MANDO
TO MIC OR NOT TO MIC
Have you ever been to a bluegrass festival/ microphone with an instrument clip. This
campout/jam? stage is an excellent compromise of flexibility,
shows, countless musicians rotate among cost, tone, and bleed-over control. I
the various campgrounds like planets in the bought the best-quality lav mic that I could
solar system--seeking out firesides to jam afford at the time and modified the guitar
around. As you walk away from one of these sound hole clip that came with it to fit my
orbital, musical collections of minstrels, mandolin. If you go this route, the primary
two instruments cut through the distance thing to look for is the frequency range of
while the others slowly fade away: upright the microphone. A mandolin frequency’s
bass and mandolin. These instruments sit (ruthlessly approximate) range from the
on the low and high ends of the frequency open ‘G’ to the 20th fret on the ‘E’ string
spectrum and easily set themselves apart is 196hz - 2093hz, with useful harmonics
from all the mud-in-the-middle of a purely reaching up from 2khz - 6khz and higher.
acoustic setting. Life is good. In your research, dig in to those often-
In
between
the
overlooked technical specifications and
...and then you take your mandolin to you’ll find that every microphone has a
Worship Practice... listed response range. I was able to find a
good quality lav mic with a response range
On their own, electric guitars and basses are of 100hz - 14khz, so it fit my mandolin’s
weak and unimpressive. They barely make needs and didn’t break the bank.
any sound at all. The keyboard’s lot in life is
even more pathetic--without amplification it Next time we’ll look at some pedal effects
is mute. Sadly, the mandolin’s supremacy that are useful for mandolin players, but
over the sonic spectrum ends the moment for now remember: garbage in, garbage
the PA is turned on. If you want your out. The holy grail of acoustic amplification
mandolin to keep up and be heard, you’re is making your acoustic instrument sound
going to need some gear to help it out. (Also, as good amplified as it does when it is
you know that a tiny part of you is jealous unplugged. The first critical step is to use
of the lead guitar player’s pedal board that A word of caution, though: Any acoustic a pick-up or microphone solution that will
takes up more acreage than Montana.) instrument pick-up has a hard time accurately faithfully collect the sound of your mandolin
replicating the sound of the instrument, and while reducing or eliminating the rest of the
MICROPHONE VS. PICK-UP VS. MICROPHONE mandolin pick-up technology isn’t particularly noise on-stage.
Let’s start with gathering your signal. A simple on the cutting-edge of electronics research. SM-57-equivilent is the perfect choice in an all- There are some decent consumer-installable acoustic band, but on a worship stage it can be mandolin pick-up options out there, but if you hard for you and your sound engineer to deal use one, plan on needing a little EQ-shaping to with bleed-over from louder instruments like make your mandolin sound the way you want it drums and electric guitar. One solution is to use to. Naturally if you are one of those rare breeds a mandolin pick-up. If your mando already has of musicians that has both a mandolin AND one equipped, excellent! Use it. You can also extra cash in your wallet, spending the money find after-market pick-ups that typically require on having a high-quality pick-up professionally some kind of modification to the instrument installed may be worth your investment.
(bridge replacement, etc.). I’ve used a bridge
pick-up in the past with my mandolin and, “THIS IS HIGH FIDELITY”
as you would expect, stage noise is never a If
problem. your preference (or if you are a tone purest)
semi-permanent
modifications
are
not
another option is to use a good lavalier-class
46
May Jun 2017
WorshipMusician.com
TYSON BRYANT
From a family of bluegrass
musicians, but has adapted
techniques applicable to
modern worship. Has played
mando in worship bands for
20+ years. Also plays acoustic
& electric guitar, cajon,
and just enough banjo to make
people cringe.