1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excelent Book, August 10, 2011
This review is from: Getting a Bigger Sound: Pickups and Microphones for Your Musical Instrument (Paperback)
I'm impressed with this book. When I ordered it I was concerned it would either be a rehash of info I already knew, or else an underground sort of book about kludging together junk to make instrument pickups (Mr. Hopkin is an experimental musician). I worried for naught. Instead, it is a well written, above average book about getting the sound you want from your instrument to your gear. Here are the chapters with comments about what you will find...
Chapter1: Getting Started - This is not the standard skip-it first chapter. Rather, it provides a good overview of the various types of transducers (pickups), what they are best used for, what their characteristics are, frequency response, resonance, feedback, EQ, impedance, levels, SNR, phase relationships. Useful stuff.
Chapter 2: Contact Pickups - This chapter is mainly about piezos, with a few other esoteric types discussed as well. Detailed info about the different types and how they work, advantages and disadvantages, which types of instruments to use them in and which to avoid, how to use them to their best advantage, where to place them for the sound you want, what to attach them to your instrument with, how to hook them up, avoiding feedback, preamp requirements, tons of tips and tricks.
Chapter 3: Magnetic Pickups - Same info except for magnetic pickups (you know - single coils, humbuckers...). Chapters 2 and 3 were worth the price of the book for me.
Chapter 4: Air Microphones - Same as 2 and 3, but short and to-the-point. Not like some of the other sleeping pill books I own about mics.
Chapter 5: Dual Systems - Short overview about combining different types of pickups, and the level, phasing, and impedance issues involved. The details of how to do it are discussed in later chapters.
Chapter 6: After the Pickup - Cables, connectors, preamps, DIs, EQ, distortion, noise, all the details you need to know about getting from your pickup to your mixer without hurting your sound, including particulars for the different types of pickups, lots more tips and tricks. The only disappointment in the whole book for me was no preamp circuits in this chapter. I'll get over it - there are hundreds of them on the web.
Chapter 7: Making Your Own - Soldering, wiring, layout, shielding, mounting, modifying, using multiples, phasing, making and winding magnetic pickups. Lots of info here, and a few simple projects. This is a big chapter.
Chapter 8: Experiments and Projects - OK, there is a little of the folksy experimental stuff in this book. You may never actually make one of these projects, but they do a great job of demonstrating the principals from the previous chapters in a practical way. On the other hand, if you teach grade school, this is the sort of stuff your kids will absolutely love and remember.
Appendix 1: Options for Specific Instruments - How to best pick up the sound of different types of instruments. Covers all the pickup types well, but really shines in mic placement. Probably the best short treatment of the subject I've seen. There are better (read "bigger" and "expensive") books on the subject by studio experts who have been doing it for years, but this will definitely get you started in the right direction. More tips and tricks.
Appendix 2: Where to Get What - Several pages worth of categorized suppliers. This book was published in 2002, but nearly all of these suppliers still exist. I use a number of them and many are best-in-class.
Appendix 3: Bibliography - Looks like Mr Hopkins favorite books from his personal library. The ones I own are some of my favorites as well. Regrettably, some of them are out of print.
This is an excellent book. Unless you're the engineer type, it will probably be the only book on the subject you need.
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