Thanks, Liz, for the warm welcome. Got my first Weissie coming, a serious cheapo, but been playing slide for over 30 years and always wanted one....if for no other reason than to play "Tiki Torches at Twilight" properly. Am wondering about others' experience with various pickups. Issues, options, feedback (pun intended)? I know the piezo on the resonator really doesn't make for good reso sound. Any general feelings about piezo vs magnetic vs mic on the Weissenborn?
11 Comments |
 | Bob Blair says:
1/22/2013 8:15:52 PM
My Benoit Cajunborne came with a Baggs Element - Carroll Benoit had been very happy with the way those sounded, and my experience has been very positive. I used it in my set at the SW Steel Guitar Show in Phoenix over the weekend, and Dan Tyack borrowed the guitar. Dan is about as fussy about his tone as anyone you are likely to encounter and he was very happy with the sound. It sounded great to me and there were a lot of positive comments from some serious players who were in the room. All I did was plug it into a Peavey Nashville 112 and go (can't get much more user-friendly than that). Around home I often run it through a Genz Benz acoustic amp (nothing fancy) and it sounds great. Dan ran it through a more high end unit - he brought a "Little Walter" with him. He sounded incredible. At the TSGA jamboree in Dallas last March and the previous year I used an instrument that I borrowed from Carroll Benoit that was equipped the same way, with the same good experience. I mention those two shows because some of the people in the room who thought it sounded great were people whose ears I trust rather more than mine. So that is a positive experience with a piezo. But to my ear these instruments also sound great with Sunrise pickups. I think that is what Rob Anderlik uses, and that is a pretty good recommendation.
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x says:
1/22/2013 11:22:54 PM
I prefer the magnetic sound, myself. Less buzz and "rizz", warmer sound out of the gate. I've used both soundboard and piezo as well, and straight magnetic has proven most useful for me. Unless you have a great live engineer with good technique and a closet full of microphones!
Whose sound do you like, and what do they use?
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RobA says:
1/23/2013 3:32:39 AM
Most of the Weissenborn players I've seen use a soundhole pickup. The most popular ones are the Sunrise, Baggs M1 and the Dean Markley Mag Mic. I've used a Sunrise pickup for many years now in my Weissenborn and it is - by far - the best sounding live performance instrument I've got. One of the best features of a good magnetic soundhole pickup in a Weissenborn is that it gives you a lot of fundamental tone (vs. the potential "piezo" quack) and it produces tremendous low end bass response, but - amazingly - not at the expense of the mids and highs.
If you search around you'll find a variety of opinions on which soundhole pickup sounds the best. I tried the Baggs M1 for a short time and wound up going back to the Sunrise. Both are great pickups. I just preferred the Sunrise. I've hear good things about the Dean Markley Mag Mic as well.
I just put a Sunrise in my new Tony Francis Weissenborn as well...
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 | CaseyHunter says:
1/23/2013 6:30:53 AM
I played with a couple different pickups and really liked the Seymour Duncan MagMic. It has the magnetic pickup and also a mic inside and it allows you to adjust the mix for both. By having the mic, it helps pick up some of that unique weissienborn resonating tone.
I wanted to get a sunrise pickup, but they were a bit hard to come by as they seem to be built in small batches. The Magmic has been endorsed by David Lindley and a few others, but they have also endorsed the sunrise pickup over the years. I would think that both would be a very good option for the weissenborn.
seymourduncan.com/acoustic/aco...drive.php
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 | bahilton says:
1/23/2013 12:46:11 PM
I have a K&K Meridian on its way. It's a mic on a gooseneck fixed to a clamp which goes on the body. I'll post my review here when I've tried it...
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 | sliknslid says:
1/23/2013 2:21:10 PM
Holy string buzz, Batman! Thanks a bunch for all the info! For Weezy22, I've got an old cheap Markley that I use on my Martin, and thus far I've been really happy with the sound of that. Sound-wise, it's hard to know...recorded stuff rarely sounds the same live, and we're not exactly oozing with Weissenborn players around here (MT). Meanwhile, I'll research some of the brand names. Not familiar with all of them.
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RobA says:
1/24/2013 6:37:16 AM
Reso Hangout's own Lonsomedobro put together a video which compares the Sunrise to a Fishman undersaddle pickup. Its a great addition to this discussion
Here's the link
youtu.be/EW9AvBYkV3Q
Since I don't speak Japanese its impossible for me to understand everything he is saying, but I think the main message is that the Sunrise pickup really excels in the low end response but the treble sounds more "electric" whereas the Fishman undersaddle pickup gets a clean treble sound but is relatively weak in bass response. His solution was to install both pickups in his guitar and use a blender to get the best of both pickups.
I've seen a number of guitar players take the same approach - for instance a friend of mine who calls himself the Wandering Endorphin (do a search on You Tube, he's pretty amazing) set up one of his guitars with a Sunrise Pickup and the Trance Amulet pickup. As he described it the Sunrise provides the low end while the Trance Amulet pickup provides the "sparkles." He went as far to also add a active subwoofer to his PA system. We did a gig together one time and I can vouch that his rig sounded pretty amazing. With that said, I have to believe that it cost him a small fortune!
So if money is no object the two pickup route (or pickup and mini-mic) will give you the best of both worlds. If you want to start with one pickup I would recommend a good soundhole pickup for the main reason that it will give you superior low end bass response. If you haven't had the chance to demo a Weissenborn with a soundhole pickup like the Sunrise you will be blown away by how good it sounds when you play it through a full PA system!
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| sliknslid says:
1/24/2013 8:37:00 AM
Aye, and therein lies the rub. Having a serious case of GAS (gear-acquisition syndrome), I have to be careful of the budget. Hard to justify half a new PA for a couple of songs on the Weissenborn in a set. I'll experiment with it. I've got the K&Ks (big and small dots), the Markely and a couple of different mics. The concept of the mic/mag combination makes a lot of sense, but those may be out of cost range right now. I'll check out the vid. Thx!
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x says:
1/27/2013 6:26:49 PM
Good luck!
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 | jmb3450 says:
1/29/2013 4:58:06 AM
Doing some research on Ebay it looks like you can pick up a used SD Mag Mic for $130-140 or so, might take a little patience though. I've had good luck so far buying used equipment in good working order that way. There's a youtube comparison between a Baggs M1 and the mag mic on a standard guitar, the mag mic sounds better IMO.
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| sliknslid says:
1/29/2013 7:44:01 AM
Hadn't thought to check ebay, good thought. Just worry a bit about used equipment w/out actually hearing it function. But that's a good way to go if a return is allowed. Gonna have to wait for a while for the coffers to re-fill, however--will be paying off hand surgery (!!ack!!) in a couple weeks--thus the Weissenberg..left hand, can probably duct-tape a steel onto it and still have some fun!
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