Our rubboard player has been battling with finding a suitable wireless mic that he can clip on to the rubboard.

It's important to the band to have him free to roam..on stage and on the dance floor sometimes !!LOL

We can get him to play into a low set mic stand SM58, but that's too restrictive...and he'd just get frustrated.
.. lot of frottoir players can be a show on their own....Harold Guillory comes to mind.

Any ideas ?? He's currently using a goose neck condensor Audio Technica or similar. The sound engineer is pulling her hair out trying to control his levels and mix.The signal is too hot and we also get that abrasive condensor mic sound.

Darryl.

The further away from a mic, the better. Just kidding. I would think that the other mics on stage would pick him up when he is moving around.

Ganey, I think you were right on with the further the better.
Le Piquant

I used a small "hot-spot" piezoelectric contact
pickup.

It's tiny and sticks on with double sided tape.
I had stuck onto the "rear" side of the rubboard,
close to the bottom so that it wasn't visible.

We used to plug it into a Shure wireless xmitter.

It worked well, but it was more "junk" to setup

I can locate specifics about the mic if you're interested.
I think it's "K&K Contact Pickups".

--bn

It's almost been my experience that you don't really need to mic a rubboard player once he/she gets off the stage unless you're playing at a really loud venue. If they really know how to lay on the board, that frequency tends to really cut through all of the other instruments, amplified or not.

I've heard of a few people using a wireless version of a small clip on drum mic that has been attached to the board with a stationary mount fashioned out of some sheet metal and riveted onto the board.

John

People can probably hear the un-miced frottoir better than you think: they really cut through. However; if you've gotta do it:

I was trying to think of a similar application, and I know that step dancers like to use boundary or "pressure zone" mics on a wood dance floor to pick up their clippity-clops at relatively even gain levels over the extent of the surface. That might work for the frottoir if stuck up near the players sternum with velcro.

Disclaimer: I haven't tried this. Here's the cheapest one out there: http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Crown-Sound-Grabber-II-PZM-Condenser-Microphone?sku=278412

Steve Blais

I have to agree with John, the rubboard is already SOOOO loud that it rarely needs micing. (unless you are recording)

If it's not loud enough, my guess is one of the three below.

1. It's a cheapo rubboard that has no "ring"
Try a better quality board or bend it away from the body.

2. It's being played with whimpy spoons.
Try different spoons or washers, etc.

3. Your band is REALLY LOUD.
(Sorry, too late to save your hearing. :) )

Good luck!

Thanks all....

I've passed on your thoughts to the frottoir player and the sound guy.

The loud band issue is interesting...to me, it's all to do with the foldback level and mix....loud is a relative term....without foldback it's pretty quiet !!...you can definitely hear the acoustic rubboard then ..LOL.
We play to fairly big dance floors and halls/venues with a lot of depth and width.
Peole say our FOH mix and level is really good...on stage , we modify the level through the foldback mix...but with drums, bass, guitars, mando, keyboard,accordions, fiddle, lap steel, rubboard and 4 - 5 vocals operating, ya gotta have 'punch' or ya die !!!
..a Cajun or Bluegrass Folky Acoustic Ensemble we ain't !!..but we get the folks up 'n dancin', that's for sure.

Wow - that's a HUGE band. No wonder it's a challenge.
If the rubboard player wants to do a "solo" make him get in front of a mic on a stand, or somebody elses vocal mic. Otherwise, I agree with the consensus here - no mic. It's not like the rest of the band has to hear the rubboard when he's off in the crowd, and the rubboard player certainly doesn't need any foldback/monitors to hear himself!

Thanks Joel..I've passed that on to the guys.

We are a 6 piece band ...which is big enough....but the fiddle player swaps to lap steel in some songs, accordion player ( Piano and Button )swaps to keyboard,rubboard player plays a little didgeridoo, bass player drums also, mando player swaps to bass at times when we don't need mando...and so on.
Vocals are me on lead with occasional leads and back up vocals from 4 others.

It all works..we've been doing it this way for 5 years now....but from a PA point of view, we have all instruments in the mix through our 24 channel mixing desk.I guess if we took the rubboard out of the mix altogether we'd gain something...for the poor sound engineer, I mean.LOL

Joel said it best, but the rest of the recommendations fall inline to what I have experienced. Rubboards are really more of a visual cue to the audience rather than something that they hang on every note (or scrape). They are loud instruments in the right hands. Sounds like a little ego may be in play, too. "I can't hear myself because of all you loud instruments not wanting to give me a breakdown..."

Just sayin'.

Rubboard players can go there. They've got ZERO load-in and they make an equal cut, right?

A 4-piece is the way to go...

R!CK

Ha Rick..what can I say ?? yep...just WHAT can I say ?...yes, yes and yes.

Our rubboard player , God bless him, does have that ,what they call, " value added " factor...he's got, and gets us, a lot of gigs when nobody else in the band, other than me, has made any contributions in that area.
He also has this certain something when we gig....lost count of how many times I've been asked when turning up to a gig "..is the rubboard player here..? .
He's a big 'ham'....but the punters love it...says something about human nature I guess.

...there's actually been an open discussion about also running a 3 - 4 piece alternative band, being formed from the present members, for smaller venue gigs...surprisingly it's been accepted well...even though the rubboard player would not be in that loop.

I could open a Discussion Board Post about band politics and in-fighting....BUT...it may be better to not go down that road ...!!!!!LOL