Personal Mandolin Monitor

[Uncle Brad]

Folks, I'm trying to play the mandolin with the praise team. However, the stage area is so loud that I can only hear about 50% of what I'm playing (right or wrong!). What I'm thinking about is a personal monitor for that purpose. Nothing fancy like wireless devices and all that, but some little something that I can put/clip on the mando that will allow me to plugin an earbud. Does anything like this exist??

[Billy Packard]

It might be more money than you want to spend but the Bose S1Pro, which is battery powered, would work perfectly IMO.

Billy

[pit lenz]

How is your mandolin being picked up so far? If you don’t have a pickup (or at least a suitable good mic already), chances are that if you can only hear 50% of yourself, everybody else in the room will hear zip of what you‘re playing at all…

Maybe you can ask the sound guy to split your signal and send it to a pair of wired earbuds on a small headphone amp (no wireless system needed) for you. Easy task for the soundengineer.

[mandroid]

Pickup (or mic) to mini-mixer to in ear monitors, like, ear buds from your phone?

[j. condino]

!!!

[James Vwaal]

Folks, I'm trying to play the mandolin with the praise team. However, the stage area is so loud that I can only hear about 50% of what I'm playing (right or wrong!). What I'm thinking about is a personal monitor for that purpose. Nothing fancy like wireless devices and all that, but some little something that I can put/clip on the mando that will allow me to plugin an earbud. Does anything like this exist??

This is what I use.
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...cIpA&gclsrc=ds

I have a contact mic on my mandolin (Schertler DYN-M P48) and I run its cable down to an XVive 48V phantom power box zip tied to my mic stand.
https://www.guitarcenter.com/XVive/P...28e47dcd214e42

Since I am also a vocalist, I run both the mandolin XLR and mic XLR cables to a Roland Cube Street EX amp/mini-PA. Yours could go to the main board, I suppose. I then run a very thin cable from the amp back to the P2 strapped to my belt, and in-ear buds from the P2 up to my ears.

As someone mentioned above, you need to amplify your mandolin somehow. From that point onward, you should be able to run a monitor cable back to yourself for the in-ear buds.

[Rob Roy]

Kudos to ^^James^^ on the personal amp, I didn't realize they existed. The only complication I see is that if you are the only one on earbuds, you won't hear the rest of the mix well and won't have a sense of where your mandolin sits in the mix.

Loud stage volumes make it hard to gauge individual levels. I assume there are monitors that are making the stage levels so high. Have you asked the sound person to put more of the mandolin in the monitors? Can you get the other members to agree to lower volume levels and listening to eachother more?

The most elegant ($$$) solution is for everyone to be on In Ears Monitors (IEMs), each with their own mix console so they can customize their own mix. It is REALLY helpful if you have vocalists trying to harmonize.

Anytime you add sound reinforcement to acoustic instruments, things get complicated. BTW, iphone ear buds are not the same as IEMs but Sure's bas model is only $100.

[acinva]

I have had a lot of success with a Schertler Giulia amplifier:

https://reverb.com/item/1331894-schertler-giulia-y-wood

I use a Myers feather that clamps on the mandolin (I clamp mine on the pickguard, but you can mount it other ways) and really like the sound:

https://www.myerspickups.com/pickups/the-feather-series

Alan

[A-board]

!!!

Motorhead mando. Perfect for praise team.

[mandroid]

I have a stick on *Schertler, that and a Roland Mobile AC works for soloist Extraordinaire Evan J Marshall as a monitor .
as he stands in front of a microphone to the house system.. so the 2 are completely separate …

No idea how loud your gang of players in the church is,

or how much you may depend on a hearing aide otherwise .. we all get older...



*Dyn-M is passive dynamic , no phantom power needed or
unlike the many popular Piezo-electric types - needs no matching preamp

[dhergert]

Honestly, you may as well get an electric mandolin now -- unless you find a totally acoustic Praise Team (which are pretty rare), you'll always need one. The right tool for the job is always best tool to use. Then, if you haven't already, start building up your collection of pedals and effect converters in you signal chain.