Cherub Violin Pick-up (about $10) useful for Dulcimer

If you are looking for a cheap pick-up for your dulcimer then here is an option worth considering. It is the Cherub Violin Pick-up WCP-60V and you can find them for under $10.00

The unit is a simple piezo disk mounted in rubber with a sprung swing arm to clip into any sound hole. Normally I don't like any of the clip on or stick on pick-ups as they all suffer from picking up excessive body handling noise but this little pick-up has a number of features I really like that sort ofmove me towards recommending it for some dulcimer applications. The things I like are:

a. The price!

b. The ease of fitting and switching between dulcimers. That thin single swing arm design means I canclip this pick-up into just about any sound hole.

c. The long lightweight lead. Probably not very robust but it is easy to handle and doesn't drag on the dulcimer when playing.

d. The Tone: Well I've tried it in a couple of different acoustic guitar amps and it really isn't bad at all. The pick-ups output is reasonably strong without a pre-amp. I needed very little e/q correction to get a very natural sound. I tried it with a number of vintage and modern dulcimers and each instrument's character came though well (with some pick-ups all dulcimers end up sounding the same!!!).

If I was going direct into a p/a then I would use a pre-amp. I tested the unit with a pre-amp and it does make a difference. You will get body handling noise from this pick-up and you will need to play around a little with positioning the unit as small changes in position effect the tone. Also, you'll need to make sure you don't bash the pick-up when strumming or you will deafen your audience!!!

This pick-up is no where nearas good as the LR Baggs undersaddle (that has minimal body handling noise and a strong output) but it is atenth of the price and can be switched easily between instruments (even during a gig). The Cherub is certainly better than many of the more expensive internal stick on pick-ups I have tried from some well known pick-up manufacturers. I strongly suspect that the Cherub is a good pickup for our needs more throughaccident rather than design - which is often the way with cheap electronics! It doesn't look particularly robust but it doesn't really need to be as long as you are careful with it.