There are various strategies available for turning the sound produced by your banjo into an electric signal you can plug into an amp.
Simplest are piezoelectric pickups which attach directly to the underside of your head with adhesive glue, featuring a small jack to connect to one of the coordinator rod brackets.
ACB-4/6 (four or six string)
EMG’s ACB-4/6 banjo pickup employs dual-coil magnetics and adjustable pole pieces to compensate for string balance, creating acoustic chambers between coils for true banjo tone without noise. Professional players love its ability to amplify natural tone without coloration – press the red button below and see if ACB-4/6 Banjo B-Stock fits your music taste and explore its specs!
Goodforme analyzes your musical tastes to provide recommendations of equipment you will appreciate.
Shadow SH B1
Shadow offers an easy-to-install double disc transducer designed specifically for banjos that is said to naturally convey their unique percussive sound to an amplifier. Designed as a direct connect, the short cable and socket ensure its optimal use; customers seem happy with its performance without needing preamp.
CBL Electronics’ CBL-B1 passive piezo pickup is another easy and user-friendly passive pickup, mounting directly to your banjo bridge with sensors underneath each string for effortless playback. Reviews indicate it works great with virtually all kinds of banjo models.
Fishman Pickups
Fishman electric guitar pickups have earned themselves an esteemed place on the market. These active magnetic pickups deliver an amazing array of tones at a highly affordable price point, making them suitable for metal and rock as well as clean sound production when used as neck or bridge pickups. Fishman recently expanded its line to offer signature models which can be found across a range of genres.
Fishman Fluence technology was born from the necessity to create electric guitar pickups that could overcome the hum, noise and frustrating inductance issues encountered with wire-wound pickups. Fishman CEO Larry Fishman wanted a pickup that provided traditional magnetic tones without their negative qualities – hence creating the Fluence series with its revolutionary core which accommodates multiple voices within one single pickup.
Fluence pickups differ from most in that instead of using a fixed magnet to influence its frequency response, they use an innovative printed circuit board with layers of coils connected by “vias,” enabling their team to physically map interaction between strings and magnets and replicate different types of magnetic pickups’ attractive qualities.
Fluence humbuckers come in both modern and vintage versions, each providing its own distinct voice. Modern versions feature alnico bridge and ceramic neck to deliver anything from thick high-gain distortion to single coil chime tones – making them an excellent fit for heavy genres while their use combined with alnico neck can produce even greater variety in sound!