At the beginning of this year we installed a Helpinstill Piano pickup.
The Helpinstill history goes back to the 1970s with piano rockers turned living legends Billy Joel, Elton John when a loud, present piano sound was needed in the PA. The problem with miking piano's has always been that the ambient sound of the band was far louder than the natural sound of the piano, making it difficult to place microphones in such a way that the necessary isolation was obtained. So Charles Helpinstill had a different idea: what if you didn't use a microphone at all. The piano pickup was born.
You can see a picture of the pickup in our 5' grand at New City Fellowship at the bottom of this page. It takes a little time to get the balance of the three bars correct, and, we've experienced some noise issues when a keyboard is on top of the piano, BUT it is by far the best piano sound that we've had, replacing the British "C-tape" as my piano amplification method of choice.
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