Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Moritz Voegeli on May 9, 2017 at 6:01pm

Yeah Darryl, but a notch is not the half of the neck or even more. I liked how Shane described the challenge: «I'm building an entire cigar box guitar around it in order to test it.  Yes, I'm challenged by the neck-thru construction of my usual building style and working with the electronics thingy in the back of the Matchbook... but hell, the challenge is what's awesome about building these things.» That's a new way of thinking about boxes...

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on May 9, 2017 at 6:23pm

That's true Moritz, but for a matchbook, i'd just bore a hole to fit the output arrangement, and if needed, just add a 10mm strap glued either side of the neck, i just don't think it's a major issue, i make and use flat pups for how they sound and look, cutting a bit out of the neck isn't a major consideration, just a bonus that i don't have to, and with bolt on or fitted necks it doesn't matter at all, to me the matchbook is more of a problem in a solid body guitar, because without a cover plate in the back you have to dig pretty deep to fit the terminal shroud, and i suspect the reason they are made as they are is due to the intent to fit them to a hollow box. Unless i want to site my transformer remotely, my "induction" type pups also need a bit of neck removed, but not as much, as my transformers sit at one end and i can overcome that by making the primary coil longer if need be

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Permalink Reply by Moritz Voegeli on May 9, 2017 at 10:02pm

Darryl, sure there will be even a solution to change a warped neck with a matchbook installed, if you had thought first about possibly upcoming problems... another point is installing a matchbook into an existing cbg...

just a mockup from scrap wood:

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on May 9, 2017 at 8:53pm

It really depends on the wood used for the neck/through piece and it's width and thickness. A simple hole drilled in the middle of said piece to accommodate the wires and such on the bottom of the pickup would be fine for a neck/through piece of Oak, Maple, Mahogany or Ash. Poplar, Pine or Spruce(softer woods) could be a problem.

If you drilled a 1/2" hole or less in a piece that's 3/4" x 1&1/2" of hard wood, I doubt there would be a problem. Softer woods, probably would be a problem.

So hardness of wood, dimensions of wood and size of hole/amount of wood removed all comes into play. 

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Permalink Reply by Regan on May 9, 2017 at 11:39pm

I think all a person would have to do is add a strip of wood on either side of the neckthrough and it would be fine. I doubt if this pickup is going to be mounted on the most rudimentary cbg's anyway, so an extra step shouldn't be a problem. I would actually like to see Don Lace and company develop a clip on pickup similar to the old dearmonds etc with this design. I could even see them being useful on banjos if they had a stout enough mounting mechanism to clip to the rim.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 10, 2017 at 5:31am

You want a Hot Dot style induction pup...hmmm.

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Permalink Reply by Regan on May 10, 2017 at 2:07pm

Wasn't really thinking a hot dot, although that could be cool too. I was thinking more like the old Dearmond's that clipped to the end of the neck of archtops, or into soundholes of acoustics. Basically like that black pickup cbgitty sells but an induction pickup.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 10, 2017 at 5:01pm

Gotcha. Doesn't mean we couldn't design and build ome...

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Permalink Reply by Regan on May 10, 2017 at 11:21pm

Very true. I think it could be useful. More an exercise a practical mounting bracket than anything.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 11, 2017 at 2:53am

Of course, the Hot Dot was a piezo...hmmm. If you get one of those suction cup thingies, then attach that to the current transformer, then wire that to a 1/4" male plug, with the bar mag / copper loop at right angles to the CT, then you could slide that under the strings...yeah, that could work...

Permalink Reply by Moritz Voegeli on May 11, 2017 at 5:22am

Something like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt2nHrW3r3I. Lace's own demo video http://www.lacemusic.com/Mando_Lace.php is somewhat less impressive, as the first video seems played acoustically on a beautiful mandolin.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 11, 2017 at 7:31am

Yeah, only DIY and much, much cheaper :-)

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