FAQ

We do try to keep as much in stock as possible but due to the cost involved many of the less popular items are made to order. This usually take 1-2 days and we will keep you informed and give you a delivery date as soon as we can.

We accept most credit or debit cards through our web shop. We can also send you a payment link so you can make the payment online following a phone order. You can also send payment directly to our bank, our bank details will appear on your invoice. We no longer accept payment by cheque.

If you order online then you will receive options depending on the weight or size of the items you have ordered. These could be from ParcelForce, or DPD. If you have a sepcific requirement please contact us by email so you are charged appropriately.

We can send your order anywhere in the world where there is a postal or courier service. Online orders are restricted to the UK but if you are from overseas please email your requirement with your delivery address and we will provide you a quotation including delivery and a secure payment link. 

Yes. If you are not happy with the items you have received please let us know and if we can do anything to help we will but ultimately you can return them to us for a refund of the product price. 

We try to send all orders on an overnight service but increasingly fewer couriers are offering this.

Orders received in the morning are usually despatched the same day, if the items are in stock.

Sometimes couriers are unable to collect on the day the order has been placed, in which case they will generally go out the following day.

If a longer delay is expected we will contact you to let you know the situation.

In addition to your rights, we allow our customers to evaluate our equipment for 2 weeks after which time it may be retuned for any reason, it does not need to have any fault. As these are products for musical instruments, we understand that you will need to evaluate them with your instrument in a familiar venue. For this reason if you require more than 2 weeks to properly evaluate our products please let us know and provided it is reasonable, we will extend your evaluation period. We do ask for full payment up front but this will be refunded when the items come back in full working order, we do not however refund delivery costs.

When and microphone pickups up sound it does not always pickup the sound from all directions equally, this is by design. An omni-directional microphone will pick up sound from all directions so it doesn't matter in which direction it is pointed. Microphpne that pickup sound in one direction more than in other directions are defined by the relative sensitivity in the different directions. These polar patterns, as they are called, are quite well defined mathematically however often the micropphne does not fully meet these mathematical definitions so are often simply called directional microphones.

Accusound supply a directional microphoine that closely meets the definition of a hyper-carioid polar pattern. Simply put this means the microphone will pickup sound much better at the front compared to the back but also if in a reverberant or non directional sound filed will pickup less ambient sound that a simple carioid polar patternmicrophone. The reason Accusound supply this pattern is because you benifit from the difference between from and back response but you also benefit from better imunity to feedback as less ambient sound is pickedup.

For a fully explanation please see our information pages on microphones.

A contact microphone is one that use vibration of an instrument to pickup its sound. Capsule microphones use the air vibrations, as set up by the sound waves, to pickup the sound, contact microphones use the vibrations set up in the instrument to pickup the sound. A contact microphone will generally be able to produce higher amplified levels before feedback than a capsule microphpone but they can also sound a little harsher than a capsule microphone. They are very good in noisy atmospheres, either due to other background noise or from other very loud instruments. They can be used along side capsule microphones to get the best of both worlds. Accusound manufacture a number of "combined" systems which use one or more capsule microphones along side a contact microphone, these are available for most instruments.

Accusound produce 3 mixer/amplifiers.

AMA-1 is a rectangular cabinet amplifier/speaker that will work well for most applications. It is small and fairly light and produces enough output for a good sized audience.

AMA-2 is a larger version of the AMA-1 which has an extra loudspeaker inside to increase the bass response. This will work well for moderate size venues and for larger instruments or harps with extended bass boards when you want that extra bass reinforcement.

AMA-3 is a slim column loudspeaker. It is good for moderate venues that require a longer reach for the sound. Being a column if mounted on a stand the sound will penetrate further and help your performace.

The amplifiers marked with a "p" at the end, AMA-1p and AMA-3p are the same shape and format as those without the "p" but they are passive units which means they do not have any amplifier inside, they are driven from one of the standard mixer/amplifiers.

We are happy for you to contact us by phone or email.

Email will often allow you, and us, to give a more pecise answer with more detail or reference but if you prefer to talk through your question or perhaps you are not really sure what your question is, please give us a call. Our number is 07774 782503 and it is usually answered quite quickly. If we are busy please leave a message and ask us to call you or try again later.

They all use a polymer plastic material that generates a voltage signal when they are compressed.

For the harp/piano and other contact mic pickups, we use a thin film of this material sandwiched between two layers of plastic for protection.

When the pickup is fixed to the instrument soundboard, the vibrations of the soundboard cause the pickup to bend which in turn causes stretching and compressing of the active material so producing an output voltage identical to the vibrations of the soundboard caused by the strings.

This tiny signal is matched in our preamplifier and passed to the ampifier by the connecting cable.

Yes we do. As the leading UK manufacturer of acoustic instrument pickups, we also make a special product for Pilgrim Harps, they use it in their Wave series of harps.

We brand this technology under "Continuous Pickup Technology"

The reason for this is that rather than using a single pickup on each individual string. Our system uses a continuous pickup that collects all the vibrations of the soundboard which includes the characteristics of the body of the harp and not just the strings.

Obviously the strings on a harp interact with the soundboard to produce the unique sound of that harp. We believe that it is important to collect all these vibrations to reproduce the most accurate sound possible.