The Song Fight Bulletin Board

I'm trying to record cello a lot more lately, and while my three-mic setup works pretty okay (near-field large-diaphragm condenser pointed at the bridge, two small overhead condensers pointed at the soundholes), I'd like to also have a decent pickup to round it out. I'd been trying to use a surface-mount transducer but it was problematic for a lot of reasons (plug rattled around and made noise, the contact adhesive got all gummy and doesn't stay stuck on, etc) and even if I clip it directly to my bridge with a binder clip it doesn't really work all that well.

Has anyone found a decent pickup system for a cello or violin or whatever that doesn't cost $250+? It seems like most pickups are either shitty $5 clip-on microphones that are barely adequate for hooking up a tuner, or ridiculously expensive active-powered systems, and there isn't a lot in between. Also, finding good comparisons online is surprisingly difficult, since nobody who is recording these things seems to know how to just plug in a pickup directly into their interface for some reason (they're all micing an amplifier, often with their camcorder's built-in microphone, what the fuck).

One of my favorite cellists, Melora Creager of Rasputina, uses a K&K Sound Twinspot pickup.

Interesting. Goes for $56, which is certainly within my budget. Looks like for cello you just wedge the spots under the feet of the bridge. I can't find any good demo videos for cello but plenty of people are using it on classical guitar and ukulele and so on, and it certainly sounds fantastic on those instruments.




Creager did record this video but it's not really useful for my needs:

As a followup, it arrived a few days ago, and I have to say...

The Twin Spot was fucking FANTASTIC. Thanks for the recommendation, Niveous.

The only downside to it is that it requires a semi-permanent installation (in that you stick it to the cello body using adhesive pads, and the adhesive has the potential to ruin the finish although my cello was cheap enough that I don't really care) but... holy cow this is wonderful. I've done a bunch of recording with it and it sounds great.

For anyone who cares, my overall setup is the Twin Spot on the body, an MXL V88 on a boom pointed at the bridge, and two CAD CM217s off to the sides. That plus some modeled reverb gives me a wonderful soundstage with amazing dynamics.

On the upcoming album, the track "Soliloquy" features the cello recorded in this way. (There's other tracks with the cello but they're just using the V88 overhead since I was using them as backup instruments, not the main event. The preorder featured track "Sliced by a Mandolin" has some of this, for example.)

Which is to say that the Twin Spot pickup sounds fantastic, despite my shitty cello playing.

I'm so happy that worked out.

Thanks for posting those videos Fluffy! I have a new beater guitar I'd love to get a Twin Spot installed on. Looks like a great pickup.