<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(127, 127, 127, 1.0);"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">paul bruesch <<a href="mailto:paul@bruesch.net">paul@bruesch.net</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(127, 127, 127, 1.0);"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">December 17, 2012 10:24:51 PM EST</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#7f7f7f"><b><br></b></font></div>I've tuned this piano a couple times now since they put in this (apparent) sound pickup contraption. I've never seen such a thing elsewhere, and it doesn't look like anything I've read about here. Piano is a Yamaha C2 in a church, FWIW. <div> <br></div><div>Is anyone aware of what sort of device they may be? </div><div><br></div><div>Thanks!<br>Paul Bruesch</div><div>Stillwater, MN</div> </blockquote><br>It's a Helpinstill magnetic pickup system:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.helpinstill.com/">http://www.helpinstill.com/</a></div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helpinstill">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helpinstill</a></div><div><br></div><div>As is the case with magnetic pickups in electric guitars and basses, they greatly reduce the feedback which would be present with microphones in high-gain (loud) environments.</div><div><br></div><div>They are pretty commonly used in rock and other loud types of music (though I did find a NYC recording engineer using a Helpinstill on some crossover-classical concerts I played recently).</div><div><br></div><div>Helpinstill also made an acoustic piano with pickups for a while....</div><div><br></div><div>Joe DeFazio</div><div>Pittsburgh</div><br></body></html>