Introduction

D. Rickert Musical Instruments now sells high-end pickups for all of our acoustic bowed instruments. While we have been installing pickups on an ad hoc basic for years, we now offer specific carefully selected pickups for bowed strings.

See the product listings for all of the pickups we currently sell and install at Don Rickert Musician Shop in the Pickups for Bowed Strings category.

Email us if you have any questions (don@donrickertdesign.com).

For a more in-depth discussion on this hot topic...

See: D. Rickert Musical Instruments now sells pickups for all of our acoustic bowed instruments.

True Electric Violins Are Generally Best for Live Performance

It is our firm belief that if you primary use of a violin, viola, octave violin or octave viola is live performance, it is best to use a true electric violin in conjunction with the right preamp, EQ, signal processors and amplification to achieve your desired sound, including lower octaves as low as the contra-bass range.

If An Acoustic Violin Is An Important Aspect of Your Image . . .

If the look of an acoustic instrument is an important part of your image, we have some pickups that will work well for you. In fact, a special type of pickup (those made by Barbera Transducer Systems) can be used to make an acoustic instrument, in effect, a proper electric violin.

For those seeking an instrument with the look of a fine old violin, but the performance of a full-on electric violin, there is an even better choice. You will want to check out soon-to-be-announced new series of instruments by D. Rickert Musical Instruments that can best be described as electric violins masquerading as fine old acoustic violins.

We Have Much Experience with Every Aspect of Pickups for Bowed Strings

We know much about installing the RIGHT pickup on any of the bowed string instruments we have designed and now produce. Our experience includes our one-of-a-kind octave violins and violas. Further, we have installed many pickups on our customers’ own instruments. Our expertise in this area comes from years of installing every conceivable type of pickup on bowed string instruments, supplemented by extensive immersion on the technical literature on this and related topics.

Not All Pickups Do the Job!

The ONLY type of pickup we can recommend, for regular violins, as well as octave instruments, is a complete bridge with one or more embedded transducer elements. This rules out all contact microphones, tiny (and insanely expensive) condenser microphones aimed at the bridge, under-the-bridge transducers, transducers that are stuck or clipped to the bridge or the instrument body, those that are wedged into the bridge wings, magnetic pickups and exotic pickups of various sorts. This eliminates from consideration a whole lot of pickups on the market, some which are quite expensive. Ignoring our position on this matter could result in heartache and wasted money.

For an in-depth discussion on this topic, see:

Your Amplified Violin Not Working with Effects Processor?: The Problem is With Your Pickup!