Meinl CAJ8MB-M cajón pickup, makah-burl

General

The CAJ8MB-M is a pickup cajon by Meinl. Inside the body, behind the makah-burl frontplate, you'll find an active preamp system. You play the instrument by simply taking seating yourself on the its padded top, and striking the frontplate with your hands and possibly even your heels. The resulting vibrations are then picked up by the internal snare wires, producing a sound that is picked up by the B-Band By UKKO DST pickup microphone. Thanks to the long-lasting battery, you'll only have to plug in a cable and you're ready to amplify your playing if the stage is too big for a conventional cajon.

Inner workings

As mentioned before, there is quite a lot going on inside this cajon. Of course, just like on a more conventional Meinl cajon, you can still adjust the front plate and the tension of the snare wires with the included Allen key. As you tighten or loosen the snare wires, you can increase or decrease the amount of sizzle they produce. The sound you create resonates throughout the body and is picked up by the DST pickup mic. That mic, in turn, transmits that signal to the preamp, which can send it through to a speaker when you plug in a jack cable.

Padded seat and bottom protection

It's clear that the Meinl CAJ8MB-M is not your average cajon. Luckily, like other Meinl cajons, this model also has a comfortable padded seat on top for you to sit on. Furthermore, as it is likely that you'll rock the cajon a bit as you move along to the music, you'll find special rubber feet on the bottom that keep your cajon from being damaged and prevent the sound from distorting due to direct contact with the ground.