Piano mic challenge

[Scodiddly]

I recently built a couple new mics - short mini-shotgun mics from a commercially available "shotgun mic" capsule for which I got a couple samples. I had this crazy idea that a shotgun mic would sound good on a grand piano, because of the peculiarities of the pickup pattern. Specifically, almost omni at low frequencies but very directional at high frequencies. The idea was to locate the mic at the tail of the piano to pick up lows, but aimed at the hammers to pick up highs.

Here are links to three MP3 stereo files of bad piano playing with three different mic setups. The reference is a pair of AKG 414, there's a stereo Audrey, and there's the shotgun mics. I won't tell the order until I've gotten some opinions.

The three setups did sound rather different, so I used EQ to make them sound similar.

http://www.scotthelmke.com/piano-1.mp3
http://www.scotthelmke.com/piano-2.mp3
http://www.scotthelmke.com/piano-3.mp3

Here are some photos of the setups:
http://www.scotthelmke.com/piano-414-1.jpg
http://www.scotthelmke.com/piano-414-2.jpg
http://www.scotthelmke.com/piano-shotgun-1.jpg
http://www.scotthelmke.com/piano-shotgun-2.jpg
(I didn't post a photo of the stereo Audrey, but it was roughly in the same position as the pair of 414's)

[redear]

I prefer the 3rd one but the second was interesting. I did not care for the first. the second seemed muddy in the lows. I thought its tone was interesting though. The third one had more clarity while still havinng the tone I liked. This leads me to a guess. But I will wait.

[tweedclassic]

i liked the second one but i am listen to this on my laptop so its not like i could hear those muddy lows "redear" was talking about.
Cheers
R.

[vibesof20hz]

Nice thread. I like the third one the most. the second one was interesting.

I would try to make it sound better by taking off the lid and giving the mics more space.

[Scodiddly]

So here's the actual list:
1. Shotgun mics
2. 414 mics
3. Stereo Audrey

Of course I've asked other people to listen to these samples, and opinions were all over the board. I myself tend to like either the shotgun mics or the 414s, but the shotgun mics took a lot of EQ. With just about no EQ at all the 414s sounded great.

[Phiz]

I liked 3 the most, 1 was nice too and I could see situations where I might prefer this sound. I didn't like 2.

[GravityRobert]

I liked 1 and 3, 2 didnt do much for me. I think I liked 1 the most.

[Antero]

3 was generally best, I think... 2 was kind of muddy, but interesting. 1 seemed to have very little low end.