Miking a concert harp for SR

[ExistanceMusic]

I'm doing sound this saturday for a turkish band that use, among othr things, an enourmous concert harp, which is currently using a piezo pickup somewhere near the higher strings.
Went and saw the band last night, and I thought the sound was lacking definition, comapred to how it should sound acoustically, and I was wondring if any of you had any tips for actually micing one up?
The guitarist in the band owns the bar they play at often, and I have a very good chance of getting a regular gig there (like 3/4 nights a week, well paid) so I really want to give it a good shot, PLUS I could probably swing some gear purchases if I have to buy some mics.
Not sure what they've got at the moment, I fear it's a very limited selection, so any suggestions at all you guys can coe up with will be appreciated.

For context, it's a smallish stage is a decent sized bar, with a 16ch A+H Mixwizard as a board, a bunch of DBX overeasys and 4 passive Quest FOH and moniter loudspeakers.

[Remoteness]

The few times I recorded a concert harp, I went with the instrument's contact mic and added a condenser mic (usually a KM140, C460, C451, even a SM81) pointing at the middle of the sound board. Angle the mic away from loud instruments that may surround the harp.

Besides the mic, try a compressor with just under a 3:1 ratio. It keeps the notes balanced by clamping down on the dynamic range a bit. It will keep the higher notes from over powering the lower notes, which tend to get lost live.

You get more control of the instrument in the mix this way.

[ExistanceMusic]

Thanks Steve, I'll give it a shot. I think an 81 would be a good addition to their mic locker anyway, so if they don't have one already, I'll try and con them into it, I quite like those mics.
Gigs tommorow night, fingers crossed.

[JayCrouch]

schoeps cmc6 / mk41 caps.

incredible off-axis response, possibly the coolest hypercard in the world. It would just work, and with some simple compression (something as basic as a RNC in SNM 2:1 would work fine).

Schoeps prices came down, people need to hear them - they make you seem like you know what you're doing.

schoeps Mikrophone sind die entscheidende Übersetzung des körperlichen Tones zu einem notierten Mittel

[7rojo7]

This works for the studio too. Any SD condensor in the sound hole under the soundboard, beats a contact pickup. You would swear that it's going to sound boxy etc...etc...etc... but it doesn't. There's lots of definition, lots of highs and lots of lows. What it might miss is the very HF percussive element, but not the important Hi end or percussive element, it might even be something that you would want to tame in the end anyway. It works great for the monitors because you have an acoustic barrier between the speaker and other loud sources and the mic.-. Omnis work better than cardioids, proximity effect etc...

[ExistanceMusic]

Thanks for the advice guys, it was a sweet night. Still waiting for a callback from the venue, but I'm 99% sure I've got a great regular gig there. The current soundguy, who didn't know I was lined up for the job once he leaves anyway, may have inadvertantly sped his departure by raving on to the venue owners about me after the gig

That being the case, I think for the moment instead of buying recording gear for a while I'll start building a nice mic collection for live AND studio work, starting with a pair of SD condencers.
Thinking along the lines of a couple of 4041s followed by some of those little AKG clip-on jobbies to supplement the venues fairly average collection.

Oh, by the way, some other fun things I got to mix throughout the night included a Bazouki, a piano accordian and two very different and very strange traditional turkish guitars. Gunna be a fun gig