Live gigging with a resonator

[ogradyboy]

Gonna jump into slide resonator (blues and country). Venues are usually bars and restaurant outdoor decks. Will a pickup be needed (or mic'd) for the resonator (vocals, guitars and cajon are all mic'd/direct to board)? Trying to decide if I should buy with a pup already installed.


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[Toby Walker]

The venues you've described will be prone to a great deal of ambient noise. While a unidirectional mic would work, a pick-up would be the better option. At least having a pick-up installed will give you the option of trying both out in situations like that.

One of the better pick-ups for a Resonator would be the Highlander. That's the one I've been using for years in my National Tri-Cone.

[roylor4]

I certainly don't have Toby's experience, but I have played both mic'ed (pencil condensor) and with a pickup. The pickup sounds like a better solution in your situation to me as well.

[slimey]

Like Toby said, the Highlander. National brought out the new ( relatively new a couple of years old now ) hotplate pick up. I've not used one but have heard from friends who have them and they really like them.

Here's Mike Dowling talking about it....

https://youtu.be/5DfzouZEvx4

[Hobo_King]

The pickups, either the hotplate or the lace/national slim humbucker are the easiest solution but they do not really give you the full sound of the cone. With the right sound system and mic you should have no issues with feedback and volume for the venues you describe. I've played in 8 piece hot jazz and blues bands for 8 years now using my National Delphi and at times various tricones and have always used a pencil condenser with few issues. I use two Fishman Sa220s with a mixer, or just direct into the SA220 if only my guitar and the singer are needed to be mic'd. We play mostly smaller bars but have done larger halls too with the system. Only feedback volume issues have been when our washboard player used a full drum kit and was just playing too loud and hard. If it's just a solo gig with a vocal mic and mic for the guitar you should have no issues as long as the amp or PA speakers/montiors etc are set up properly along with the gain settings for the mics.

[Mr. Jelly]

I used to use the National slim and it worked great for me on my National tri-cone. I ran it through an amp and it sounded natural. It just worked. I have been told the Lace pickups are not the same and don't work as well.

[BluesKing777]

A real worm of a question!

You need to supply more details as your end use hopes are dependant on what you do. Solo? Trio? Band? High quality reso or budget? Tricone? Single cone?Vocals?

With a National single cone ie. the very best sound can be had using a simple Shure SM57 mic. They just suit each other well, catches that 'klunk'. Now there is always a catch, and that is a number of problems stemming from that same mic was designed for really loud sounds so it doesn't have much level. SO, the important bit - if you are playing in a huge concert PA with a great soundman, odds of getting that sound level and quality are good. But if you are winging around solo, at the least you will need a great preamp to suit, a nice mixer and a powered speaker(s).

So that can get you a great reso sound. Next catch - crowd noise etc in mic. They can hear you loud and clear and you can't! So turn the foldback up? Feedback!

So it becomes easier one way or the other to get a pickup. Good and bad. Truth - they sound like an electric guitar now, with a little bit of what you liked about the whole thing in there somewhere��.

So more preamps and stuff needed for the guitar sound and eq!

Now years back, I had a Fishman reso pickup put in my metal body Dobro, but when I got my National Tricone, the luthier suggested the Schatten reso pickups. Sound great but......electric!

So I have an old Fishman Spectrum Aura DI pedal I use for plain acoustic/electrics and it does have a wood body Sheerhorn sound image in there but no National images, but I thought I would try it out. Sound is superb with a very small percentage only of image mix, 15 - 20% - the input 'buffers' smooth out the pickup signal, but now we have use of the other features including input level, volume, eq, compression and......DI out!

Anyway, good luck, it is an old problem you asked about with many many solutions!

(A friend just went through the whole situation - bought a National Style O, mic not loud enough but sounds great out front while ha ha ha he can't hear it properly, bought cheapo stick on, no good, then Lace, sounds too electric, no good, had Highlander installed, very expensive, not sure if he likes it but it has huge level.....etc, etc. Sat down with my headphones and played my National through my gear mentioned above: 'Ah!'.)

BluesKing777.

[ogradyboy]

All great points and glad I asked the question.

Budget/entry level.

I've been a Tele/Strat/LP player for years. Now stripped down to a 3 piece (2 acoustic guitars (a Martin Dread and a Martin 000) or 1 as a resonator, 2 vocals and a cajon - all into a single Bose L1. We are looking at adding a new groove to the band.


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[H165]

I have a 2-transducer K&K in my open-architecture spider reso. Works fine (with a K&K preamp).

The pickup is by far the more practical solution.