Shadow Transducer Bug Pickup for Violin with 1/4 inch Jack Socket

Very effective and inexpensive making me highly recommend it. I plug into a keyboard amp to play with a band including two guitars, bass, lots of singers, drums and keys and I can be heard wonderfully amongst the other musicians. At the moment I wedge the mic between the gap in the left side of the bridge (under the G string) and it tends to pick up the G and D strings louder (though I don't play much on these strings and they tend to be the softer sounding strings anyway). In future I might consider loosening the strings and wedge it under the bridge. Perhaps because I'm wedging it in the side gap is the reason there is sometimes a vibration sound picked up, but it's not a problem amongst the other instruments. The adhesive is strong and I needed to remove it once so far with no damage to the finish but now it has been fixed firmly for a while I'm afraid to peel it off again!

As a cheap pick-up this can sound ok, _but_ only as long as you handle it extremely carefully and don't move on stage. I've had a few of these pick-ups over the years, but in my opinion they aren't reliable enough / hardy enough for a serious gig situation. The main issues with the pickup are poor insulation on the cable and weak attachment via the Velcro/sticking pad. The poor insulation results in banging noises through the PA if the cable gets touched, and also the pickup will cut out completely if the wire touches a part of the instrument - particularly if it touches a string. You can get around this problem by wrapping the cable in cotton wool strategically and bending it carefully into an 's' shape so that it doesn't move and doesn't touch anything, but it's not ideal. The second issue is the sticky attachment to the fiddle. The Velcro is sound, but the sticky backing is not strong enough and tends to come loose after a few months of hard gigging. You can get around this problem by using a plastic cable tie to hold it in place. If you do get one of these pick-ups I strongly recommend using these re-enforcement strategies to keep it stable and as immobile as possible, but even then you may still experience knocking / banging noises through the PA system if you move around too much on stage.

It's OK without being fantastic. I had one of these from the 80s which was great - my impression is that this is not as good. It's OK and I will keep using it for ceilidh gigs.

Very good once I had made a more suitable means of attaching it to the violin