Has anyone coveting a compensated bridge considered swapping in a Fishman? Or affixed a Baggs or K&K to one? Thoughts and/or results, anyone? There must be a superhero reference I can use here: Electro...no, that's Magneto. Dynamo....hmmm no, no, no, that's something else entirely...just can't... the deArmond Hammer? reminds me too much of baking soda and Tums, but it -could- work.....
I'm just old enough to have a real affection for the deArmond. It's a simple, good sounding pickup that belongs right in the period of the Strads. Jazzy bluesy sound, with a volume control right there, no batteries or preamps needed. I much prefer that kind of unit over a piezo. It never really caught on for mandolin, but many great guitarists used them on their high-class carved top guitars.
My first Stradolin had a de Armond. It was great, very clean. It was in a pawn shop in Queens in about 1970.
This was the classic "on a stick" installation? My Dad's Gibson guitar has on of those pickups. Maybe I can try mounting it on a mandolin. Needs Stainless or nickel strings?
First of all, i can't see anything wrong with putting a compensated bridge on a Strad-O-Lin. I got my first one in 1972, and someone had already done that. It sounded great, and I have put them on several Strad-O-Lins since. I put a Texas Transducer pickup in this mandolin back in the 1970s, and it sounded just like a mandolin should. I used an old Barcas-Barry preamp with that pickup. As far as using the Fishman bridge pickup, I put one on the Strad-O-Lin that I use all the time, and it works great. I use the same old Barcas-Barry preamp, and the mandolin sounds like a mandolin, which is the whole idea. I am not that fond of the carpenter jack, however, as I have knocked it off a few times. Inopportune times, I might add.
