The Feather Violin Pickup with Flexible Micro-Gooseneck by Myers Pickups

Our daughter, who is studying violin performance (classical) in college, has been performing with some alt country/rock bands more recently. She tried using a piezo pickup at first (which can be less susceptible to feedback) but was not happy with the overall bright/brittle sound quality. We needed to figure out a setup that was easy to use, reasonably priced, provided a great sound, and would allow her to achieve a higher stage volume level so she could hear herself and keep up with the band through the on-stage monitors. One of her teachers who also tours playing the violin suggested the setup that she uses live - A Myers Feather Pickup with Flexible Micro-Gooseneck along with an LR Baggs Venue Acoustic Preamp/DI/EQ/Tuner pedal. We purchased the Myers pickup and LR preamp. This combination has been working great for her in a live band setting. The flexible mic can be moved around/adjusted around the sound hole on the violin to help dial in the sound....much much better than the piezo pickup that we tried previously. The mic attaches to a mini preamp that attaches to a belt or clothing and has a volume knob on it. The sound from the Myers Feather pickup is amazing! That and used in conjunction with the LR Baggs venue preamp pedal allows her to get a great sound at a higher volume playing in a live setting. The preamp pedal has a notch filter to help with feedback issues that can arise with higher volumes and pretty extensive EQ controls to help shape your sound. She is really happy with the sound the Myers pickup provides and she/we highly recommend it!!!!

I have been playing fiddle for dances for a few years now and find it tiring and distracting to play into a microphone and to try to maintain a constant distance from it. I went to the J.C Campbell Folk School for a week-long workshop for dance musicians and had, for the first time, the experience of having a pickup put on my fiddle when I went on stage. All of the sudden, I just didn’t have to think about the mic anymore and I loved it. I recently did a google search and learned about the various pickups that are available and decided that this was the one I wanted, in part because I really like the sound of my instrument (a ~100-year-old "Hopf") and wanted something that would capture it.I was concerned about the possibility that the battery might die suddenly at an awkward moment and emailed Gregg Myers to ask about that. He responded quickly and said that the battery can last for hundreds of hours and will fade slowly over period of several hours, that I would begin to notice a loss of gain in the preamp and that that will be the time to change the battery. It’s nice to have some idea what to expect in terms of battery life (I really had no idea) and particularly to know that it will not die suddenly.I purchased the pickup a few weeks ago and started experimenting with it. I fed it into my 35 watt Kustom amp and it sounded great. I put it inside the “F” hole of the fiddle and found that sounded too much like an echo chamber and settled on the configuration shown on the Myers website, with the mic at the lower end of the “treble” “F” hole. This makes it sound like the fiddle I know.I have to say that I had some trouble with mounting the “Feather” on my tailpiece and would recommend that violin players consider the “Grip/Clamp” model as the more appropriate choice designed specifically for them. I was not comfortable with either the saddle clip (didn’t seem secure enough on the tailpiece and couldn’t get it to not touch the top of the instrument when clipped to the tailpiece) or the feather clip as constructed. I found a solution for me which involved reducing an additional fine tuner to just the threaded cylinder and a nut under the tailpiece, removing the alligator clip from the feather clip and using the added fine tuner to hold the feather clip, mounting it in the tailpiece a little closer to the end pin than a "French eye" might be placed. It resulted in a very secure and unobtrusive mounting system.For myself, I think I made the right decision to get the “Feather” rather than the “Grip” because I like the fact that the preamp module is on my belt, not on the instrument where I can see it. Because not everyone would be comfortable modifying parts in this way, I will say again that violin players should consider the “Grip/Clamp” because it was designed specifically for that application.The new pickup had its first night out just this weekend playing for a family contra dance and did great. It helped make many smiles (including one on me).

Two of my siblings and I play violin, and with each of us using it for different gigs, this pickup has served us well since 2019 (one of us have even used it weekly for church services for the past 2 years). A big reason I chose this pickup mic in the first place was a positive review on YouTube by Lincoln Mick, the mandolin player for The Arcadian Wild (check them out!) and I agree with everything he mentioned. Many people including Mick have done a better job then I would at describing the sound, accuracy, and versatility; yes, it's all great and a solid value. I can also say it holds up! To this day-- 5 years after I got mine-- I still see people recommending The Feather over other similar products.An echo I'd strongly like to emphasize is Myers Pickups' customer service. After 5 years of use, ours finally stopped outputting sound recently (and I wasn't mad-- I'd say that's fair for a mic this size and cost). I reached out to their support to see what the repair process would look like and I got a response same-day from Gregg Myers (CEO). Gregg was very personable, and even though my pickup was outside of warranty, he didn't turn me away like most companies would in the situation. Instead, he worked with me, and offered a solution for (what I'd consider) a reasonable price, demonstrating a care for his pickups and the people who use them.So in response, I strongly recommend the pickup and the company behind it.(... Although, check out their other pickups, too, as another one might fit your PARTICULAR use-case better!)

Title is self explanatory. I would add that this product probably won’t survive a few more battery replacements due to the finicky process needed to do it… or at the very least, makes me a bit nervous to do it every time