We wanted to keep everyone abreast of the development of the new Clark JM Two-point mandolin. Austin is carefully finishing the binding and assembling parts into one single working unit. We mentioned in one of our recent April entries, the process of experimenting with maximum placement of the internal pickup. (See Pickup Journey.) Our biggest concern next to true quality accoustic sound is the propensity for amplifier feedback.

We've settled on the K&K (more specs on this later), Austin weighs in: "Just a note on the K&K--while testing, we put it right up to the monitor and couldn't get it to feedback. It would overdrive when pretty much right on the speaker, but no feedback. I am quite impressed with this pickup. I liked the preamp, too and would highly recommend it. It works much better than my Fishman ProEQII."

We'll probably stick with our UltraSound DIplus Direct box for a preamp, but we're eager with anticipation for the Clark JM's June expected delivery.

Stay Tuned!

Posted by Ted at April 23, 2008 9:40 PM