Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

[Erlend_G]

Is there any pre-made mounting brackets that will let me mount a PAF-sized humbucker in the sound hole of my acoustic guitar?

Also, would a Seth Lover be a good pickup for this use? I'm trying to find a way to squeeze some really wooden, fat and jazzy tones out of my acoustic guitar, running it semi-dirty trough my amp.

 

[jerryjg]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

Drop that silly idea. Duncan makes some of the best acoustic guitar pickups in the world. take it and run with it!

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

Without silly ideas, there are alot of things that wouldn't have been invented. My guitar already has a piezo setup that works wonderful for strumming, picking and everything, but it sounds very... acoustic.

So, do you know of any ideas to mount a hummer in a soundhole?

 

[jerryjg]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

Without silly ideas, there are alot of things that wouldn't have been invented. My guitar already has a piezo setup that works wonderful for strumming, picking and everything, but it sounds very... acoustic.

So, do you know of any ideas to mount a hummer in a soundhole?

well I hope it works out for you. Ive never heard of anyone doing that. Hope you prove me wrong.

 

[Sanford]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

My initial thought on this is to use a humbucker with long mounting tabs and bend them to reach the sides of the soundhole and screw into place. If you don't want to put holes in the guitar top, I'd say some sort of clamp could be rigged up.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

A long time ago I got a Pencrest acoustic from a garage sale and it's action was unbearable so I put a strat single coil in the sound hole and I ran the wire out through a endpin jack. I used regular steel strings and it was a delta blues slide monster!

What I used was some drapery hanging hardware to mount the pickup. I just created two Z shaped brackets and drilled holes in each end. One end mounted the pickup the other attached to the top.

Or you could take two plastic cofee lids cut them to the rough size of the soundhole and glue a piece of soft foam in the middle. Then cut a square hole to mount the humbucker. The soft foam would hold the pickup mount in place and would also kill feedback, while the plastic on either side would lend rigidity. This also would allow you to non-permanently mount the pickup.

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

I believe my father had a humbucker for soundhole mounting. It just had a metal "clamp" on each side that you pushed together with your fingers before mounting, and it would then sit nicely in the hole. I can't find something with that design anymore, though.

I were thinking about making a plywood frame to screw the pickup into. The frame would be made out of two main pieces sitting a couple of millimeters apart, and some very, very thin foam inside. I should then be able to get the "frame" in the soundholes broadest point (center), and press it forwards (to where the sound hole is narrower) to get it to sit.

Am i completely lost now?

 

[Sanford]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

Snowdog's idea sounds better to me than what I came up with. Killing feedback, nonpermanent mount, innovative use of coffee can lids....brilliant! +1 to that, my friend.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

Thin plexiglass would probably be a better choice in terms of rigidity.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

I think Shadow made a 'bucker for acoustic soundholes.

Also, I use my Alvarez 5047 as a jazz guitar. I installed a Fishman Rare earth humbucker. While I can make it sound very acoustic, with the right EQ, it can sound like a big, smooth jazz box.

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

I just realized that the SD Woody HC is just about what i need. Only $50 from musiciansfriend too.

I'm gonna try one, and if I'm not satisfied, I'm going with coffee lids.

 

[Guest]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

What about those feedback covers? You could attach the pup to that (if you built up the thickness) and that would be that.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

What ever you do, be sure to use GHS White Bronze strings. Specially made Bronze alloy for magnetic pickups!! Works great!

 

[emilzd]

Re: Mounting humbucker in acoustic guitar

Is there any pre-made mounting brackets that will let me mount a PAF-sized humbucker in the sound hole of my acoustic guitar?

Also, would a Seth Lover be a good pickup for this use? I'm trying to find a way to squeeze some really wooden, fat and jazzy tones out of my acoustic guitar, running it semi-dirty trough my amp.

Although this is an old post, I feel inclined to answer it. There are various solutions to your question, so somene may find this information useful. One of them is described here.https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/The_Tone_God_Introduces_the_Acoustick_Pickup_Adapter

I upgraded my electro acoustic Ibanez mounting a humbucker (a solution came up one day) in the sound hole and its output goes to an end pin jack.I dont use volume or tone controls (although I made a little box with passive tone contorls to run the signal through it, if needed). On my gigs I use the inbuilt piezo system. and the humbucker may serve as a backup solution (if tha battery runs dead) or I can run it through a pedalboard into another input on the mixer. For home recording, I have several possibilities: 1.direct feed from the inbulit piezo,2. humbucker goes through the pedalboard, and 3. I can record the guitar with a microphone as well. This way, I have several tracks of the same take, each of them with its own characteristics which can then be further processed in the mixing process. Ah, yes! The strings - DR Zebras cover both worlds. Some day I might post photos of the guitar. So many possibilities!