Nopix - Posted - 06/11/2025:  07:04:54

Jokes aside, and excluding microphones, if you had to pick an onboard system to run 'line-iin,' what would it be?

I like tp play with a looper, but my banjer is the only thing I can't plug in.

Bruce Berry Banjos - Posted - 06/11/2025:  11:06:04

Fishman with its preamp.

Old Hickory - Posted - 06/11/2025:  12:12:29

Welcome to the Hangout.

This is a topic that comes up repeatedly. So if you don't get enough different responses, just use the site search tool (the magnifying glass) in the left navigation column and you should turn up plenty of previous discussions.

In the meantime, I'll give the same answer I almost always give: Two different times when a plugged in banjo sounded so good through the PA that I had to ask the banjo players what they were using, both were the Fishman pickup. I didn't ask which preamp or DI. The banjos were an RK-25 "woody" (no tone ring) played at a side stage of a small local festival and Deering Maple Blossom at a house concert.

And something else I frequently recommend is the ToneDexter DI. It learns both the microphonic and pickup sound of your banjo, then when you engage it during performance it adjusts the pickup signal and outputs a sound very close to the banjo's microphone sound. I don't know if that suits what you're after. And it's an expensive pedal.

Here's an episode of The Picky Fingers Banjo Podcast all about ToneDexter with the inventor and his current developer/engineer partner.

And here's a follow-up episode in which podcast host Keith Billik tests the ToneDexter with different microphones and pickups -- each mic paired with each pickup -- so you can hear what it does.

Edited by - Old Hickory on 06/11/2025 12:14:33

Nopix - Posted - 06/11/2025:  13:50:27

Y'know it's kinda funny. I haven't been over here in so long they dumped/lost me. I'm usually over at fiddle hangout (farmerjones). So I don't blame the powers for dumping me. This place recommended a Goldstar Hearts & Flowers model years ago and has served me well.
I appreciate search tools as much as the next, but a query makes a stamp in time. Rightnow. What's hot right now. I've got a Fishman pickup on my fiddle and one yet to be installed on a guitar. Fine equipment. I never could afford a Fishman Loudbox. I guess I better go dig up some coins.

Old Hickory - Posted - 06/11/2025:  14:07:49

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nopix

I appreciate search tools as much as the next, but a query makes a stamp in time. Rightnow. What's hot right now. 

---

A query of the Hangout discussions will show which pickups, by being  recommended over and over, have stood the test of time.

As to what's hot right now, a search will show whether pickups have been discussed recently. I'm sure they have. I don't think a year goes by without someone asking about pickups.

About the only "new" (to me) pickup I've seen mentioned is the EMG ACB Barrel. It appears to be similar in concept to the Fishman. One difference is it features solderless installation, which makes it easier than the Fishman.

I don't think this pickup has been mentioned enough to be "hot" right now. I sense that not too many people buy lots of pickups to try. Gets expensive.

mikehalloran - Posted - 06/27/2025:  16:32:05

The first time I heard Tim Weed play with an EMG ACB-5, I knew it was the best banjo pickup I ever heard and that opinion is unchanged. 

For best results, use a nickel, nickel plated steel or stainless steel wound 4th string.

steen - Posted - 07/06/2025:  09:05:54

I think I would go for the the newest "Jones-Hatfield pickup". It is the same basic principle as the magnetic Fishman pick ups, I think. The new version is a passive one, which I like, since it needs no batteries, but it is powerfull, because of a stronger magnet and more coil windings. But there is more to it. You can read about it on "Hatfield Music Banjo Supplies". Hope you find a good solution. Steen

steen - Posted - 07/07/2025:  01:09:49

Has anybody tried the passive "Jones.Hatfield" pick up ? Steen

existential_banjo - Posted - 07/24/2025:  10:52:58

I would like to rain on this parade. I am not a performer, so I don't appreciate the difficulties performing for a large audience. I have listened to bluegrass and old time concerts for over 50 years. I have seen many show at Bill Monroe's music park in Bean Blossom, Indiana, in the old barn with 2 microphones. When I saw Bella Fleck and Abigail Washburn, their instruments were amplified by pick-ups. I have recently seen Nora Brown at the Indiana Fiddlers Gathering and Sammy Shelor's Lonesome River band at Bean Blossom using pick-ups (vs microphones). Sammy's banjo tone sounded particularly bad.
I have never heard a pick-up amplified acoustic instrument that sounded good. I can't imagine a Tony Rice concert where he played his pick-up amplified Clarence White D-28. If I were at a concert where someone played a Stradivarius violin amplified by a pick-up, I would feel cheated.
As you might surmise, I am not happy with Bluegrass and old time performances with pick-up amplified acoustic instruments. You can hear the notes, but you cannot hear the instrument. It is distorted.

Keith Billik - Posted - 07/24/2025:  14:45:45

quote:

---

Originally posted by existential_banjo

I would like to rain on this parade. I am not a performer, so I don't appreciate the difficulties performing for a large audience. I have listened to bluegrass and old time concerts for over 50 years. I have seen many show at Bill Monroe's music park in Bean Blossom, Indiana, in the old barn with 2 microphones. When I saw Bella Fleck and Abigail Washburn, their instruments were amplified by pick-ups. I have recently seen Nora Brown at the Indiana Fiddlers Gathering and Sammy Shelor's Lonesome River band at Bean Blossom using pick-ups (vs microphones). Sammy's banjo tone sounded particularly bad.

I have never heard a pick-up amplified acoustic instrument that sounded good. I can't imagine a Tony Rice concert where he played his pick-up amplified Clarence White D-28. If I were at a concert where someone played a Stradivarius violin amplified by a pick-up, I would feel cheated.

As you might surmise, I am not happy with Bluegrass and old time performances with pick-up amplified acoustic instruments. You can hear the notes, but you cannot hear the instrument. It is distorted.

---

I don't completely disagree with you, but because you acknowledged not being a performer, please allow me to give you the perspective of someone who has played hundreds of shows with every combination of equipment you can imagine:

- virtually nobody chooses to use a pickup because we think it will sound better. It's literally a necessity in many cases (or at least a calculated compromise to avoid the headache involved in choosing not to use one).

- For every performance you have seen where you disliked a banjoist's plugged in tone, that banjoist has played a dozen gigs without enough volume to be heard by themselves or the audience, which then distracts the performer from making good music and detracts from the entire show. Again, a calculated compromise.

- Maybe you can't imagine Tony Rice playing with a pickup, but can you imagine struggling to hear Tony's guitar, only to get an earful of feedback every time the soundperson tries to get it loud enough? I can, because I've witnessed that exact thing happen on several occasions (Tony played fairly quiet, and notoriously never showed up for soundchecks, so that didn't help either). Which do you prefer?

Yes, under ideal conditions (relatively quiet audience, acoustically friendly venue, experienced soundperson with good microphones and equipment) the microphones will sound 100% better. No argument there. But, when you play professionally, you have to have the gear that makes the show go on when you DON'T have ideal conditions (which, for many of us, is the more common situation).

Edited by - Keith Billik on 07/24/2025 14:47:33

RB3 - Posted - 07/25/2025:  09:19:54

“As you might surmise, I am not happy with Bluegrass and old time performances with pick-up amplified acoustic instruments. You can hear the notes, but you cannot hear the instrument. It is distorted.”

If you think that you’ve been hearing the instruments in all those concerts you’ve attended over the last 50 years, you’re deluding yourself. What you’ve actually been hearing is the sound of a speaker that is part of an electrically powered sound system. The sound from the speaker is different from the sound of the acoustic instruments. If you think that the sound from the speaker that originates from a pickup is distorted, it’s just different from the distortion of the sound that originates from a microphone.

steen - Posted - 08/03/2025:  03:19:55

A good microphone can through good speakers give a quite reliable sound, because a mic. "hears" the sound from the whole instrument through the air, "same way" as our ears do. A pickup senses what the situation is like under the saddle or bridge or on the sounbord or skin or a string. That is something quite different, and will not give the acoustic sound, we love so much. However - the magnetic solutions where the information is taken from the skin - not the strings - can be quite persuasive. And in some cases pizoes can generate a sound that is "good enough" for live situations. Steen

Edited by - steen on 08/03/2025 03:21:55

Nopix - Posted - 08/03/2025:  11:44:06

I just pulled the trigger on the Jones-Hatfield pickup.
The mag coil system seems superior to piezo. I've got a Fishman bridge pickup on a fiddle. I think it's as good as one could expect. A fiddle bridge is not flat, and the limitations start there, so it's a different kettle of fish.
We shall see. Thanks for all the input.

Nopix - Posted - 08/07/2025:  14:27:30

Even if I play in a nursing home, I feel not right about using someone else's backing tracks. So I got a looper (Boss loop station). I got me a cheap keyboard with canned rhythms. Then I convert them to mp3 on my phone. Blutooth the mp3 to a tiny Blackstar amp. Very portable, and light. Sometimes I add guitar, but can't plug in my banjer if a want to add that. Along comes the Jones-Hatfield pickup. I don't have to use a mike and get all the bleed-by. This will be good at Farmers markets too. It's a tool. It doesn't improve your pickin.

steen - Posted - 08/13/2025:  08:45:30

Hi Steve, (if you have not left us). I am a little curious about where on the skin you have placed the little strip, and what quality of sound you have achieved, and the power of the pickup compared i.eg. with a piezo (if you have tried that). (I also believe that magnetism is superior) to piezos Steen

Edited by - steen on 08/13/2025 08:47:55

Nopix - Posted - 08/13/2025:  16:38:57

Sure. There's a sketch on the back of the container the pickup came in. They don't want you to accidentally throw away that little strip. I placed it about an inch away from the bridge, towards the center. The directions say the closer to the center, the bassier the tone. Then I folded the cardboard container back in half, and used that for a spacer to tighten the assembly to the rods. Directly under the metallic strip.
I've tried a Shadow piezo pickup stuck to the head, below the bridge. I've tried a Cherub pickup. It's roughly the same gadget. I've clipped a Lavalier mike on a head clamp. The Shadow had a tiny tone pot, and a tiny volume pot. But it kept moving. Get it set and it would shift around. I didn't want to use permanent adhesive.
Conclusion, the J-h pickup is super convenient. We'll thought out mounting. I have a tube pre-amp, I haven't yet connected. I'm into least amount of gear for gigs. I inherited a Peavy solo. It's like 10 or 15 watts, but it really touchy/gainy. As if there's a preamp stage built in. This particular venue, they don't want loud, but I still have to 'fill.' I feel I could plug in a telecaster or the banjer and still not need much volume. An EMG humbucker pickup could be better, I haven't tried it but I don't want to shell out 300 bucks or more, if I can help it.

steen - Posted - 08/16/2025:  08:45:05

Hi again Steve and thanks. It sounds like as wise decision to me. I am not sure, the EMG is much better, unless you are bothered with hum-problems. The sound chamber between the two coils. Ah ??. But I have not tried one, so I might be surprised. Besides they requires batteries, so keep it simple.

I have in a home-made banjo a home made passive magnetic system, that no one else has :). It consists of a wire coil with a piece of iron inside (not a magnet). From the inside of the paws of a refrigerator mouse I have to small flat magnets. They are light, but extremely strong and and are placed on either side of the skin, where they attract each other in a very strong grip. They are placed over the coil a little north of the bridge like yours, and the system gives a signal somewhat stronger than a Fishman pick up with a 9 Volt pre amplifier I have in a guitar. I Have aso for my friends made two pick ups from a set of old horseshoe magnets with wire around them from the very old magnet headphones and shims cut out from the thin metal membranes and placed between the bridge and the skin. These are actually humbuckers since the wires on each of the magnets legs are wound in either direction :)

You can also use an old guitar pick up and a shim made out of a piece of guitar or banjo string. So there is room for experiments if one thinks it is funny,

But congrats with your solution. :) Steen

Edited by - steen on 08/16/2025 08:47:47