Best Dobro pick up?

Sandra Dobbins · From: Alabama, USA

Just wondering what the best dobro pick up would be. I have a Dobro, dobro.

Tom Wolverton · From: Carpinteria, CA

The current favorite with most is the Fishman piezo bridge pickup. Use it with an Aura pedal. There's lots of discussion about this here and at the reso site. Not cheap. Best to have a qualfied tech install it, like Paul Beard.

If you play in a loud band with drums and bass , it might not cut it. In fact, nothing cuts it (my experience).
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Howard Parker · From: Maryland

In my experience that combo is the best and enables me to go head to head with teles, strats, drums, horns..you name it!

All those traditional dobro situations Smile

If you need it, there is nothing better out there.

h
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Howard Parker · From: Maryland

A couple of live demo's of the pickup:

Jerry with Vince.

Jerry with Alison. (D-tuned guitar)

Mark Eaton · Posted 25 Feb 2014 10:19 am

There are others out there, and I see all kinds of suggestions - but the only one I see players using in the past few years that are full-time pros who pay for the roof over their head by playing a dobro is the Fishman Nashville pickup going into the Fishman Aura Jerry Douglas pedal with the 16 microphone "images." That tells me a lot right there.

Every so often I hear rumblings that there is an even newer pickup system in the works from a manufacturer that will rival or even improve on the Fishman, but it never seems to actually materialize.

Do a search for more information here as suggested earlier, there have been many threads on this subject on the forum in the past several years.

Tom, I know you have written that in the past it hasn't worked out for you, but I have seen Jerry Douglas play with the famous drummer Omar Hakim a couple times who brought drum kits that would take up half my living room - it gets very loud - and I could hear his Beard JD model guitar with the Fishman as clear as a bell. It's been a number of years now since he has done away with a microphone in conjunction with the newer pickup, it's pickup only.
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Tom Wolverton · From: Carpinteria, CA

Mark, I play with the loudest drummer on the west coast. : ) He's great, but darn loud. I finally gave up. But I'm willing to try it again. JD has the advantage of good sound reinforcement and a soundman at the controls. I'm usually in some dive bar with hard walls and floor. An acoustical toilet. I can get it to work without FB, but the tone is pretty crummy. Maybe it 's the Fishman LoudBox I am using. It's guerilla warefare at best.
But I'm willing to try it again. I'm thinking about sending my reso to Paul Beard for a "major".

So here's a question: if you were doing a quiet gig with a singer-songwriter, would you still use the Fishman/Aura system, or just mic it with an SM-57 ?
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Tom Wolverton · From: Carpinteria, CA

OK, that clip with Vince is impressive. I've got to believe the stage vol with the train beat going must be way up there. Notice how far away from the drums Jerry is standing. Jerry must have active FB notching going with his signal and have in-ear monitors. Otherwise, I don't see how he would be able to hear his own guitar. Thanks for that. Maybe there *is* hope for us lowly reso players.
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Herb Steiner · From: Briarcliff TX 78669, pop. 2,064

I used two Gold Tone Beard guitars on the 2008 Michael Martin Murphey Christmas Tour, playing on large stages and with other amplified acoustic instruments. The Fishman/Aura combo is the best for truly realistic dobro sound in an amplified band setting, but feedback can still be problematic if you use amplifiers.

In my experience with the Fishman/Aura combo, the best way to avoid feedback in those situations is to run directly into the PA with your own monitor mix back at you. Absent that, I like an amplifier designed for amplified acoustic instruments, like the Crate CA-125. A Nashville 112 did not make it for me tonally at all. But even with the Crate, stage position was paramount to avoid feedback.
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Howard Parker · From: Maryland

Herb is right on. I was an early adopter after I heard Jerry play live with the "Jerry Douglas Band".

Like anything else you must accept you'll have to make a certain $$ investment over and above the cost of the pickup system itself. That means tools which are designed for acoustic string instruments (amps, DI, etc)

That being said..if the job requires dobro at high volume without feedback well, that can happen today!

I'm a "user".

h

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

Tom,

I use the Loudbox "Artist". I mount it on an amp stand and usually position it away from me so that the sound washes across the stage. I take a FOH feed from a separate DI (The Loudbox also has one) so I have the flexibility of shaping tone and balance effects.

I'm a lazy guy so I carry the minimum amount of gear required for the gig. On a low volume "acoustic" set I'm just as happy to use either a Shure beta57 or a SM-81 if the house can give me some basic reverb.

If I need a lot of effects, even for small venues I'll usually use the pickup system. Guitar, pedal board with 3 cables (in/out/power) & amp.

Plug n' Play.

h

Nakos Marker · From: Washington, USA

L. Bogue Sandberg · From: Chassell, Michigan, USA

Sandra, it would help to know what you intend to do with a pickup.

The best pickup may well be a function of needs and budget. No doubt the Fishman set up is the Cadillac and the choice for pros like Tom, Howard, or Herb up against a loud, electrified country or rock band in a large venue. For an amateur like me, $500+ is hard to justify.

I've had good results with the Gold Tone ABS-C at about $190. My experience with it has been in coffee houses and brewpubs through a small acoustic guitar amp and in halls with up to 200-300 people through the house sound system. But always with a bluegrass band. One thing I like about the ABS is its ability to go from one guitar to another with ease.

Mark Eaton · Posted 25 Feb 2014 1:37 pm

Nakos, do you ever play with drummers and electric guitarists? And if you are with other folks on loud instruments, all feedback issues aside, does the dobro have "presence" in the mix and hold its own?

As Bogue wrote, it would help a lot when a poster begins a thread like this if they would let us know what the scenario is where they will be using the pickup.

In the case of Nakos, if you're playing with other folks who are on acoustic instruments only, the ABS seems to be a good option and a lot cheaper than the whole Fishman setup. And you're not invisibly "tethered" to a mic stand if you're playing standing up with a strap.

This is one of the motivations why Jerry Douglas became involved in the the Fishman program to begin with, so that he could move around the stage. If he wants to walk over toward the drummer and continue playing while the guitar player is taking a solo, he doesn't have to stay in front of his microphone stand the whole time and avoid ever turning away from it.

Andy Hall of the Infamous Stringdusters was one of the early pro players to embrace the Fishman system after Jerry Douglas started taking it around. Here is a vid of Andy with the 'dusters, freedom of movement can be a great thing for a dobro player:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCKhGPOx2O8
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Nakos Marker · From: Washington, USA

Mark,

I haven't tried it much in more electric settings, but I've played many venues where the sound setups, particularly monitors, were just awful, and the other instruments (bass, guitar, violin - all fitted with piezo systems) would continually have feedback issues, but I wouldn't.
It cuts through the mix quite nicely, too; when I made the switch from using an SM57, several people commented that they could "finally hear the dobro."

Jim Bates · From: Alvin, Texas, USA

Jerry is the master of the 'electric' resonator guitar sound (like Buck Trent is for the 'electric' banjo).

I still get the best sound on a live show with a AKG C1000S mike fed into the PA. You have to keep the monitor speakers away from you and the monitor volume on your mike turned down. Stay far away from the drums and electric bass. I have very little feedback problems with this arrangment.

(I don't try to play like Jerry D., so I don't need to try to copy his sound.)

Thanx,
Jim

Tom Wolverton · From: Carpinteria, CA

Post deleted.
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Mark Eaton · Posted 26 Feb 2014 10:20 pm

Tom Wolverton · From: Carpinteria, CA

There are some video clips of Mike Auldrige testing the system out that will backup Mark's point. Mike still sounds like Mike. Excellent tone.
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Howard Parker · From: Maryland

Mike with Aura system HERE!

Tom Wolverton · From: Carpinteria, CA

That's it! Thanks Howard. Yes indeed. Mike still sounds like Mike. And man is it good.

When I use the system, unfortunately, Tom W still sounds like Tom W. But my motto in music is, if you're gonna suck, why not suck loud? : )

Make a joyfull noise.
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Dennis Saydak · From: Manitoba, Canada

I have the Fishman pickup installed in my Beard Dobro, which I build from the kit. I also bought the adjustable spider for it. I've use it with 3 different amplifiers with no preamp and I'm completely happy with the tone produced. I did a lot of research about Dobro pickups and it seems there are lots of people who weren't happy with cheaper pickup options, so I decided to spend once & spend right.

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Mark Eaton · Posted 27 Feb 2014 12:06 pm

Yeah, I'm surprised that Fishman still even offers the "donut" style pickups that go underneath the cone. I know one guy that hit the nail on the head several years ago - he said the donut pickup makes his dobro sound like an AM radio.

Dennis, it's hard to top being "completely happy" - once you're there it might not be a good idea to mess with it. But have you ever checked out the video that Howard linked of Mike Auldridge running through the pickup with Paul Beard?

The JD Aura pedal with the 16 mic images IMO makes a world of difference instead of just going straight into an acoustic guitar amp with the pickup alone.
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Mark Eaton · Posted 27 Feb 2014 1:10 pm

From that same day, Jimmy Heffernan was there at Paul's shop with Mike, and he had some great commentary about what was then the new pickup, and how it sounded with the JD pedal and without. Some definite piezo quack w/o the Aura. I tried the Nashville p'up through a Roland acoustic amp one time that had a "Piezo" button to switch on if that was the type of pickup you were using. Turning on the button helped tame some of the quack, but it still didn't have the richness of being utilized with the Aura pedal.

Here is Jimmy's video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O15iC4-_yGs
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Jim Bates · From: Alvin, Texas, USA

Mark,
Yes I watched and heard Jerry live with Union Station at a show in Houston. Jerry was using three guitars: Scheerhorn, Scheerhorn with capo and a Dobro (JD model). This was before he started using Beard guitars. Also, he was using a Crate amp as monitor and another big mike in a cradle - all of which was probably fed through their sound system.

Yes, I would like to hear Jerry totally unplugged from all of this modification so I can really hear what the basic guitars sound like (Scheerhorn, Beard and his Dobro (also his RQ Jones and big Guernsey).

Yes, Jerry is a great musician, but he does get some help from his 'electronic friends' to get his sound.

Thanx,
Jim

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

Any of his commercially available CDs have great examples of his unplugged sound. He's one of the most recorded session musicians in Nashville, although he's focusing on his own work now.

If you want a video, check out any of the Transatlantic Sessions in which he's featured.
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