MIKROFONHÅLLARE

Need a new pickup? - maybe not...

If you like the sound of pickups in general but yours just doesn't sound right, a new one may be the answer. But it may not. If you really want a more natural acoustic sound, an H-clamp may be the ideal solution.

Microphones will always sound more natural than pickups - a pickup detects vibrations in wood; a microphone detects pressure waves in air, just like your ears. In other words, pickups feel the sound, microphones hear it.

Sadly, microphones also hear other sounds very well too, including the ones coming from the speakers they're connected to. Pickups also feel this sound but to a lesser extent. The result is that all microphones are more susceptible to feedback than pickups.

For soloists or all-acoustic groups, it should be possible to position microphones and speakers to avoid feedback in most situations. For groups including electric or other very loud instruments, things get more complicated. Using a pickup is the simplest solution but changes the character of your instrument completely. It may change the sound in a way you like but if it doesn't, an excellent compromise is to blend the pickup with a microphone.

Before the H-clamp, that meant sacrificing your freedom of movement and remaining motionless in front of a microphone stand. But with an H-clamp, your microphone moves with you in the same way your pickup can. So now you don't have to compromise your freedom of expression but you do have to balance the pick-up and microphone levels and/or equalisation to get the best possible tone at a given volume. The louder the sound necessary to compete with other instruments, the further towards the pickup the balance must go to avoid feedback. The key to the best sound is usually to keep the microphone level as high as possible without risking feedback and set the pickup level to deliver the necessary overall volume.

The first time you try this technique it may seem a bit of a fiddle but if you have your own small mixer to hand, it soon becomes second nature and is no more more demanding than tuning your instrument.

So, do you really need a better pickup? well, perhaps not after all. The solution may instead be to add a microphone. With an H-clamp mounted microphone, you don't sacrifice any freedom of movement but you do get a whole new world of tonality:

-Use a microphone alone for the most natural sound possible (you can even experiment with different timbres by changing the position of the microphone on the instrument)
-Blend the microphone with the pickup to get a whole new range of sounds and solve tricky feedback problems. While not entirely natural, the sound of a pickup blended with a microphone can be extremely impressive. Blended well, the pickup can add solidity and drive without overwhelming the microphone's airy quality. The result can pure theatre, a larger than life, rather than true to life, sound perhaps but one that can deliver both power and lightness of touch while still sounding like a real acoustic instrument. For a sound that has the extra presence needed to punch through a dense soundstage, blending has a great deal to offer.

There may still be occasions when a pickup on its own is the only practical solution and you may in the end conclude that a better pickup is after all the only realistic option. But just imagine how amazing a better pickup might sound when blended with an H-clamp mounted microphone...