Remember that you need phantom power for this. I plugged into a phantom power unit and then into a measly 15 watt practice amp--and WOW! The sound was amazing when I had the gain at only .5. I was having trouble mic-ing my mountain dulcimer and this is the solution. Great buy! I might add one or two more to the gig kit just in case. So happy with this!! And it's tiny! If you're trying to mic dulcimer, fiddle, mando...anything with a small body, do this! You can get different attachment brackets from heim for other instruments, like horns, etc.

I own several of these mics - total of six, I think. I've been very happy with how they sound on everything I've tried. I use them mostly for live reinforcement, and I don't experience any unusual feedback or side-spill.

Grand Piano - two of them mounted directly to the harp; one pointed at the left wall, right over the place where the strings cross; and one pointed at the hammers from about 18 inches away, somewhere in the top three octaves (depends a lot on your piano - you have to experiment). Great stereo image with really accurate and detailed sound.

Double Bass - mounted under the bridge, pointed at the center of the instrument body. Beautiful, rich tamber with crisp attack and detailed thump. Arco passages have a hint of bow without heavy overtones. Quite nice.

Cello - again, mounted under the bridge (through the arch), pointed at the instrument body, with the capsule positioned around the end of the fingerboard. Sounds like a cello should sound, rich and resonant with detailed overtones and a lovely rasp with heavy bowing. Couldn't ask for a more natural sound.

Flute/pennywhistle - mounted below the tuning slide, toward the embechure, pointed at the player's lips. very clear and accurate. Use a foam cover to avoid puffs of breath from the musician.

Guitar and ukulele - mounted on the bottom of the lower bout, below the saddle, pointed at the fretboard. Use a soundhole plug to avoid howling (typical with guitar). Careful to not bump it on stage. Very accurate, so use it on nice sounding instruments - it will only make a bad instrument sound worse by amplifying the unpleasant parts.

These mics sound really good. If you know how to place mics for live sound, you'll find all kinds of excuses to use them.

If you need a great microphone for a grand piano, you really must give these a try. I've used some instrument mics styled like this one costing 4, 5, 6, 10 times as much that didn't sound one bit better than this one. I bought two but ended up only using 1 because I don't need tons of low from the keyboard because we have a bass player. Both of them yield rich, percussive tone that our system lovingly shared with the whole room and with the band. No feedback issues (cut 250 and 500 narrow and kinda deep) but our piano is literally 12 feet from the left main. Piano lid on short peg but it would work with the lid all the way closed. Enjoy! This is a problem solver.

I bought two of these for live sound on a baby grand piano. They are easy to set up with the magnetic base and flexible gooseneck giving unlimited options for placement. The clip on the XLR connector is a nice touch, so the connectors hang neatly on the back edge of the curtain. After dialing down the parametric EQ to eliminate feedback at 250Hz and 500Hz, I have not had any feedback issues even with piano fed to various monitors on stage, either with the lid open or closed. The sound is rich and realistic, and with the right mic placement, the frequency response is very flat.

I am told I have a good ear for live mixing and home hi-fi, and while I haven't had the luxury of comparing these to mics costing 8 times as much, I would say for live performance or home recording these do the trick very nicely.

The thin coax from the mic to the XLR connector isn't very strong. Very easy to break and I can't find any way to repair it.

Lost one of 6 purchased in the first 5 minutes of use. Certainly was caused by user, but the cable is VERY flimsy so I expect more failures in the future.