- Which pickups are recommended for shamisen? … I read the options on type are limited because shamisen doesn’t accomodate all the kinds of pickups that regular electric guitar do.
As B H says, anything that needs steel strings won’t work on a shamisen. That rules out quite a few acoustic guitar pickups too (anything magentic won’t work). Anything with a piezo will work (at least for experimental purposes), but you aren’t limited to discs. I use an acoustic guitar under saddle pickup like this - http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Pickups/Acoustic_Guitar/Fishman_Thinline_Undersaddle_Pickup.html - placed under the koma with the preamp attached to the dou.
Things like the Mugen 21 (http://www.shamisen-katoh.com/e/mugen21.htm) don’t use pickups - they use a mic attached to the inside of the shamisen under the skin. This is actually better, in my view, because the shamisen is highly percussive and a straight piezo misses all of the ambient sound.
- Are the connectors highly standardized? I’ve understood the guitar amp usually has that 5-6mm audio socket, which back in the day was used for large headphones, how about the pickups?
Fortunately, that day is still with us. The vast majority devices made for amplification will attach with either 6.35mm (1/4") phone jacks if it’s an instrument or an XLR connector if it’s a mic. Pickups in and of themselves usually just have two wires coming out of them (or three sometimes, but you aren’t attaching a humbucker to a shamisen) but those wires are attached to a 1/4" jack.
Likewise, the vast majority of amps take 1/4" plugs (or XLRs if they’re doing mic duties as well).
- Is there a reason not to connect the pickup into a PC/Mac/computer instead? Using an adapter to convert the 5mm connector into the more common smaller one.
One reason is that it will either not sound at all, or it will sound horrible, depending on what sort of set up your computer has. If your soundcard is set up to take line levels only (i.e. it has no instrument inputs) the piezo will sound pretty thin and flat.
You really want either a direct box or a preamp. The under saddles I pointed up above often come with preamps, and you get a nice strong signal out of those. My chain goes shamisen > pickup > preamp > guitar amp. I don’t record much, just to a portable digital multitracker, but my experiences in going direct to a computer haven’t convinced me.
- How much would one expect to pay for a decent guitar amp? Buying 2nd hand could be an option.
You can expect to pay a lot or a little depending on how good an amp you want. The outright best amp for shamisen I have ever heard is an AER Compact 60. Incredibly good (of course the person playing it was pretty good too). That cost AUD1800 (of course the person playing it was a pro). I play through variously a very, very loud 30w Laney valve amp (expensive), a very loud 100w 70s Yamaha guitar amp (used, cheap) and a perfectly adequate little Roland Cube 20 (used, very cheap). The Roland Cube is perfect for experimenting - it cost me way under AUD100, you can cart it anywhere and it’s loud enough to be fun.
In general I’ve found amps voiced for acoustic guitar are a better fit than amps voiced for electrics, but I don’t play much acoustic guitar, so my shamisen has to put up with rock boxes…
- Do you even get good enough sound with a pickup for it to be worth serious attention? (I think professionals who went with electronics always used special electronic shamisen.)
It won’t sound like the natural sound of a shamisen. But you can make it sound OK with some care. A preamp and some time with the EQ helps a lot.
- Would the same pickup also work on different kind of instrument, such as biwa or sitar?
Attachment of the transducers is your main issue - under saddles need something they can slide under easily like a koma. There are some sticky dot type pickups that seem like they’d transfer to other instruments. The cigar box guitar guys seem to like them. Don’t know whether they’d sound any good, but if they’re cheap, it’s worth a shot.
