Experimenting with tieclipmic for guitar

Subject: RE: Experimenting with tieclipmic for guitar
From: Sir Roger de Beverley
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 01:45 PM

I went to see a bluegrass type band recently who all played around one mic. Does anyone know of the mic brand that is best for this?

R

Subject: RE: Experimenting with tieclipmic for guitar
From: GUEST,chris
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 10:48 AM

The mike was attached to a stiff wire with the other end of the wire attached to an end pin jack socket this made it a sort of internal boom mike. Wasn't boomy or bassy. It is no longer on the guitar - don't use an amp anymore
Chris

Subject: RE: Experimenting with tieclipmic for guitar
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 07:40 AM

Not helpful (sorry Nick!) but I thought I'd mention that I use cheap tieclip mics (clip removed) as tiny harmonica mics that fit in my hand-cup, the lead trailing out between my fingers. They give me quite a good degree of control of my tone and I can still do the hand effects. I can plug them straight into an amp and the sound is every bit as good as I get from my much more expensive Microvox setup! The one I use most is the Vivanco mono one. Last time I bought one I think it was about £16.

Subject: RE: Experimenting with tieclipmic for guitar
From: Nick
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 04:31 AM

If you actually clip it into the sound hole does it not get incredibly boomy and get a lot of feedback? Even with the mic away from the soundhole (as I have it currently) it is very heavy on the bass. Cutting quite a lot of the bass out also seems to help on the feedback side of things

I can remember donkeys years ago sticking a tape recorder mic inside my guitar and it made some very odd noises and some great shrieking feedback!

I'm going to experiment a bit more over the next couple of evenings comparing the sound that comes out of the guitar with what comes out of it amplified and compare it with the Fishman Neo-D pick up I have to see which one sounds better to my ears

Subject: RE: Experimenting with tieclipmic for guitar
From: GUEST,chris
Date: 03 Mar 14 - 02:09 AM

I used a Tandy tieclip mike. I had a jack socket end pin and clamped a stiff wire carrier to it, so that the mike was within the body but in line with the sound hole, the switch/battery was velcroed to the inside edge of the sound hole. I think Martin Carthy used something similar
Chris

Subject: RE: Experimenting with tieclipmic for guitar
From: Mark Ross
Date: 02 Mar 14 - 09:02 PM

I have been using a Shure SM80(I think) that clips in the soundhole. Been using it for 30 years and it has a better sound than any piezo pickup I ever heard.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Experimenting with tieclipmic for guitar
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Mar 14 - 07:40 PM

Not exactly something I'd recommend if you want to use it regularly, but the clip-on pickups sold to plug into your tuner actually do a fair job of picking up the instrument - if plugged into an amp instead of the tuner, of course.

Performance is so exceptional that at one jam I had the clip on the pick guard of my mandolin all night, but didn't bother plugging into the amp; and four different people congratulated me on how much easier it had been to hear my licks that night.

John

Subject: RE: Experimenting with tieclipmic for guitar
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 02 Mar 14 - 06:59 PM

I did a christmas show on a local cable channel some time ago and the engineer stuck a Sony ECM 44 clip mic on my shirt to cover my acoustic guitar and mandolin. I was skeptical and wanted to use my built-in mic system and he said trust me and so I did. What I heard on the play back afterwards was a very natural acoustic sound. I got one and taped it to the top of my guitar with safe release tape and a piece of foam between the guitar top and the mic. It worked great at a small cafe that we had a weekly gig at playing soft background music but didn't work out so well at venues where more volume was required but in those instances I used a Marshall acoustic amp as a monitor and for eq and I couldn't control the feedback.

Subject: RE: Experimenting with tieclipmic for guitar
From: ripov
Date: 02 Mar 14 - 05:56 PM

Tried this on the fiddle, but feedback was too much of a problem. Currently experimenting with ceramic transducer (from maplins, £1.29), which seems better. Don't think this would fit anywhere on a guitar though.

Subject: Experimenting with tieclip mic for guitar
From: Nick
Date: 02 Mar 14 - 05:31 PM

Anybody else have any experience with this?

I have never really liked the sound of pickups on acoustics particularly but, faced with the possibility of playing live again later this year, I thought I'd start doing some experimenting with the Dougie Maclean tie clip mic approach as his sound has always sounded good to me when I have seen him.

Armed with a coat hanger and in best Blue Peter mode (for those who don't know it's a kids TV programme where things are made out of toilet rolls, sticky back plastic and used plastic bottles etc) I made a little prototype which so far seems to work reasonably well. I have only tried it in a small room with a small amp. It's pretty bassy and a bit prone to feedback though less than I thought it would.

Next stage is to set up my PA and see how loud it will go without howling feedback. I have been warned NOT to use monitors.

So far I think it sounds like an acoustic guitar through a mic (d'oh! because it is). I'll post up an example at some point if anyone is interested in the result.

What I found with the position I put it in was that I can finger pick or strum or do what I normally do on a guitar without bashing it or it getting in the way.

I'll probably put a bit of cushioning under it to protect the guitar (though it only touches the scratchplate) on the MkII version once I get to test it with a bit more noise going through.

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