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Cigar Box BASS - pick up questions

OK, so I'm finishing up my 2nd CBG and it's time to move on to a bass.

I've got a great Box and some strings (electric). I'm doing a 2 string.

But I need to figure out pickups (and tuners).

I'm looking at this:

http://www.cbgitty.com/cigar-box-guitar-parts/pre-wired-4-string-si...

Which is a '6 string modified to look like a 4'. My question there is:

Do the strings HAVE to be over the poles? I imagine the strings would be right between two poles.

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Or could one of the two piezo setups work as good? (actually like the idea of being able to use the box as a drum for looping).

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For tuning pegs I have a few set of strings, up to 3mm in diameter (yeah fat ol B string). I have heard about drilling out guitar pegs but I don't think I can go that thick (wanting shorter neck so I'd have to tune with thicker part of string).

Any good options for that? Bass tuners are a bit pricey unless going with the ones straight from China.

I want to do a double bass style headstock.

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Permalink Reply by JL on March 1, 2016 at 2:16am

don't worry so much about the ohms of a mag pup, for most folks its a misleading spec that is often misinterpreted as volume instead of partial impedance, just like blade pitch on a ceiling fan for your bedroom, it has meaning to an engineer, but most decent ceiling fans from the big-box hardware store work well enough that you don't have to understand the effect of blade pitch to get what satisfies your needs.

ohms measure resistance - how difficult it is to push electricity through the wire. think of it like your hallway littered with your kids toys you have to step over and around. the more and bigger the toys, the harder it is for you to get from one end of the hallway to the other. being more difficult doesn't make it a better hallway.

pups use very thin wire, so thin in fact that is has 1-2 ohms of resistance per foot. 40 gauge has about 1000 ohms per 1000 feet, 43 gauge wire has about 3000 ohms per 1000 feet.

What the ohms of a mag-pup tell you is how much wire is wrapped in the coil IF AND ONLY IF you know what wire it is wrapped with. What makes a mag-pup work is a dense magnetic field that is cutting back and forth through the coil wires as the metal string drags the field around when vibrating. magnet strength, closeness of the wires to the magnetic core, closeness of the string to the denser part of the magnetic field, number of turns of wire in the coil, inherent capacitance of the coil, all have an effect on output of the pup.

I'm not saying ignore ohms altogether. first and foremost its the easiest way to tell if a mag pup is dead if you can't get a measurement in the 1-20 kilo-ohms range. and when comparing very similar pups the more ohms implies more wraps which implies a stronger signal. when comparing dissimilar pups though, ohms don't really give you insight.

ok, sorry, I'll take of my Mr. Wizard hat and crawl back under my books, sorry, sorry, sorry

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Permalink Reply by Murdoc_420 on March 1, 2016 at 7:00am

Thanks JL, great info, I understand much better now.

Yeah, drilling out tuners didn't make sense to me. I went ahead and ordered some from China...The wait begins.

I also ordered a jack with 3 piezos attached (parallel). I'll see how that goes for my first electric build, if it doesn't cut it for my bass I can throw that in a guitar and try something else.

Either way it's cheap and I'll know :D

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Permalink Reply by Barrie Collins on March 1, 2016 at 5:10am

Turned a p bass pick up on its side and used that

Attachments:

image.jpeg, 1.7 MB

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Permalink Reply by Murdoc_420 on March 1, 2016 at 7:01am

That looks pretty cool.

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on March 1, 2016 at 5:08pm

I've used those p bass pups a few times,they are fine for c bg's,just a small note,if you don't want the big pup exposed,you can mount it under the lid,and just cut a small slot for a piece of steel bar to slide in and sit on the pup,so all you see is a 1/8th thick bit of bar from the top