Grisetti - Posted - 02/20/2025:  07:06:11

Question: Does a banjo pickup require a preamp. If so, what pickup and preamp works well at a reasonable price?

Thank ya’ll

Edited by - Texasbanjo on 02/23/2025 08:04:46

sculliganman - Posted - 02/20/2025:  11:59:53

fishman.com/portfolio/classic-...o-pickup/

Old Hickory - Posted - 02/20/2025:  12:18:31

As far as I know most, if not all, banjo pickups need a preamp. It's possible the channel gain/trim control on a PA mixer could boost the signal enough. But I don't know.

I use and like the LR Baggs Para-Acoustic. $229 new these days. Used you can find it for up to $100 less. I forget what I paid 15 or so years ago.

I use but do not not necessarily recommend a Pick Up the World film transducer. But do read the linked page and watch the video.

I find it's too hot and boomy. I have to dial back all the EQ and Presence on the pre-amp and shape my tone entirely in the banjo's PA mixer channel. Or should say "had" to. Haven't played live with the pickup since a week before the bars closed down in March 2020.

Two times when I heard a great sounding banjo played through a pickup and I asked the players afterward what they were using, it was a Fishman. One venue was the smaller side stage at a local festival where the banjo was an RK-25 (no metal tone ring) and I think the other was a local house concert that's big enough that bands need the PA. Some players use mics but some plug in. The banjo was a Deering Maple Blossom.

More recently, I heard a great sounding Nechville through PA at a loud bar in Nashville. Between sets the player told me he was using Nechville's Warp Drive pickup that combines an EMG magnetic pickup with a Schatten transducer. Controls let you blend the sound. $625.

If I were to get back to gigging and needed to plug in, I'd seriously consider replacing my LR Baggs preamp with a ToneDexter. This preamp/DI learns the acoustic sound of your instrument through a microphone then, when your choose, substitutes that sound for the pickup's sound. The demos I've heard are very impressive.

I don't know which or what types of pickups lend themselves best to ToneDexter treatment.

There was an episode of the Picky Fingers Banjo Podcast within the past year devoted to the Tone Dexter. Perhaps you should seek it out and hear what the maker has to say.

Good luck.

steve davis - Posted - 02/22/2025:  09:15:58

I've been using a Jones pickup for 30 years.It requires a pre-amp.My first pre-amp was a cheap Barcus Berry that worked surprisingly well,but I now use a Fishman "Platinum Stage" box and it is great.
I also use it for my ThinLine guitar pickup.

Grisetti - Posted - 02/22/2025:  11:02:32

Thanks for the feedback, I’ve already heard good things about Fishman.

banjopaolo - Posted - 02/23/2025:  01:02:19

I use fishman rare hearth pick up and platinum preamp when I have to play in small venues with drums or anyway high volume bands, if I play in acoustic bands or in big spaces I don’t use pick up but microphone (dpa 4099) for a more natural sound

wrench13 - Posted - 02/23/2025:  04:37:11

My band uses the DPA 4099 mics too, for fiddle and mandolin. They are WONDERFUL mics, capable of almost infinite adjustment and ability to capture tone from an instrument. I get compliments all the time on how it makes my fiddle sound and its 100% faithful to the instrument. THe problem with pickups is they color the tone and now you need all sorts of equalization to get the tone sounding like your axe. PLus different pickup types have some innate characteristics that are difficult to get rid of. Pickups based on piezo technology, think most contact ones like Barcus-Berry or ones built into or under bridges, have a sort of quackiness to their sound. Magnetic pickups, to me, make banjos sound more like electric guitars. My son tried a mandolin with a magnetic pickup and it sounded exactly like the high end on a 12 string electric guitar. Again lots of EQ is needed to make them sound acoustic. THe down side to microphones, any mic, is feedback. Even the DPA 4099 will feedback with enough volume or with poor speaker placement or stage position. Feedback from a mic can be effectively removed with various types of EQ units, where you isolate the frequency that is feeding back and slice it out of the sound. Another downside to using a microphone, when its mounted on a stand, is the need to develop a 'mic sense' of how and where to place it and keep it there. In other words how to 'work' the mic. I've seen many good pickers have no idea how to do this. Using the mics dynamics (ability to get louder the closer you get to it) is key for using them. And the right type of mic too.

My onstage set up for my banjo is a good old Shure SM57, in fact mine is ANCIENT, from the early 80's. While not the very best microphone as far as tone reproduction (having a boost in the mid to high mid frequencies) they are far from being bad and they are almost indestructible! You could hammer nails to build a stage with a SM57 and then go on to perform with it on that stage. Judicious use of EQ is needed to get things right but they are good stage mics and I think they capture banjo well. Ear Trumpet microphones are very popular these days, and I use one for my vocal/concertina input, With a wider pickup pattern and really good, accurate sound reproduction ability, I can sing and play 'tina at the same time and capture both with the one microphone. Again careful feedback EQ can be needed, but a great microphone.

None of this is cheap stuff (except the Shure)
DPA 4099 - $700
Ear Trumpet mic - around the same
Shure SM57 - still only around $100
Decent EQ - around $200 on up to many thousands. A DBX 131 mono 31 band EQ is like $250. A good choice.

TTtheBear - Posted - 02/23/2025:  07:20:32

I use an EKG. I love it.