3100 Clamp-On Bridge Violin Piezo Pickup

I am on stage at least once a week and have been using an instrument mic for years. I didn't want to use a pick up because I am fussy about my sound quality. As we played larger and louder gigs, i just couldn't get my sound right so I finally broke down and bought a pick up after a whole lot of reading and research. My only regret is I waited so long. I love the sound quality. Yes, it does have that electric sound, just as all pickups do, but I run it through a equalizer pedal and it cleans it right up. The sound is wonderful. I also have a very expensive Yamaha electric and it sounds nicer than that. I was worried that it would dampen the sound because of being clamped to the bridge, but the difference was not huge. Besides, if I have to do something quiet and classical, it takes about 30 seconds to remove it. The plug and clamp is also very good quality and attaches firmly to the violin. It was between The Band and the Barcus Berry. The B.B was half the price and had good reviews so I went with it. Im glad I did.Take note if you have not used a pickup, they all have a more metallic sound, but some are much better than others. For the money, the Barcus Berry really sounds pretty good even without the equalizer pedal.

There is minimal muting with the pickup installed. The signal is quite good and accurate to the violin in my opinion.You need to tighten the screws on the bridge once in a while. The lower nut needs to be inside the lowest gap cut on the bridge. This then fits well.There can be a bit more cork in the 1/4" clamp; I found it thinner than I like for something that is clamped on to the violin bout and varnish. Also, if you hear a buzzing all of a sudden, it is likely to be the wire touching the top plate of the violin. I typically pull this wire over the tuners so it doesn't touch the top plate of the violin.Good pickup all in all.

The installation was quick and easy, removal would be just as easy, the pickup does not harm my fiddle or bridge in any way. Nice compact styling that is not an eye sore. The quality of sound is very natural sounding without any incidentally bow noise being transmitted. I would highly recommend the pickup.

The Good:It sounds great. While you *can* use it without a pre-amp, I find that a nice pre-amp will make it sound even better.It's non-permanent, so you can put it on and take it off as needed, even move it to a different instrument.The Bad:It takes a bit more effort to install and remove than other non-permanent pickups. It requires two tools and a relatively calm environment--in other words, you're not going to pop this off one instrument and switch it to another in the middle of a gig.It does mute your acoustic tone a little bit, so if you switch between being amplified and not, you might be removing and re-installing it frequently.Even if you're leaving it on permanently, you'll need to re-tighten those screws every couple of weeks.The Ugly:I left mine on for a few weeks without re-tightening the screws, and the screws vibrated loose.I discovered this in the middle of a gig, so for a few minutes, I had a loud rattle on top of everything I played. Then the rattling went away--because the pick-up had come loose from the bridge. (Fortunately, I was not playing amplified at the time.)Upon examination, I discovered that the smaller of the two screws that clamp the pick-up to the bridge had fallen out. I searched and searched, but it was impossible to find something that tiny, so eventually I called Barcus-Berry support. (Note: I didn't email Barcus-Berry support, because last time I tried that, I got no reply. It turns out that the support email address listed on their site goes to someone who doesn't work for them anymore. Bad Form, Barcus-Berry!)I talked to the support person at Barcus-Berry, and he was clueless. It took a while to get him to understand what had happened, and then he told me that he (A) did not have access to a replacement screw, and (B) didn't know what size it was so that I could order a replacement.So, yeah, I bought a piece of equipment from Barcus-Berry for over a hundred bucks, and their support people couldn't help me replace the 4 cent screw without which it is USELESS.The good news is that I actually have two of these pick-ups, so I took the screw from the other one down to a hardware store, where they were able to identify what it is. Mind you, they didn't have a replacement, but they at least gave me the search terms to use. I've now ordered a pack of 100 from Amazon for a few dollars.So here's what you need if you ever have to replace the screws:The short one: 4-40 x 3/16" black zinc pan phillips machine screw Steel Pan Head Machine Screw, Black Zinc Plated, Meets ASME B18.6.3, #1 Phillips Drive, #4-40 Thread Size, 3/16" Length, Fully Threaded, Import (Pack of 100)The long one: 4-40 x 3/8" black zinc pan phillips machine screwYou're welcome.

Great sound and great tone. The clamp does leave a mark on the bridge though and if the wire touches the tail it does creste a buzz. So far, this is the best piezo I have tried and played with. Finally, the delivery was completed really fast. I was very impressed with the service. I highly recommend.

I'm not sure why everyone is raving about this pickup. I've always used the Fishman V-200 - which lasted me about 7 years of heavy usage; it finally busted. So I wanted to try something new; after reading these reviews, I thought this HAD to be better than the Fishman; not true. It's awful to install; requires screws? Why would I want to put screws anywhere near my bridge??It dampers the sound to the point of you barely being heard through a speaker. I was just using it last night at a gig, and it kept rattling until I simply had to unplug myself and just not play. The screws unscrewed mid-performance and the entire mount started falling off.I can't re-sell it because it's such an awful product - I wouldn't wanna even give this away to a friend - it would be an insult. So now I'm stuck with a s***ty product that I literally threw away $100+ on. I'd have done better to flush my $100 down the toilet.

This pick-up works and is tolerable, but it changes the sound of the violin. Similar to that of a mute placed on the bridge, it dampens the vibration of the sound.'Me not like it', but I left it on a spare instrument just in case of emergency.Even though, unlike this Barcus Berry, a luthier has to carve the bridge to fit it to your instrument, LR Baggs still rules!