I'm wanting to put a pickup in my CBGs that make it sound really rustic/bluegrassy...not so much bluesy as most of the ones I hear in videos. What type of pickup would I want to put in it for that?
Answer as if I know nothing about anything...because that's basically where I'm at.
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Hi Alex. I'm with you pretty much. I like the blues, but not the growly, loud, big chord sound. I like clean acoustic with some strong bass added. I play bluegrass, folk and country and some early country blues and poor man's jazz. I get this with old MIJ (60's Japanese) pickups. Used with steel strings. Nickel strings help. Teisco vintage pickups have this sound if you don't add effect pedal stuff to distort it. They are somewhat microphonic so you get the acoustic sound of the wood and sustain (if you use thickish wood and solid necks made of good tone wood like Mahogany and Maple or Cherry. The sound is as much in the guitar as it is in the pickup. I love "gold foil" or silver foil Teiscos or American made DeArmonds. Single coil with a ground to the strings and metal covers to the pickups. Old lap steel pickups have this quality also. "Speed bumps", "Pancakes" and P90 Gibsons have the sound. A good tone pot with a good capacitor helps a lot too. I like to cut back the treble and up the bass. It takes a good capacitor of the right value to get it. Good capacitors are rather pricy. Many of my first box guitars have piezo electric pickups. These go inside the box usually under the bridge or right in the bridge. They have the acoustic sound for sure. What i don't like about them is they reflect the sound of your touching the guitar. Any finger tap on the body sounds through. There are some great builders that use them a lot. Check out Randy Bretts (sp?) MoJo Bone pickups. They are as beautiful as you can get. Other builders wind their own pickups. Check out Ted Crocker pickups, JUJU (from UK), Elmar's "Flatpups" he's from Austria. I have used all of their magnetic pickups and love the sound. Elmar's flatpups are easy to use as they are very flat and don't require cutting a hole in your guitar top. Surface mount. Many inexpensive Teisco mag. pickups are surface mount like the flatpup but are not as thin. There is a Teisco metal covered pickup with black foil inside the holes and adjustable pole pieces that works great. You see them on many of the Teisco, Zenon, etc. MIJ guitars. I have about a dozen such guitars and like them all. I'm talking from a poor man's standpoint. If you've got the big money I can't advise you. That's all i know...... Dave
GREAT info...thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha-ha, that's ok! Gives me an excuse to keep making more in different ways! Thanks for the ideas!!!
ooh that answered my question thanks!! :D
Nice ideas Oily. Thanks for the tips. I've tried the sandwich idea in wood and inside the bridge with a rod piezo or two discs in silicone sandwich with wood. You can get nice ones like this from Blues City. I've used them in two builds and love the raw sound. I guess i'll just keep trying. Everything seem to work if you just try....
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