Pick-up???

[Victoria Johnson]

A pickup picks up the sound of an instrument, usually for amplifying the sound. Here is what Dusty Strings says about pickup: https://manufacturing.dustystrings.com/products/dusty-harp-pickup

You can attach a pickup (such as the Dusty Stings harp pickup) to an acoustic instrument, or you can get an electric instrument where the pickup is built it (think electric guitar or electric harp where there is a pickup for every string). The main difference is that you can play an acoustic instrument and produce a reasonable sound without an amplifier, where as an electric instrument does not produce a good acoustic sound when played and will require an amplifier (unless you want to play in the middle of the night and be quiet!). There are also electroacoustic instruments where it can be played as an acoustic instrument (usually a quieter compare to its acoustic counterpart) or as an electric instrument with amplifier and all.

Pickups can be useful for a variety of reasons: gives you a bigger sound when playing in a wedding or event where the venue is noisy, makes sound recording easier, allows you to connect to effect pedals or loop pedals, etc.

Here is a recording from UK harpist Sam MacAdam recording her pedal harp with a Dusty Strings pickup: https://youtu.be/IZZ7Ck5H0L0

Here is a piece of music played on an acoustic harp and recorded with a phone: https://youtu.be/5VgKreXNdEM

And the same piece of music played on an electroacoustic harp with effect pedals and recorded directly from the harp to a computer: https://youtu.be/e3SexrMyR78

It is worth pointing out that it is possible to record a good audio from the harp without using a pickup. While I don’t have the know-how to do it, Mr. Ralf Kleemann does. 😉 https://youtu.be/S7MXEii8nSM

[Eileen Korby]

Hi Victoria. I really appreciate your responses. You are so full of information. So, there are two uses: 1 – amplification and 2 – recording. Interesting. I don’t think I would ever need either, although it would be interesting to be able to record myself to see my progress. But, for my purposes, I think the phone or computer mic would be sufficient. I think a pickup would be needed by professionals.

Thank you for all the info!

[Victoria Johnson]

You are welcome! You can do a lot with a phone for recording harp videos, and that’s what I do majority of the time. I asked Ralf Kleemann about recording the harp (he is a harpist and sound engineer) in my interview with him. I can’t recall when the discussion happen (and we chatted for a while lol); he spoke about placement of the phone and what not briefly. https://youtu.be/Gty6UxLxsxM

[Eileen Korby]

Cool! Thank you.