About electric kantele, microphones and timbre:

Because there seems to be more interest than knowledge about electric kantele in the international kantele community, this is what Jane can tell you about it:

My first contact with any kind of electric kantele was probably when I met Matti Kontio in about 1995.  I saw that he owned a similar concert kantele to one that belonged to the pastor of our village, made by Heikkilä.  I was in love with that kantele, which has a double bottom and a gorgeous sound, a sound so beautifully resonant that it seemed that I could make no mistakes.  Matti has a similar kantele, but it has a microphone inside it.  I don't remember seeing any kanteles with installed microphones at the Sibelius-Academy in the 1970's.  Since then Matti had belonged to a group that included kantele and had experimented with microphones.

My next further contacts with microphones on kanteles were mainly contact microphones (not permanently attached), often to my horror, for example when I thought I wasn't good enough to play through a microphone in church with Matti and Sinikka in the TV broadcast of kantele church.

Towards the end of the 1990's, Eero Pitkälä and I had played so many kantele churches and other events with large groups of kanteles (Kantele-Finland is known for large groups of traditional kanteleplayers, many times over 40!) that we usually had to stand back to back just to fit in front of the altar.  One of our own, Lauri Sarja from our neighbor city, Nivala, put his head together with his son Kimmo, who is the only official fulltime instrument conservator in Finland, ro find a solution so that the musicians would hear the voice of the leader and follow his tempo.  They came up with a new microphone.

   The product was patented, received CE-approval and the KS-logo was registered.  Meanwhile we tested it with Eero Pitkälä's kantele groups, both in practice and performance.  One major difference is that it picks up only the voice of the strings, so all other noise is left out.  In addition, your PA system won't screech or boom.

The microphone only looks like a guitar mike, it works on a different principle, and took a long time to research all over the world before it was absolutely sure that nobody had patented it before them.  One main difference between it and other mikes is that it only takes the sound from the string, so knocking on the kantele won't be heard.  Other mikes produce ecruciating noise if you accidentally bang a finger, watch, ring or anything else on the kantele.  The sound is edgier than on other mikes, so if you want to sound more like an acoustic kantele, especially one with the famous old Haapavesi sound, you have to make some adjustments on the PA.

Advantages:  A definite advantage is that you can monitor yourself safely without undesired noises from your sound system.  You can lead your groups without the audience noticing by putting the speakers behind the musicians so they hear who is leading and at what tempo, since in large groups the players can't always see and hear the leader. 

Since both major builders of electric kanteles started making kanteles out of planks instead of electroacoustic, they both have used these microphones created by Lauri and Kimmo Sarja from Nivala and Sievi. Our large electric concert kantele has two kinds of mikes, so we can also get sounds by tapping the kantele and so forth if we want.  Neither uses a battery.

The sound of the kantele depends on:

1.   THE WOOD - the quality, age, thickness, cut

2.  TIGHTNESS OF THE STRINGS - Most concert kanteles have tighter strings than are found on kotikantele.  The tighter the strings, the easier it is to tune, since the tuning meter won't be waving as much, but at the same time you will be losing the traditional voice of the kantele (here it is called Haapaveden humina or the Haapavesi hum) so you don't have the beautiful resonance or echo that was typical of kanteles from the shop of Pasi Jääskeläinen with thick pegs and looser thicker strings.  Tighter strings can make the kantele sound colder like a harp, and also what I like to call tinsel.  We had to disqualify a solo piece played on one from our CD, since the difference in the sound was so huge.  This quality becomes even more clear when using a microphone. 

3.  THE BUILDER - every kantele is an individual, and though usually kanteles made by the same person sound similar, they also produce lemons occasionally.

4.  THE KNOTS - the way the strings are attached, as well as what they are attached to, not to mention that all kanteles aren't stringed with metal, but sometimes with horsehair or carbon fishing line.  Usually the timbre of the kantele changes when the instrument is "broken in", in other words, the knots tighten.  Tighter knots also make tuning easier. 

5.  THE AGE OF THE INSTRUMENT - usually good kanteles sound even better when they get older, even despite cracks in the wood.  This is partly due to the joints which seem to disappear and become one.

6.  RUST AND OTHER DIRT - Rust on the knots, or anywhere else on the string, for that matter, can sound ugly.  Old wound strings aren't as resonant and don't sound as good when dust gets stuck in them.  Always play with clean dry hands.  You can and should sand the strings (but never the wound strings) with steel wool and oil them with a light oil afterwards.  Then wipe the excess oil off with a clean piece of fabric.  Professionals restring their instruments twice a year.  When we've returned from countries with high humidity the strings have rusted.

7.  YOUR FINGERS - hard finger pads or strong finger actions make uglier sounds.  Different players have their own ways to keep their fingers soft.  Most important and easiest is to avoid playing too long at one session until your fingers get used to it.

  Why use an electric kantele?  Some kantelebuilders, whom I actually agree with, say that we should explore getting that huge lost resonance back acousticly.  Russians won't replace their thick gusli pegs and strings with thinner ones, and they have a metal strip on the bridge.  Kantelemakers say that the bridge would make it stop being a kantele, although Martti Pokela donated a similar small kantele to the city of Haapavesi Pokela collection.  On the other hand, many kantelebuilders have added wings to their kanteles nowadays, imitating instruments typical to lands to the south of Finland, and they are still called kanteles.  The wing adds decibels.  Our new electric concert kantele, the "sun" kantele, has a much bigger voice acousticly than its predecessor, so development has happened there, which is quite nice when unplugged.

   Electroacoustic kantele still needs adjustments on the PA, but can sound like a kantele more easily than the electric "plank" kantele.  Electrified kantele should be used:

A.  to be heard in places where the acoustics don't suffice (too much background noise,too far from the audience, near water in some cases), or other instruments in the group drown it out, around old people or others with poor hearing

and/or

B. when you intend to play with a larger volume for a longer time, you can save your fingers by playing with a lighter touch and also play faster.

C.  when you intend to use other electric devices, such as speakers, miksers and effects machines, which can be a lot of fun and help bring new listeners to kantele.

When we play amplified, we've decided to give solos without effects to the electroacoustic kanteles and leave the effects to the plank electric kantele.  The solos sound warmer and softer when the kantele is hollow, as is also in guitar.

WHEN YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A NEW KANTELE, EVEN AN ACOUSTIC ONE, YOU SHOULD TRY AND COMPARE SEVERAL KANTELES WITH A MICROPHONE, YOU WILL BE AMAZED AT THE DIFFERENCE!