We get a lot of questions about how we “AMPED!” our hornline for the 2025 MBI Winds show. Here’s an inside look at our technical journey when searching for those tones…
Pickups
This experiment started in the 2024 season at one rehearsal spot – a church that has a bunch of guitar amps. We discovered a product called PiezoBarrel and I bought one to try out. Originally designed for clarinet (hence the name), this piezoelectric pickup works by picking up sound from the inside of the instrument. For clarinet, they sell a pre-fabbed barrel that has the pickup adapter pre-installed. Sabrina, our clarinetist, provided some wild examples of what it would sound like with generated harmonies from a Boss PS-6 Harmonist pedal.
