humbuckers on an acoustic

[jake_xms3_punk]

i was thinking about putting a humbucker in an acoustic, maybe even 2 pickups (one closer to the neck) and a 3 way switch.
the guitar already has a piezo pickup so i was thinking of having two outputs going into 2 different amps. has anyone done this?
i want more of a hollowbody sound through the magnet pickups while still having the acoustic sound through the piezo. good idea? bad idea? any thoughts?

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

There are mounting brackets that allow you to mount pickups in the soundhole or to the heel of the neck. There are also a lot of different styles of soundhole pickups. You could then run the wires to a separate soundhole jack or you could wire both pickups to a stereo jack and build a passive splitter for the other end. The two pickups could share a common ground.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

even GFS has em

 

[Bass_Medic_05]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

Thats pretty cool maybe something like that on my Earthwood.....hmmmm

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

I thought that magnetic pickups didn't work with acoustic strings . . . it might be OK if you strung your acoustic with an electric set.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

I thought that magnetic pickups didn't work with acoustic strings

Most soundhole pickups can still be used with acoustic strings. Acoustic strings have a steel core, so they can be used with magnetic pickups. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_string#Core

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

I thought that magnetic pickups didn't work with acoustic strings . . . it might be OK if you strung your acoustic with an electric set.

False!

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

They may produce sound, but wouldn't the balance be all out of whack? The plain steel strings would register much louder that the phosphor-bronze wound ones I would figure . . . or am I off base here?

 

[crusty philtrum]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

They may produce sound, but wouldn't the balance be all out of whack? The plain steel strings would register much louder that the phosphor-bronze wound ones I would figure . . . or am I off base here?

Yup, this. I had a Bartolini magnetic pickup in the soundhole of an acoustic guitar, and the treble strings were plenty loud and the bass strings almost non-existent by comparison. I ended up having to tilt the pickup at a ridiculous-looking angle, to the maximum the adjustment would allow, and even then it needed to be angled more.

Next string change, i used nickel strings .... that got the balance back but changed the overall sound, made it sound much less like an acoustic and more like an electric or semi. I gave up and took the pickup out and changed back to phosphor-bronze strings.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

They may produce sound, but wouldn't the balance be all out of whack? The plain steel strings would register much louder that the phosphor-bronze wound ones I would figure . . . or am I off base here?

It depends upon the pickup. Even the lightest gauge acoustic strings tend to be heavier than electrics. They are heavier because they need mass in order to produce sound vibrations and in order to achieve that mass fairly thick steel cores are used to withstand the tension. So you could have a phosphor bronze wound string that actually has a larger magnetic signature than a light electric string due to its larger diameter steel core.

 

[beandip]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

There's a reason you don't see it much, if at all... I can promise you're not the first who's had this thought.

Let it go. Stick to electric guitars for humbuckers, and leave the innocent acoustics out of it.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

My Fishman Rare Earth 'bucker has excellent balance with a normal acoustic set. Another option is DR's Zebra strings. My younger bro uses them in a Dano U3. They give that guitar a bit more warmth and a bit of acoustic character and get picked up just fine by all 3 lipsticks.

 

[J Moose]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

I thought that magnetic pickups didn't work with acoustic strings . . . it might be OK if you strung your acoustic with an electric set.

I've seen quite a few guys over the years use bronze acoustic strings on electric guitars... ben harper would be one notable player! It totally works and sounds fairly unique.

Plenty of people have put humbuckers & magnetic pickups on acoustics... John Lennon would be one guy with the gibson J160E. Pickup is stock... plug it into a small amp, like a champ or silvertone & bang out some chunky chords. Sounds great for that. Not a very natural sound, but its a cool sound... a sound that's been on LOTS of records over the years.

I work with another guy who has a modified humbucker in his acoustic and uses that as the cornerstone of his rig, which is a bi-amped acoustic guitar. Super crazy stuff. Pizeo goes through one setup, humbucker through another then combined with a mixer.

 

[Bludave]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

i was thinking about putting a humbucker in an acoustic, maybe even 2 pickups (one closer to the neck) and a 3 way switch.
the guitar already has a piezo pickup so i was thinking of having two outputs going into 2 different amps. has anyone done this?
i want more of a hollowbody sound through the magnet pickups while still having the acoustic sound through the piezo. good idea? bad idea? any thoughts?

Umm............. Why?

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

Years ago I put a strat pickup in the soundhole of a garage sale Pencrest steel string. It was surprising how much of the acoustic vibe that still came through. The sound was raunchy and raw with distortion, perfect for The Black Keys or old delta blues.

 

[super rad stuff]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

been there, done that. i stuck a jazzN with an alnico 2 in the soundhole, hooked up to a 250k volume, along with nickel strings. honestly, there wasn't really any acoustic tone, it was more of a jazzbox kind of sound. kinda cool if that's what you're lookin' for...

 

[Northwinds]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

Ted Nugent would dig it, can you imagine the feedback of a humbucker equipped acoustic? :eyecrazy:

 

[marvar]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

There's a reason you don't see it much, if at all... I can promise you're not the first who's had this thought.

Let it go. Stick to electric guitars for humbuckers, and leave the innocent acoustics out of it.

Gotta' go with Beandip on this one-
One of my sayings is:
"Every time you get a 'great idea' that seems groundbreaking-you can be sure that someone else has thought of it too, tried it, and if it had worked, we'd all be using it ."

 

[jake_xms3_punk]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

i know I'm not the first one to think of it.
i have the piezo pickup for an acoustic tone, i want the magnetic pickup for more of an electric tone so i can use both in one song together or separate ie acoustic verse with a overdriven chorus but keep the acoustic sound in the background through a different amp if you get what i mean.

 

[marvar]

Re: humbuckers on an acoustic

i know I'm not the first one to think of it.
i have the piezo pickup for an acoustic tone, i want the magnetic pickup for more of an electric tone so i can use both in one song together or separate ie acoustic verse with a overdriven chorus but keep the acoustic sound in the background through a different amp if you get what i mean.

I think you would do better by addressing the problem in the opposite direction=
Get an electric with humbuckers, add a piezo saddle bridge, an seperate volume control, and output- a la Pete Townshend.