[John Bennett[_2_]]

On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 Soundhaspriority wrote:
On their website, Shure says it's a bad choice to clip a mike to a guitar,
stating that the result is excessive pickup of mechanical noise. I can
understand why this would be true.

In my search for the holy grail of a setup I can backpack to a club, I've
been looking for ways to ditch stands/supports. Clipping a mike to a guitar
would be one way to do this.

Does anyone have anything good to say about this method?

James Taylor has often used a clip-on mic both for recording and
concerts, presumably blended with a standard onboard pickup eg
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/genre/...ce.html#rp_vid

In the early days he clipped on a Sony ECM50 (which also can sound nice
mounted inside an acoustic).

Cheers John
--
John Bennett
Somerset, UK
johna(dot)bennett(at)virgin(dot)net

[Mike Rivers]

On Jan 19, 7:28 am, John Bennett
wrote:

James Taylor has often used a clip-on mic both for recording and
concerts, presumably blended with a standard onboard pickup

Doc Watson has used pickups for many years, but much as I admire tha
man and his playing technique, I've never thought that he had a good
on-stage guitar sound since he plugged in. There are certainly better
sounding setups than what he's used and I don't know why he's never
found the right setup for his guitars and touch.

I have heard some very good acoustic guitar setups (I'm talking about
flat-top steel string "folky" guitarists) and some very bad ones. It
bothers me that those who have only been exposed to amplified acoustic
guitars may think that the brittle sound of a pickup system that seems
to be the norm these days is what a guitar is supposed to sound like.

[dwgriffi]

On Jan 19, 10:18*am, Mike Rivers wrote:
On Jan 19, 7:28 am, John Bennett

wrote:
James Taylor has often used a clip-on mic both for recording and
concerts, presumably blended with a standard onboard pickup

Doc Watson has used pickups for many years, but much as I admire tha
man and his playing technique, I've never thought that he had a good
on-stage guitar sound since he plugged in. There are certainly better
sounding setups than what he's used and I don't know why he's never
found the right setup for his guitars and touch.


Mike, I absolutely agree about that. He's one of the most heartfelt
guitarists I've ever heard and his plugged in live sound is as
unlistenable as any GC supplied jam night player. PU.

As far as James Taylor (and I love James Taylor), when I've seen him
he didn't have an external mic, and didn't sound better than OK, just
a very good rendition of that DI sound, and it undercut the music for
me. Volume but no life. There's a bunch of youtubes of him like
this. OTOH, check out the OLDER James Taylor youtubes, same
circumstances, live show, live TV, and it's a mic stuck in front of
his Gibson and it sounds beautiful, simply a transferring of his
beautiful playing.

I think it's funny that these days when players are sitting still
playing solo on a stool (like he is in some of these newer ones)
instead of sticking a low profile mic on a low profile stand and
getting the beautiful sound they spend big $$$ on custom mobile
solutions that are more convenient yet sound worse to even the most
untrained listener. If you need feedback control with a loud band,
and you can sink the sound into the mix anyway it's one thing, but a
DI acoustic for solo guitar is an solution for which there was no
problem.

[hank alrich]

dwgriffi wrote:

I think it's funny that these days when players are sitting still
playing solo on a stool (like he is in some of these newer ones)
instead of sticking a low profile mic on a low profile stand and
getting the beautiful sound they spend big $$$ on custom mobile
solutions that are more convenient yet sound worse to even the most
untrained listener. If you need feedback control with a loud band,
and you can sink the sound into the mix anyway it's one thing, but a
DI acoustic for solo guitar is an solution for which there was no
problem.

I played a couple of shows recently where we did without pickups, using
two guitars, or mandolin and guitar, or guitar and fiddle. Moreso than
on other recent shows folks commented on the sound, the informed ones
(other musicians) saying things like, "It's nice to hear an acoustic
guitar sound like an acoustic guitar".

Sticking with the mics also put a cap on the overall SPL for the room.

We had Senn 441's on top in A-T 8410 mounts, and Schoeps CMC6 + Mk4 on
the bottom in the little Schoeps plastic shockmounts, mounted to the
same stand using Atlas C01B stand clamps and 6" goosenecks. It made for
a tidy setup.

Using a guitar mounted mic for FOH while feeding stage mons with pickup
is a common approach, and can help allow better sound out front. We're
planning for a while to stay with just mics when we're strictly duo to
see how well we can learn to mix ourselves by working the mics.

--
ha
shut up and play your guitar

[[email protected]]

On Jan 19, 7:28*am, John Bennett
wrote:
On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 *Soundhaspriority wrote:On their website, Shure says it's a bad choice to clip a mike to a guitar,
stating that the result is excessive pickup of mechanical noise. I can
understand why this would be true.

In my search for the holy grail of a setup I can backpack to a club, I've
been looking for ways to ditch stands/supports. *Clipping a mike to a guitar
would be one way to do this.

Does anyone have anything good to say about this method?

James Taylor has often used a clip-on mic both for recording and
concerts, presumably blended with a standard onboard pickup

Well, on his 1993 live album, it doesn't really even sound
like a real guitar. More like a cardboard box. It sounded
very similar at a live show about five years later. I don't
know what he uses nowadays, but the guitar sound on that
live album (as well as the later tour) is horrible.

Whatever rig James Taylor uses, I would advise against using it.

[Jenn[_3_]]

In article
,
wrote:

On Jan 19, 7:28*am, John Bennett
wrote:
On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 *Soundhaspriority wrote:On their
website, Shure says it's a bad choice to clip a mike to a guitar,
stating that the result is excessive pickup of mechanical noise. I can
understand why this would be true.

In my search for the holy grail of a setup I can backpack to a club, I've
been looking for ways to ditch stands/supports. *Clipping a mike to a
guitar
would be one way to do this.

Does anyone have anything good to say about this method?

James Taylor has often used a clip-on mic both for recording and
concerts, presumably blended with a standard onboard pickup

Well, on his 1993 live album, it doesn't really even sound
like a real guitar. More like a cardboard box. It sounded
very similar at a live show about five years later. I don't
know what he uses nowadays, but the guitar sound on that
live album (as well as the later tour) is horrible.

Whatever rig James Taylor uses, I would advise against using it.

I have to agree. I love JT but his live sound (at least that which I've
heard) and his recent recorded sound is nothing like the sound of his
Olson played "naked".