Specifications:
Frequency Response: 5Hz-1Gighz into 10Megohm buffer amp
Resonant Frequency: 85Khz
Weight: >1gr.
Peak Output Voltage: 15V
Output Noise: -120dBV
Output Impedance: 1Megohm
Pre-amp: Recommended
Suggested input impedance: 5-10Megohms
Warranty: 5 years parts and labor
Guarantee: 30 day total satisfaction

Review #1
By Mike Dotson, MIMForum Staff

Pick-Up The World, Inc. is a fairly new company that makes what they describe as “tactile” sensing pick-ups for a variety of different instruments. In fact their literature includes pick-up suggestions for guitars, didgeridoos and just about everything in between. I reviewed their model #27 which they suggested for small body steel string guitars as well as archtops, classicals, mandolins and other instruments.

The pick-up I received was a small strip made of “instrument grade polymer” It is paper thin, 1/4" x 2 1/4" sandwiched in a clear strip and connected by a 10" wire to a plastic 1/4" endpin jack. They also included a small roll of double sided adhesive and a detailed booklet with instructions on installation, placement and attaching to other connectors or directly to a preamp.

The plastic connector is a rather large piece fitted with two plastic “feet.” These feet have double-sided tape on them and were very useful in testing the pick-up, but for a permanent installation I would definitely go with an endpin mounted jack.

First off, a preamp is a must. I used a Fishman blender which allowed me to easily go back and forth between a Shure SM-57 microphone and the pick-up, and also to blend them in varying degrees. The PUTW literature says they will soon have a line of their own preamps, but the Fishman and others will work fine. I tried the unit out on several instruments: an Epiphone Songwriter ( a small solid-topped OO sized 12 fret steel string), a Larivee D sized maple and spruce steel string, a mid ‘60s Martin D-35, and a mahogany Weissenborn / tricone thrown in to make it a real test. It was played through Fender Acoustasonic™ and Blues Jr. amps.

The instructions for steel string guitars are to permanently mount it inside, as close to the bridge as possible. They even state that it will sound “30% better” when mounted inside. Since I was only reviewing it, and some of the reviewing was done on someone else’s guitar, I only mounted it outside the instruments. On the guitars this meant on the soundboard right behind the bridge. The two sticky taped feet on the jack made it easy to mount it on the lower bout to keep it out of reach. Unfortunately the tape was pretty sticky and led to some tense moments removing it from the glossy laquer of the guitars. The pick-up removed easily however. On the lap guitar the pick-up was attached to the bottom of the cone well, inside the guitar.

First impression: this thing sounds pretty good. Make that really good. The main thing I noticed was the pick-up’s ability to transmit the inherent character of each guitar it was tried on. Switching the amp on and off we could hear the same tonal colors whether amplified or not. Even through the Blues Jr. it was evident that these little pick-ups do a good job of not excessively coloring the instrument’s tone.

I switched back and forth repeatedly between bare fingers and finger picks and noted the same changes in the amplified sound that I could hear acoustically. Even the unique tone generated by the tricone guitar was faithfully reproduced (and a tricone lap guitar through a tube amp with reverb and lots of gain is a blast).

As I did all of my review in small rooms it is difficult to report on the feedback issue. I could easily induce it in the flattop guitars, but my close proximity to the amps was likely responsible. The only real drawback I see in contact-style pick-ups is that they reproduce everything, including bumps and taps. When playing the lap guitar if I would bump the nut with the bar a loud “thump” was the result, same as a pick tap on the top of the flattops. A good excuse I suppose to improve my technique, but a bit distracting nonetheless

All in all a very good product. I’m going to permanently install mine, I just have to figure which guitar to put it in. I’ll probably get another one to replace the piezo on my solid-body resonator.

Review #2
by Jim McConkey, MIMForum Staff

Pick-up the World, Inc. has developed a new line of instrument pickups based on a “radical” new polymer developed by the aerospace industry that has only recently become available to the public. They claim the frequency response of the new polymer is flat from 5 Hz to 1 GHz (though no definition of flatness is offered), which gives a much more balanced response than most pickups.

PUTW offers 5 basic models of pickups. They all use the same technology and vary only in size. I tested the Model #27, which is about 7 x 68 mm and is suggested for use in mandolin family instruments, small guitars, violins, world instruments and percussion. It was supplied with a plastic-shelled 1/4" jack with two attached mounting brackets, meant for mounting the pickup on an existing instrument. Included in the package was a small roll of double-sided machinist’s tape. While PUTW insists this tape is sufficient for mounting, I found that it doesn’t take too much strain on the lead wires to lift up the pickup, so I would definitely recommend some extra glue on the lead wire and the opposite end of the pickup for internal installations. The tape is probably sufficient for external and retrofit applications. All pickups are supplied with a standard jack, but the company is happy to supply any jack the customer requires. For new installations, this is generally not desirable because the jack will only have to be unsoldered in order to install the jack in the instrument any way. A five year guarantee is standard on all pickups.

The pickup was supplied with a small (90 x 110 mm) 12 page instruction booklet, the entire text of which is duplicated on PUTW’s web site. Despite the size of the manual, it is surprisingly thorough, if a little terse. The instructions for guitars and mandolins occupy several pages, and are clearly written and concise. Drums and world instruments get a scant one paragraph apiece. Given the variations in these instruments, I would have both expected and liked to see many more hints and background information on installations in these instruments. Both the delivered pickup and the manual are obviously biased towards retrofitting into existing instruments.

The last page of the manual states that they are more than happy to discuss applications. I anonymously e-mailed the company for some pickup placement tips and a few questions on output jacks, etc., and I received a prompt, lengthy and helpful reply from the owner, who is obviously enthusiastic about his products. After testing the pickup on a couple of instruments, I’m inclined to agree with him.

I first tried the pickup as a retrofit on an Appalachian (mountain) dulcimer. Unfortunately, at the time I did not have the recommended high-impedance preamp, so I cannot accurately report on the tone (which suffers the loss of highs with lower-impedance amps) other than to say that much more bass was present than in most piezo-type pickups. There were no dulcimer-specific instructions in the manual (a glaring oversight!), so I experimented with various pickup placements on both the fretboard and the soundboard, and found that I got the most balanced sound when the pickup was taped length-wise in the strum hollow. The fretboard on dulcimers is very thick except for the strum hollow, so its not surprising that the best sound is obtained here. PUTW highly recommends using their pickups in compression mode, so I tried that as well, placing the pickup between the bridge and the fretboard. The output was a little hotter, though I’m not sure it was much as the 30% the manual predicts. The sound was slightly more biased towards the treble in compression mode, compared to a pickup placement 5 mm away on the fretboard directly next to the bridge.

The pickup’s final resting place was in a new cittern I built. This is an octave mandolin-sized teardrop shaped instrument with 4 courses and an X-braced soundboard. I had planned from the outset to install two pickups internally and a stereo output jack. The other installed pickup was a relatively inexpensive Schatten circular piezo pickup. The long rectangular PUTW Model #27 was placed directly under the bridge on the inside of the soundboard. As mentioned before, I secured the ends of the pickup with some additional glue. The Schatten was placed about 1 cm below the PUTW, on the bass side of the bridge. This time using the required high-impedance preamp, I was able to A-B compare the two, and I also compared the sound to my Guild 12 string with higher-end Barcus Berry piezo pickups. The Schatten was very biased towards the treble, as is common with piezo pickups. It gave very good clarity, but no depth. The sound from the PUTW pickup was impressively well balanced, with good bass, mid-range clarity, and high frequency definition. Not surprisingly, the highs sounded somewhat muted compared to the Schatten, but the overall sound was far more balanced. The Barcus Berry system in the 12 string compared favorably with the PUTW, but lacked some of the fullness in the bass. The Schatten pickup was not in the same price class as the PUTW and BB pickups, so its relative performance was not unexpected.

The placement of the pickups in Jim McConkey's cittern. The PUTW Model 27 (the long narrow one) is mounted directly beneath the bridge, as recommended by the manufacturer. The Schatten soundboard transducer (the small round one) is mounted just off the bass end of the bridge to help compensate for the trebly sound. They are wired individually to a stereo endpin jack so that they can be externally blended to taste. The PUTW transducer is automatically selected if a mono cable is used. Photo by Jim McConkey

PUTW claims that as one of the side effects of the new polymer material, their pickups are more feedback-resistant other pickups. I tested this by playing within a couple feet of my monitors, and was easily able to verify that the PUTW was much more feedback resistant than both the Schatten and the Barcus Berry.

At $120 list, the PUTW model #27 is more expensive than many of the common piezo pickups, but the sound justifies the cost. You will be hard pressed to find a more balanced pickup. For recording applications, you will get a pickup that accurately reproduces the instrument without the need for much external processing, and your live performances will greatly benefit from the improved feedback resistance. While their documentation leaves something to be desired, they are constantly improving it and the latest version is always available on the web for easy access. Luthiers at all levels owe it to themselves to check out the new line from Pick-up the World.

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