Gear reviews

I have written before about amplifying our Selmer/Maccaferri type gypsy jazz guitars and explained our hybrid system - a Bigtone piezo pickup in the bridge blended with an external microphone using the input panel of an AER amplifier. Originally we used full size condenser microphones on mini-boom microphone stands. This worked very well but has a few disadvantages - you have to stay fairly still to maintain the same position in relation to the microphone stand, the microphone stand takes up space on cramped stages, it creates a visual barrier between the band and the audience, microphones stands are heavy and bulky to carry around and with the amplifiers behind us feedback was often a problem. So in our quest for the smallest and lightest amplication setup we have looked at small microphones that could be attached to our guitars. We have noticed that on Bireli Lagrene’s Live Jazz A Vienne DVD that most of the guitars are amplified using a small microphone taped just below the soundhole. We haven’t been able to find out the exact model they used but have looked around for similar microphones. The one that we have found and now use all the time is the Audio-Technica PRO 70 lavalier microphone. Read the rest of this entry »