EGT202 Double Acoustic Pickup - Suitable for Guitar,Mandolin,Violin, Banjo Etc

Fitted to a mandolin (parallel with bridge, one treble side, one bass) and run through a little pre-amp/mixer and guitar amp - sound produced is very good. I've finally got an amplified acoustic mandolin, rather than electric....

This is a fairly effective way of amplifying my banjo. I'm not too sure about sticking them to the head with the provided pads as I don't want them to be permanent, so I've made a few adjustments and it works well enough. There is noise from the body and extra sounds picked up from the picks on the strings in addition to the tone of the strings, but I can live with that. My plan is to use effects pedals so this is not too much of a problem and even when I'm playing straight it'll be as part of a band so no one will hear the other sounds.The lead provided is flimsy and has a smaller jack on one end as that is the size on the transducers. They could have thought that through and realised that amplified instrument leads are 5mm! Luckily I've got plenty of adapters for this and they're cheap if you need to buy one.It does the job well considering the price.

This little gadget is very versatile. If you have like I do, a young musician that plays more that one acoustic instrument it is a must have especially if like performing. For instance, at open mic nights, college or school. You don't have buy one for each instrument you can just transfer it from to another. It's brillant, especially as my son play ten acoustic instruments and loves to perform. It has been so worth the money, that I now can afford to make sure he has the spare strings he needs. For those of us that are finding it hard to finance our kids music lessons etc, its great way out of buying very expensive semi-acoutic intruments. In fact, I am thinking of buying a couple of more in case one fails when my son is either giving a live performance or just doing something towards his college exams.