Okay, I'm a solo performer, but I prefer to use a vocal mic and a pair of good condensers on a 'stereo bar'. I use three guitars, a banjo, a mandolin, English concertina, Anglo concertina and a piano accordion... which just isn't practical any other way.

Sound techies find my sound check quick and easy, and it's easy for them to get a good sound balance because I understand how the microphones work.

Okay, fair play, I'm a sound engineer in my day job... when I 'do sound' for people, I'm happy to say I'm often complimented by the performers as well as by members of the audience... ask Anthony John Clarke, Garva, Back of the Moon, Martin Carthy, Martin Simpson, Tom Paxton... to name but a few!

Plug: I'm doing Garva at Melling Tithebarn (near Maghull, UK) on Friday March 16th, with their special guest Mick Hanly - the show starts at 7:30pm and tickets can be booked via 01744 607566

The velcroed pickup mentioned by Songester Bob may well be similar to my MicroVox system - the melody side has three equally spaced electrets, which gives fairly even coverage on the melody side of my big 120 bass piano accordion (which I use for ceilidhs with a Sennheiser UHF radio system).

Admittedly the bass end isn't as important as we have an electric bass and rhythm guitar in the band, but my accordion is unusual in that the bass end plate has no holes in it other than one I once drilled to take a jack socket. These days I gaffer the bass end mic over that hole, which works amazingly well, with surprisingly little mechanical key noise.