Excellent feedback, Whistle Stop - NOT thread creep. I have been very curious about the Fishman double coil with internal condenser mic set-up. I have the matrix in my Larrivee, and it sounds great, but I do wish the audience could get a better idea of the really wonderful acoustic properties of this fine guitar. I have long since settled for the pretty good reproduction of the matrix, but I'm always tempted to use just a mic in the better acoustic settings (and frequently do as solo). It may be that the Fishman Rare Earth is worth my consideration.

I did pick up the Fishman Pro-EQ (DI and pre-amp) to use with the banjo pick up (also a Fishman). But I found that it was not a big help for the banjo (I get a pretty good sound going straight into the mixer, which gives me plenty of clean input boost, and EQ) - so I nearly returned the unit until I discovered that it beautifully refined the signal from our fiddle player's pick-up. I have yet to try it on the bass player's Acoustic Bass guitar (a Martin), but I suspect it will help there, as well, if we wished. So, in short; it's good a unit to return, even if I don't care to use it for the originally intened purpose.

By the way, there was a brief discussion here on the issue of pick-ups and banjos.

But back to the Backpacker pick up; the biggets problem with wiringsomething in is the very small size of its sound hole. It won't fit an 'in-hole' pick up and you cannot fit a hand inside to work. So any work done to fit the pick up to the instrument will have that added challenge. I'd like to try the McIntyre contact pick-up, but I've never had much love for their abilities, and it may be even more challenging on the Backpacker, since its sound emanates from so many different surfaces of the instrument.

Thanks again for your comments. Looks like this type of discussion appleas to a very small Mudcat audience. I appreciate your feedback!

By the way, I've had a few interesting comments on the article at the website message board, and my email, as well.