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Mag Pickups "Inside the box"?

This may be a case of "I'm the slow kid" (again). but I recently started installing magnetic pickups (both single wound and humbucker) in my CBG builds. I like the warm, clean tone, but I cringe every time I have to deface a nice cigar box top.

I was sitting at the bench this afternoon staring at a gold single-wound pickup and wondered if it were mounted under the box top (no cut out) would it work? I noticed that the humbuckers have screws in the coils, so I wondered if the single coils may do the same (under the gold cover.

A few quick plucks with the needle nose pliers and the gold cover came off easily to reveal the six round slugs, but no screws. I tried to gently tap them out, but no luck. Then I noticed small holes between each slug. I wondered......

I checked my hardware drawers and found some finishing nails that fit snugly into the holes. I touched one of the nails with the tip of my screwdriver and it was magnetic (interesting..........)

I cut the nails off and ground the tops flat then slid them into the pickup. Next, I took a small piece of 1/4 ply and drilled small holes that aligned with my nail heads, then mounted the pickup to the ply with the nails sticking through the holes.

Using some jumpers, I connected the pickup wires to an audio cord running to my amp. Now, I needed strings. This was getting a little complicated, so I went to plan B. I turned on the amp, the sat one of my regular players on the bench. Holding my pickup rig in hand, I carefully positioned it so that the nails were about a 1/4" above the strings. Then I gave the guitar a pluck.

Wow! It picked up the strings in the nail heads and came through the amp clearly. By this time, I'm running out of hands, but my initial thought is that if I used some dense piano wire instead of nails and finished the ends cleanly, I might be able to mount a mag pickup completely in the box then just let the thin rods protrude through the box. If it worked, I would not have to feed guilty for hacking up a nice box.

So, is this common knowledge and I'm just slow on the pick up?

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on April 4, 2015 at 12:13am

Ron's idea sounds very interesting. No holes, but still have a mag pickup. I'll be hooking that test up soon.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on April 4, 2015 at 2:36pm

"Very Interesting..........." I'm out of town at the moment (grammie getting a baby fix), but I will try my rig without the nails and with the metal plate noted earlier. I think there is a lot of options for using a mag without hacking up the box. Just keep experimenting...........

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on April 4, 2015 at 12:12am

Thanks Kid.

Glad to hear that someone has done this successfully on a routine basis.

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Permalink Reply by john mackay on April 3, 2015 at 11:11pm

if the fret board over hangs the box,I suppose you could put your nails in there.

that would make the strings cloer would it not?

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 4, 2015 at 1:28am

Neat idea. It's actually been done that way on some custom commercial resonators, at the19th or 21st fret, underneath three fret markers.

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on April 4, 2015 at 1:42am

You could use the fret itself... (randy has done this..)

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 5, 2015 at 6:46am

Yeah, I remember seeing that build. Great idea!

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on April 4, 2015 at 3:41am

bar on mag

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on April 7, 2015 at 9:11am

Update. Took my single wound pickup (sans cover) and mounted it under the lid of one of my guitars. I did take the suggestion to lay a piece of sheet metal across the six slugs.

There pickup could detect and read the strings pretty well. Looks like the pickup can be installed inside the box without the nails and still function properly. Very interesting information for use with nice looking cigar box lids.

Thanks for all the insights and suggestions on this.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on April 7, 2015 at 11:15am

The nails did produce more volume. Likely because they could get closer to the strings than the pickup thorough the box lid. How much more? I would have to record both setups on Audacity and compare tracks to know for sure. At this point I so encouraged by the pickup's ability to function when installed inside the box with no holes, that I will likely pursue this angle a little more this week. Fortunately, I have a new box that I can use to set up a follow up experiment.