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shadow pickups

danieletarab - 1-18-2009 at 03:49 PM

Hello everybody!
Did anyone try the new SHADOW piezo pick ups?
They are long stick shaped and they go either on the surface of the Oud close to the bridge, or between the bridge and the strings. They are 2 different models..
I was thinking to get one of them but I don't know which one of them and I would like to know what some of you think about.
Thank you,
daniele

Marcus - 1-18-2009 at 10:44 PM

Hello Daniele, :wavey:

I posted this a few weeks ago. I actually havent tried the one to stick on the oud.

I bought a Shadow SH 700 NFX pickup and i must say it works very good on my oud.
Its easy to instal, just put it in the string-ring( dont know the correct english word).There is a little pre-amp include.It has a pre-amp-holder fixed on the oud with doubleside stickytape
I play with a Band, so I need to play loud.I use a Peavey Delta-Blues guitar amp.
I had no feedbacks and the sound is pretty natural.I guess it gets even better with a equalizer and an acoustic amp. The price was 180€ and I think it is worth to try.

All the best

Marcus

Luttgutt - 1-19-2009 at 07:31 AM

Hi Daniele!
I have used the Oud Shadow nanoflex pick ups for more than a year now.

I have the "surface" pickup on one oud, "through the strings"
model another, and both on a third.

The two models gives two completly different result:

1- on the surface: Loud, no feed back, clear and nice tone. But it does not sound "arabic", and my guess is that it does not fit arabic traditional music. And you have to swich the "Between tone" of (I don't know the name in english, but it is the tone between base an treble).

2- through the strings: Warm sound, but with feed back, not loud enough to play with drums, sax, trompet... (the usual jazz instrumantation). And gives lots of base (too much base, so you 'll have to swich "between tone" all the way up, and swich down the base). But it gives a much more arabic "feel" (I guess :')

3- Both on same oud: Loud enough to play with jazz "Big band" :') But the problem is that you cannot have separate controle over the two pickups! The sound engeneer will have to deal with them as ONE, wich is not an easy task.

Hope this helps.

P.S. The 3 ouds I have installed the pickups on are "arabic" ouds with fix bridge.

Anybody out there who tried the pick up on a floating bridge?(it will have to be the "surface" pick up model, naturally)

danieletarab - 1-19-2009 at 12:54 PM

Thank you a lot!
You have been very helpful even thought I don't know which of them I should choose!!!
I know, it's very difficult to talk about "sound"!
A very difficult question: which one of them sounds more "natural"?
thank you..
daniele

Luttgutt - 1-20-2009 at 02:54 AM

Yes I know :-) not easy to describe sound with words.
But think of it like this:
If you play arabic style, and you don't play with "loud" instruments (ex. drums) in your band. That is, you don't nees to be loud yourself, than choose the on the lock variant.

But if you play more "modern" style, not so arabic, and espetially if you play with loud instruments, than you should defenitly use the one through the strings. Remember that this one has no feedback, while the other one does!

Personally, I like the sound of the one through the strings better. But as I said earlier, I don't play arabic style!

Does this help better?
P.S. I am sorry, but I don't know how to post sound files. I am not really the "technological" type of a person :-)

hama - 1-20-2009 at 05:55 AM

this is an interesting thread for a beginner like me as i havent used any pick ups or amps before,
i am just learning to play for fun and family occasions and stuff like that , i have 2 questions

1. can you transfer the shadow pick up from one oud to another easily without leaving marks ?

2. what sort of amplifier do I need to connect to the pick up if I use it for the purpose i describe above? what spec and whatage ?
do i need any thing else? or just the oud , pick up which connected to the amp.
best regards

Hama

Hi Marcus
do you know if you can use the Shadow SH 700 NFX pickup on floating Bridge ouds??

Marcus - 1-21-2009 at 04:03 AM

Hi Hama :wavey:

I think it is not possible to use th"string-thrue-one" with a floating bridge oud. The PU-sound is a mixture between strings and wood,so it has to be fixed between bridge and saddle.

The shadow-pu comes with a small pre-amp.You can adjust volume and tone,so on any kind of amp its possible to use it,even on the aux on a hifi-amp.
I use a peavy deltablues tube-guitar-amp and the sound is pretty good after working on the base/middle/treble knobs a while.
A equalizer(mono) with min.8 chanels-better12- is very usefull to reach the sound you like,aspecially with the nylon strings.
I use a multi-effect to add a bit reverb or delay,but thats just a matter of taste.

Hope it helps you a bit.

All the best

Marcus

hama - 1-21-2009 at 04:57 AM

Hi Marcus
Thanks for your help , things are much clearer now
I found these 2 PU's, do you know the difference and which one is better?
SH 700 and SH 717 NFX
thatnks a gain
http://www.shadow-electronics.com/viewpro.html?id=190&search=1
http://www.shadow-electronics.com/viewpro.html?id=246&search=1

Marcus - 1-21-2009 at 05:15 AM

Hi Hama, :wavey:

I only tried the SH 700, but scroll up a bit and take a look at Luttgutt`s post.

I just do not agree with him about the feedbacks on the SH700. I play with a unfortunately much to loud band and never had any feedbacks. But maybe its because loudness is a very subjective thing :xtreme:

Marcus

Luttgutt - 1-21-2009 at 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Marcus
Hi Hama, :wavey:

Marcus

:-D Maybe so!
Interresting that you did not get feed back or over tones (I got both). But loud I mean big jazz band or heavy rock. We use monitors of course, and my guess is that you do that to! Right? How many are you in the band and what instruments do you use? Could it be that the problem lies at the sound man's skilles??!
I will appriciate our feed back.

hama - 1-21-2009 at 12:04 PM

hi Luttgutt

can you please tell me which of those pick ups you use?

http://www.shadow-electronics.com/viewpro.html?id=190&search=1
http://www.shadow-electronics.com/viewpro.html?id=246&search=1

Br
Hama

shadow

danieletarab - 1-22-2009 at 02:03 PM

Thank you everybody and Luttgutt!
Don't worry, for sure I am much worse than you in technology!

Marcus - 1-22-2009 at 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Luttgutt

Quote:

Originally posted by Marcus
Hi Hama, :wavey:

Marcus

Hi Luttgutt :wavey:

well,I play in a Bluesband(2git,bs,dr,harp,+a few songs with oud).We are not THIS loud compared to a heavy rock band,but still loud enough for my ears.
I use monitors too, but with the level as low as possible.The most sound comes from the guitaramp which is standing behind me, so the oud is in my bodyshade.
When I put the setting and cross the feedback-borderline,it was easy to kill the feedbacks by put the low-middle frequences on the eq down a bit.
So- if you play over the pa-just blame it on the soundman

By the way, do you play your oud in a heavy rockband?It`ll be very interesting to hear that !

Regards
Marcus

Luttgutt - 1-23-2009 at 03:47 AM

Hi all! Nice to get in contact with you :-)

Hama, I use both! In what I wrote earlier, the 700 is the one I called "through the strings", and the 717 is the one I called "on the surface". Thanks to you, I know now what they are called :')

daniele, I dought that someone can be worse than I when it comes to technology, but maybe as bad :-)

And Marcus, now I know why you did not get feedback :-)
Thanks for the information. Yes, I have played as guest artist with a couple of rock bands, and I hope I'll do more of it. It is a real kick!! And believe me it IS loud : ) And you are 100% dependant on monitors, and it is the monitors I get the feed bad from. But as I said before, not from the 700! None of the sound men had problems with that one. But the 717 on the other hand is. And I only use it when we are playing what I like to call "ECM sound" type of music (difficult to explane with words)

Have a nice day all