Pickups
Amplifying Acoustic Bowed Strings
Use your present violin, viola, cello or upright bass in an amplified setting by putting a transducer, or pickup, on the instrument. This gives you much more freedom than a microphone, because you are not trapped behind the mic.
Put a pickup on your instrument, and your movement is limited only by the length of your instrument cable. For the ultimate freedom, add a wireless transmitter to your electric violin or acoustic violin pickup.
Most pickups are temporarily installed, and easily removed. From the many products on the market, here are our recommendations.
Fishman
Fishman is the most famous maker of pickups for acoustic instruments. A preamp is necessary for best tonal quality when using a piezo pickup, especially for violin. Their preamps start well under $100, so warm up your sound and be kind to your budget!
L.R. Baggs Bridge pickup
L.R. Baggs
The piezo bridges of L.R. Baggs may be used by gigging professionals amplifying acoustic violins more than any pickup system on the market. Utilizing the time-honored method of embedding the piezoelectric element in the wood of the bridge, the L.R. Baggs bridges produce a strong output signal, accurately reproducing the sound of your instrument with a low instance of feedback.
Available in two models; both unterminated, but one comes with a Carpenter jack to mount the output plug to the side of your instrument, using chin rest-style hardware.
EVS version Kremona pickup
Kremona
Kremona is fairly new to the market, but their violin pickup has quite an amazing sound for such an entry-level price. Sandwiched between thin layers of wood, the pickup element slides into the wing slot of the bridge. On some bridges, filing away a bit of wood to make the fit may be required.
We offer both the standard Kremona, which has a single-turnbuckle 1/8" mini-plug jack and comes with a special mini-jack to 1/4" adapter cable, and an EVS-modified version, which is wired with a standard Carpenter jack, so no custom cable is required. The EVS version also works great with the AKG Bug, for wireless convenience.
Realist Violin Pickup
Realist
Developed by bass guru David Gage in collaboration with instrument design legend Ned Steinberger, the Realist pickups do an amazing job of accurately reproducing the sound of your acoustic violin, viola, cello, or bass -- without the excessive coloring of your tone frequently associated with some piezo pickups.
The pickup element is sandwiched in flexible copper foil, so it conforms to the shape of your instrument's top, and it installs with the pickup element under the foot of the bridge. In this way it picks up vibrations from both the bridge and the top plate of the instrument. The transducer is wired to a single-leg 1/8" mini-jack; includes a high-quality 1/8" to 1/4" Planet Waves adapter cable.
Schertler DYN-V
Schertler
My hat is off to the Swiss for bringing amazingly natural quality of sound to a convenient to use package. There is no hard edge or distortion of tone typical of a piezo pickup. Given the feedback resistance and the Swiss watch build quality, their price seems quite reasonable.
Schertler Dynamic Transducers sound like a great studio mic. They are not piezo, so they transmit a warm acoustic tone, at a high output level. They attach with an inert putty, safe for even the softest Italian oil varnish (Rostropovich used one on his Strad cello).
Schertler Electrostatic Transducers sound great, and attach into the eye of your bridge. Plan on spending a little time to fit the cork (which presses the transducer itself against the wood) into your bridge the first time. After that, install is very fast. They are not piezo, so they transmit a warm acoustic tone, through an included preamp.
K & K
An economical solution for good tone without a preamp. The Violinissimo has three pickups all wired to one ΒΌ inch output jack - one that goes under each foot of the bridge, and one in the wing of the bridge. You only have to loosen the string tension to raise each side of the bridge to slip the pickup underneath. Not for an instrument with a delicate finish.
Schatten
The best choice if you want a permanently installed pickup. Requires a violin shop to fit the pre-wired bridge to your instrument. One is also available with a volume control attached to the Carpenter jack on the edge of the instrument.