Mic/amp a flute?

[Jason M Hancock]

Hi everyone,

I'm forming an acoustic-based rock band that will have flute as a prominent instrument.

Does anyone have any suggestions for mics, preamps, cabinets, signal processors, etc for a flute? I'm starting from scratch here, so any suggestion will give me a nice starting point to experiment with when I start testing gear in the local stores.

Thanks!

-Jason

 

[Tomcat]

What I did was to get a Barcus/Berry pickup (it replaces the tuning "cork" in the head joint) and plug that into an MXR small preamp and then plug that into a Yamaha 4X12 amp/speaker system. However, that was a number of years ago and there are better preamps and amp/speaker systems out now.

As an aside, several years later I sold the Yamaha unit to a sax player who used it with a Barcus/Berry pick up on his sax to gig with!

Tom

 

[still4given]

Well, years agos I saw Jethro Tull and Ian was using a Sennheiser MD421. Sounded awesome as well as I can remember.

Blessings, Terry

 

[Tomcat]

The Barcus/Berry pickup has the advantage that since it is directly wired in, you can move around on stage all you want and not have to worry about mic placement. You can bob and weave and jump around all you want and still have the sound come out good.

It might even be possible to connect the pickup output into a wireless mic transmitter and be totally free on stage. Don't know for sure but that would be worth checking out.

Tom

 

[Yescalero]

I'd definately check out the Barcus/Berry pickup. A flute player
I jam with uses it all the time for performance and sometimes
recording. It seems to sound great on any amp with a good
clean tone. Close micing a flute can be tricky, because different
notes project out of the flute at different angles, and it's hard
to get a good balanced sound this way.

 

[Chris Tondreau]

What I did was to get a Barcus/Berry pickup (it replaces the tuning "cork" in the head joint) and plug that into an MXR small preamp and then plug that into a Yamaha 4X12 amp/speaker system.

Maybe between the Preamp and the 4x12 cabinet, you could run it through a Mesa Boogie, and crank the pants off it. It works for my guitar!!

J/K, of course.... It just sounded like a very elaborate signal path for a flute. But hey, if it worked, them I'm certainly not going to criticize. Of course, in the name of experimenting with new sounds and being "cutting edge," maybe a Boogie isn't such a bad idea....

Chris