Fishman V-200-Pickup

I bought this Fishman V-200 pickup to electrify my girlfriend! (Well her violin anyway)

I decided to buy the V-200 over the V-100 as I felt this had a more solid jack connector. The installation was quite straightforward , all I had to do make the gap on the violin bridge a little wider with a piece of folded up sand paper, insert the pickup 'blade' and attach the jack plug mount. No tape or glue to worry about leaving any residue or removing any finish on your expensive violin.

Sound wise, the Fishman actually performs really well. It needs a little bit of outboard EQ or a pre-amp, as it can be a little bit harsh in the 2 to 3 kHz region, and a wee bit of cut here, in conjunction with a hi pass filter to reduce handling noise can make all the difference. Add some reverb and maybe some delay and it sounds great.

Obviously the Fishman can't and won't out perform a nice mic setup, but where feedback from on stage monitors is an issue, or you need to be heard over a rock band these perform admirably.

The only slight negative is the hard wired connection at the jack end, it might have been nicer to see a separate, removable, heavier duty cable here as it feels little flimsy. However once installed, this shouldn't be a huge worry.

I bought the V200 for a Thomann-brand viola. I decided to fit myself and save luthier charges! I used sandpaper and the "feeler gauges"that used to be used for car spark plugs. I had to track down longer "barrels" for the clamp to suit the larger viola body, and I bought a lightweight 1/4" cable. Plugged straight into an amplifier or mixer, the sound is a little scratchy / treble-y. Put through a guitar EQ pedal (something like Boss GE7) buffered the impedance and let me tweak the sound.
Overall - it took a bit of effort, but the end result is good and wasn't too expensive. I use it in the recording studio and live on stage.