel, it restored the guitar sound to a nice balance.
(and by that, I mean much more convincingly than when you try to reduce piezo "quack" by reducing treble, middle etc etc on transducer pickups)
Strangely, the string balance is VERY good. This is usually always a problem with magnetic pickups because the unwound strings tend to be much louder than the bronze wound strings.
My mate and I tested our pickups at my house, through my PA system, set up in my hallway. One at a time, weplayed a guitar in a room off the hall, facing away, with the door shut, the other listened to the PA sound (too far away to hear the reso acoustically). To be 100% honest, my bandmate was more impressed with the pickup than I was, at first, even though it is better than any other pickup I have tried.
Later we played in the same room as the PA and it sounded fantastic (here we could hear the rso acoustically, as well as the pickup sound, even if the PA sound was set quite loud).
From this, I deduce, that if you mic up the reso alonfg with the pickup, you will get a great PA resonator sound. I have heard suggested that for higher volume levels, using a Highlander pickup, you want 80% mic, 20% Highlander. With this new pickup, I think you can go 30% mic, 70% magnetic pickup.
I hope that makes sense. I like the pickup enough to have ordered two more. I'm STILL waiting on them.
Here is my tricone with relatively unobtrusive (cosmetically as well as for actually playing) pickup :
Acoustic Stage, Colne 2005
When I unpacked the pickup, it had gaffa tape stuck on the front - didn't manange to get all the "gunk" off it !). Before I replaced the supplied jack socket with a plastic one.
This is before I removed the thick adhesive tape and glued it on.
The pickup is available in black (like mine) and in nickel/chrome colour.
