Realist RLSTVNQT Copperhead Violin Pickup - Most Respected Acoustic Instrument Pickup - Transparent Sound and Texture - Unmatched Dynamic Response - Self-Powered - USA Made

Really good pickup. Pickup provides a very clear sound and is easy to install. Just put the rectangular metal piece under the foot of the bridge, and put the input on the tail-piece. This thing picks up everything: arco, pizzicato, or guitar pick. This pickup does raise the bridge on the C-string side slightly, since the pickup is installed on that side of the bridge. Raised bridge doesn't effect anything about the cello. I tune up the C-string to D, so I can put the cello in D-standard (tuning in fourths instead of fifths: DGCF) so I can play metal on cello. So I'm constantly thumping the open D string (like in metal) and the pickup does awesome at picking up the staccato from pounding the open string with the bow or finger. Pickup works great with bass and guitar amps. Got some beautiful tones out of a Fender Rumble bass amp and a Carvin v3 guitar tube amp. Also works with distortion pedals, to give a growly-acoustic tone. This pickup is great for the price, you get what you pay for. I believe you have to actively try to destroy this pickup, it is solid and built to last. Takes literally 2 minutes to install. Get this pickup and show everyone how beautiful and expressive the cello is..

Absolutely love this 100% recommend this pickup for violin. Install is easy if you know what you’re doing. Only took a few minutes to set up. Easy function and sounds exquisite. For the money this is definitely worth it. An investment for sure but my gigs have definitely improved since getting this instead of an entirely new instrument. All in all 10 out of 10 will definitely be getting the viola and cello versions later. The quality is unmatched by any other piezo electric pickups I’ve tried in the past. A must have for any Giging, recording, or performance artist who needs the authenticity of their instrument amplified.

The installation is a little bit tricky but very doable. Worked very well for my situation – I had been using a clip-on mic but there was too much bleed coming in from other instruments in the band. This pick up solved that problem. It gives a good clean sound. The only drawback is that in order to put my violin back in the case, I have to disconnect the jack from the body of the instrument. But you can leave the business end of the device still under the legs of the bridge if you perform mostly amplified. If you need to play without amplification a lot, you probably will want to remove it because the device does change the tone of the violin a small amount. This pickup would work best if you have two violins: one for amplified stuff you can leave this on, and one not.

Needing to go electric with both my viola and cello, I was looking to recreate a true acoustic tone quality without spending a lot of money and requiring a lot of extra gear. After doing a lot of research, I decided to take the plunge and purchase realist pickups for my viola and my cello. It seemed that this would offer the simplest solution - just plug and play without the need for preamps or worrying about feedback from a mic. So far, I have been beyond pleased. The sound and tonal qualities I get from both pickups is true to my acoustic instruments and provides amplification without adding any metallic qualities. Both realist pickups were fairly easy to install, and plugged into my Behringer keyboard amp/PA along with my keyboard it couldn't have been a simpler transition. The pickups themselves do raise the bridge height a bit AND affect the sound of the instrument when it is not run through an amp, but this was not an issue for me (I installed them on a second set of instruments - not my best viola and cello). If you only have one instrument, this is a semi-permanent solution and using a small condenser mic may be a better idea.

I've been actively using this pick up for a couple months now. Here's been my experience thus far: -Installation is really easy. I had my cello shop install it for me, though, just to be safe. - Using a high quality cable has mattered. There's been a few times where I used a cable and the sound that came out of the pick-up sucked - it sounded really electronic, and the lower and higher registers of the cello were not getting picked up. Swapping the cable to a better one helped. - I think this might have to do with it not being battery powered, but I've found I still have to really crank up the volume on the PA in order to get heard, and I'm playing really hard. Anyone have the same experience with this? I play in a punk rock band, with drums, so it needs to be loud. Using a DI box has helped this a little bit. - Otherwise, the sound carries well, and with a good cable the natural sounds of the cello is carried over very well.

This is an amazing pickup. If you are a cellist who is performing in non-traditional venues, then you should definitely pick this up. The pre-amp is already built into the device, so all you need is a 1/4" cable (found at most electronic stores), and an amplifier. It picks up the the cello's natural sound beautifully without distortion or feedback of any kind. It comes with really basic instructions on how to install it. FYI: (Do not remove the black rubber band that is on the wire. This is to provide the right amount of slack between the inducer and the mounting on the tailpiece.) I suggest lying your cello on its back on a bed. Then you want to loosen the fine tuner pegs on all the strings, and loosen the A and D strings down one or two octaves. Then you should take the C and G strings off. Lift up the foot of the bridge on the CG side and place the copper inducer underneath, with the ridge part towards the tailpiece. Make sure it lines up neatly with the sides of your bridge, and it's okay if it sticks out a little towards the middle of the bridge. Attach the cylindrical part to your tailpiece by wrapping the velcro around it. I play a 3/4 size cello, and it falls about an inch and a half up from the bottom of the tailpiece. Check to make sure that the wire between the inducer is situated behind the fine tuners and the back of the tailpiece. (You can also permanently attach it to the tailpiece, but you don't want to do that if you're using a rental like I am). Once it's installed, put your C and G strings back on, tune up your cello, and get ready to be amplified!

Pretty good pickup, but it definitely needs a pre-amp to help with EQ AND a very high-impedence DI box (Radial makes a few nice ones). The DI is very important because without a high-impedence DI you lose significant tone/signal. That will require phantom power, by the way, but most mixing consoles come equipped with that option. I am using an Empress ParaEQ ahead of the DI and it sounds pretty natural with the cuts that the pre-amp is making in tandem with some channel EQ'ing and reverb. In a high-volume context, you almost can't cut enough low end, especially between 100 and 200Hz. The cello will feed back in a hurry without cutting low end. You may want to consider trying to place the transducer under the treble side of the bridge. I have had to secure the end of the pickup to the tailpiece to make sure that there are no extraneous vibrations and as a result, it has affected the tone of the cello acoustically. Realistically, however, this is not something you want to leave on your cello when playing acoustically verses amplified. Make sure you use quality 1/4" cables as well to prevent tone loss. Lastly, with IEM's, you'll want to make sure you also use a quality RF Transmitter. I'm currently stuck with an AudioTechnica unit that makes the cello sound very farty and uninspiring in my ears, but at least it sounds great in the PA. Wouldn't be an issue if I was using a Shure PSM 900 or better.

I've used this pickup for almost 15 years and just under 400 gigs. Just bought another one for my 2nd upright. The pickup is easy to install (under the bridge foot under E & A strings) and it is very well balanced no matter what string or fingerboard location. Other pickups I've used were boomy on low strings (E & A) and thin on higher strings (D & G). This pickup is very balanced in that regard.