Shadow SH941 Violin Pickup

The sound is amazing, very close to acoustic sound, but I've had trouble with the installation.

It was easy to install the metal pieces into the bridge wings but they came loose again and the mounting for the jack needed thought. There was no way I was going to stick anything on to my beautiful fiddle so I had two problems.

Solution for jack mounting: I got a small additional chinrest, cut about a third of it off and stuck the jack mounting on top of it. It seemed OK but came loose quite quickly. Then I stuck on a patch of velcro and it's been perfect since then. One problem solved.

Solution for getting the pickups tightly enough into the bridge wings: I'm not quite sure that I've got the complete solution to this problem yet. At first it was fine but after a while both sides worked loose and caused a buzz on some of the notes. The instructions say to wrap the copper strip that is sent with the device round the pickups and then put them in the wings if the fit is not tight enough, but I can't seem to manage this. My latest solution has been to stick a bit of bridge protector underneath the pickup on the left. I couldn't get it into the other side. This seems to have worked for the time being although there is still an occasional hint of buzz. I do have to comment here that I read lots of reviews before I bought this and no-one else seems to have had this problem.

I would have abandoned this pickup or returned it, had it not been for the wonderful sound. It is quite literally the best amplified fiddle sound I have heard. I am comparing it with the fiddle played through a Shure SM94 condenser mike and with the Headway Band. I use all the above with a Fishman preamp and both the mike and the Headway Band work reasonably well but the Shadow is best of all so I will continue the battle to get the fit tight enough to prevent unwanted vibrations.