Schertler

When the Schertler Side arrived and I plugged it in my piezo rig, which consists of a Boss AD-8. First of all, I noticed the extremely clean sound. 20-20k, clean, balanced and quiet. Then I noticed how incredibly loud this speaker can get. So much so that it overpowered my tube amp, which was definitely a first. No matter how I eq'd the AD-8, the speaker delivered and it never went into clipping. Even with the volume on the speaker and my pre-amp dimmed, it seemed as though the speaker never broke a sweat. At one point I was seeking more cut than my pre-amp could deliver, so I switched the K10 eq into "vocal" and holy smokes that was exactly what the doctor ordered. I've had some past experience with the JBL's first gen EON and the first gen Mackie SRM450 and while those were great speakers, this just blows them away. This speaker is smaller, lighter, more powerful and better sounding; very smooth from bottom to top. And there are more ins and outs and overall control on this speaker than you could ever need. I cannot tell you how pleased I am with this purchase. I suggest you given the Schertler Side a shot, its probably a name you haven’t heard before but they offer great support and a 2 year warranty outside of the original store warranty that you get. You will love the sound and the compact feature of its design. With the handle on the side and its weight is pretty light you can take it anywhere with you. Its tough as well, so don’t worry about if you drop it or bang it on something. It can handle what every task you throw at it. I purchased mine used, an Schertler still offered me great support an extended the warranty for me too! Great product and company.

This is the budget version of the Schertler Dyn Pickup. I own both of them and even though the more expesive one costs almost three times as much I do like the Basik better. The version I am describing comes with a special 'goo' which attaches the microphone to the top of the instrument and can very easily be removed again. In this PRO model the power is supplied via phantom power (a DI Box is included that changes the currency from 48V to 10V). If you don't have a mixing board or amp that delivers such a currency then buy the other Basik model. There you will get a battery pack instead - everything else is identical. These pickups are very easily installed and have a pretty high output. I have used mine for all types of acoustic guitars. But they really can be used for many different applications. I once recorded a Cajon with it...or try it on a Cello! The reason why I like these better than their more expensive cousins is because it is a lot easier to get a good sound quickly. The Dyn pickups don't sound so open right away and the placing and EQ settings are a little time consuming. Don't get me wrong - they sound great but for live applications I have grown to love the Basik pickups. They could have constructed the battery pack better (give it a clip) and maybe they could have supplied the musician with a pouch or something. The carton box just doesn't cut it.

This is a transistor amp for acoustic instruments. Scherlter is a company based in Switzerland and they have specialized in designing pickups and amplifiers. The David is probably the most popular amplifier Schertler is building and is especially liked by classic guitarists. But it can also be seen in a lot of other applications (violin, mandonlin, etc.) It has basically two channels (with EQ) and a built in nice sounding Spring Reverb. Getting this amp to sound good is no chore. You can use the EQs to shape the sound quite nicely and the two inputs (mic and instrument) make it possible to use the built in pickup of an instrument along an external microphone. The manual is very simple and very clear at the same time. Like other amps by Schertler you can also find a few product specific featurs on this one (i.e. 10V Phantom Power for their Dyn Pickups). The sound is very clear and warm at the same time. When you play a classic guitar, violin, mandoling or something in a similar frequency range this amp is perfect. It doesn't weigh a lot and has a very good carrying handle. If you are playing Cello or steelstring guitar then you might want to look into a bit more power (s. my review about the Schertler Unico). It's not that these would sound bad on the David and if you usually play quite gently I would still go check it out. But the Unico has more dynamic headroom and projects these instruments a bit more balanced. I have known about these amps for about five years now and built quite a good customer base in the store I used to work at. They are not cheap but you won't regret spending the money as these amps seem built to last. Schertlers customer support is very good and they really care about the quality of their products. If you are looking into buying an acoustic amp also check out AER (more expensive), SR Technologies (also very good) or Roland (cheaper but also doesn't sound as good).

I have known this amp for about four years now (the upgraded version 2 came out about two years ago). Schertler is a small Swiss company specializing in pickups for acoustic instruments. Making good amps for such an application was the logical next step and it really makes sense to look at pickup systems for acoustic instruments as one unit consisting of amplifier and pickup. The Unico really sounds great and the EQ settings give you a lot of tweaking potential. Often these euqalizers are laid out so they can cut frequencies quite well but are not very good at enhancing the sound. I have compared it to AER and the Roland AC-60 and it beats both of them. If you are looking into amplifying your nylon string gutiar then AER or the David (by Schertler) are very nice options as well. But for steel string guitar you need more punch in the low mids and more dynamic headroom. These combos are not very cheap - but they are well worth the money. There are a few functions that Schertler has incorporated which are more specific to their pickup systems (10V Power supply, resonance filter) and can be confusing if you don't know the unit. The weight might be a bit of a problem for some people - I still think it is quite portable. If you like the sound but would like to have a more 'generic' outline then check out SR Technologies (I think they are from Italy). They sound very good and are a little cheaper (I actually believe they build part of the amps for Schertler...).