gcpicken - Posted - 12/10/2025:  07:22:01

Hi - what are y’all liking for banjo pickups these days? I have a Fishman on one banjo, but it would be nice to have a set up where you could control volume and tone, by hand or a foot pedal. (Sorry if I’m in the wrong forum)

Edited by - Texasbanjo on 12/10/2025 14:26:13

Brian Murphy - Posted - 12/10/2025:  12:22:09

There is a Live Sound, Recording and Electronics forum. I think there have been a number of discussions there like this: banjohangout.org/topic/406158

Edited by - Brian Murphy on 12/10/2025 12:23:21

1961brd - Posted - 12/10/2025:  12:26:38

myerspickups.com/pickups/the-f...er-series



I've got a Fishman Rare Earth and the Myers pick-up listed above.



The Fishman is installed on a 1989 Gibson RB-Granada,

The Myers Feather Light on a Yates- Lil' Banger (the second one ever made by the Man)... Both pick-ups are GREAT IMHO!

Cheers, Pick-On!

Edited by - 1961brd on 12/10/2025 12:31:11

Ty Presley - Posted - 12/10/2025:  17:33:40

I don't know of a way to control volume and tone by hand or foot control. That would be nice. I've tried to send my banjo signal through an HX Stomp using impulse responses, which can control pretty much anything by foot, but could never get a decent enough sound out of it.

I've been using a Pickup the World into a Tonedexter for live settings and it sounds pretty good. It took awhile to get the EQ tweaked right but now I just do some minor tweaks by hand on the unit directly to adjust for differences in the room (or outside). I do that before the gig and/or during sound checks and once I decide on the settings, I don't usually touch it again. The Tonedexter's EQ controls would be difficult to control on the fly during a gig. There might be too many button clicks and knob turning to do between songs.

In a different banjo, I just recently installed a Fishman Rare Earth pickup that sends the signal to a Fishman Platinum PRO EQ preamp and at home, it sounds a little better but I haven't tried it live yet. I expect I'll use the EQ the same way here but at least the Fishman's controls are all just simple knobs to turn. If I had to, I could quickly reach down and make a tweak between songs and it would only take a second.

Nopix - Posted - 12/10/2025:  18:07:47

I went with the Jones-Hatfield pickup.
I like it very much.

banjopaolo - Posted - 12/11/2025:  02:18:16

I use a fishman platinum pre-amp it works well there is volume control a five band equalizer and you can use i as a DI box…

RB3 - Posted - 12/11/2025:  05:42:23

gcpicken,

If you could find a preamp that would allow you to change the volume and eq wirelessly using your cell phone, that might be a viable approach. I don't know if there are preamps that include that functionality, but it might be worth a search.

Capybara - Posted - 12/16/2025:  09:56:23

Pickups won't have a hand-free way to make any adjustments (since they're on your banjo, of course), but there are pre-amps/DI boxes that have boost pedals. I use the Boss AD-10 (a bit pricey) which has a boost pedal, among some other neat features (like the ability to blend two inputs, so you could blend a microphone and a pick-up to balance tone and volume, the best of both worlds, etc.).

I imagine you could also make a set up with external controls connected to the pre-amp/DI. For an example again, the AD-10 has connections for two footswitches or an expression pedal, which could be used to adjust volume/output or alternate between stored EQ settings (alternative between EQ preset 1, preset 2, etc.). That might do what you want it to, and there are probably ways you can accomplish this more cheaply/simply or more powerfully/expensively (e.g., the Boss EQ-200 can do something similar (switching between memory presets of EQ balances, etc.), but more powerfully).

So either external footswitches controlling a DI/preamp box with EQ presets; external expression footpedal controlling DI/preampt output levels; EQ boxes or DI boxes with built-in expression/switches (I didn't look up any, but they probably exist!).

Martian - Posted - 12/19/2025:  08:22:14

I went with the EMG ACD pickup , and am very happy with it, plenty of volume, tone is pretty close to my banjos tone, comes with built in preamp, that does have a volume control . no drilling, any holes, no soldering

Scott Davis - Posted - 12/21/2025:  10:51:48

I have a Fishman Rare Earth pick up on my Sullivan custom banjo which has a tube and plate flange, it really fits it well had no problems installing it whatsoever. However I just acquired a 2004 Gibson Earl Scruggs standard which has a one-piece flange, I cannot get the output Jack mounting bracket to fit that configuration. I noticed on the bottom of the flange where you can't see without taking the resonator off, that it is not flat, unlike the bottom of the tube and plate flange which is flat.... that is definitely causing problems with that outfit Jack bracket being mounted.