#1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

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?

1 member likes this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tom T on April 3, 2015 at 11:43am

Photos of the crude original test coming.............

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tom T on April 3, 2015 at 1:03pm

Okay, for better or worse, here are some photos of the rig I put together this afternoon.

Regular old single wound pickup.

Pickup with gold cover popped off. Notice the holes nest to each slug.

Regular old bright finishing nails.

The shortened nails fit snugly in the holes. I picked the three center holes that are about 10 mm apart.

I drilled holes in a piece of 1/4" ply.

Mounted the pickup on one side of the ply and installed the nails through the ply. The two spacers on either side hold the nails about 3/16" above the strings.

The rig mounted on one of my regular players. Used jumpers to connect the pickup to my amp.

The nails can be seen above the strings.

So, that's the setup. The pickup caught the strings pretty well. Volume was totally acceptable. I figure the overall sound and volume could be improved if everything was carefully set up instead of rigged.

For me, this holds a lot of promise for using mag pickups in cigar boxes without doing so much cutting of the box lit. I figure that if the nails were painted to match the lid, they would be all but invisible. Pretty cool.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on April 3, 2015 at 11:29am

That totally makes sense. (Let me go back and channel my college physics professor...)

The strings interrupt a magnetic field. That field is projected by the metal bars (which are steel...) as the magnet is stuck to the bottom of them...

It makes sense to me that the nails work. there may be some effect by how long they are, diameter, metal composition, but then it's a CIGAR BOX... You might be able to get away with 3 poles, as long as they span the strings, and if they're even, you can just stick them to the existing poles...

Keep experimenting!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on April 3, 2015 at 12:07pm

By adding the nails you effectively extended the magnetic field upward. Clever. This in itself is why it worked. The fact is that the further you move the pickup away from the strings, the less affect the strings movements will have in creating a signal. Move the pickup closer, the greater the response. It makes no difference if the pickup has a 2k, or a 15k output.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on April 3, 2015 at 12:13pm

a few folks have done things similar here .. depending on the thickness of the wood etc, and distance from the strings , you can get away with a few options .

including ;

-mounting the pup in the box with no holes or any protrusions .. the mag field will go right through the (thin) box

(in some cases ).

-mounting a pup inside the box beside the neckthrough , and have a thin piece of metal go from across the poles up and through the box and under the strings . ______,----------

use same idea to make a rail pup. (extended )

-drilling 3 pole holes in lid . to pup inside . (option of dropping in short screws to extend closer to strings )

-or cutting the box out . but saving the cutout and using it as a pup cover . etc

-even reading the box... instead of the strings ..

ie : on skin resos etc .. cut off a small piece of guitar string (half inch long piece or less ) and tape it to the underside of the skin ..mount pup under it to read the string piece vibrating with the skin. (best on one stringers )

on metal boxes .. mount pup inside with a small space (almost touching the inner lid ) to read the whole top vibrating .

etc...

cant get inside a box ? no problem.. a pup don't care which side of the strings it reads

mount a pup OVER TOP of the strings outside the box . like a bridge or over pass .

a one stringer ? .. even beside the string outside .

etc etc .. ;-)

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on April 3, 2015 at 4:31pm

Yeah I used to do this a lot before I made puckups, cept i'd make a 'fake bobbin top' for those nails to poke thru.
Nice one *****

You can do it with a 'blade' type pretty easy too, sandwich a little bit of sheet metal between to bits of scrap and polish it up..

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 3, 2015 at 5:17pm

You can even take a thin (say 1/8") piece of steel, lay it across the top of your pup (it will stick) and butt that up under your box lid, no holes needed. You will extend the mag field substantially. Same principle as a blade, without the cutout.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tom T on April 4, 2015 at 12:14am

Share your results. I'll do the same.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on April 5, 2015 at 6:44am

Yep

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tom T on April 7, 2015 at 9:14am

I'll give that a try this evening. I have the strip cut and ready.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on April 3, 2015 at 10:13pm

Id be more looking at putting the steel 'pole extenders' outside the box, (and under the strings) so that they snap onto the pickup (which is on the inside) You're right tho, you don't need holes in the lid..

you can also put a wee little neo disc for each string, they'll snap on and line up with the hidden pole pieces real good ;)

so.. to do this just cut a cavity in the thru neck so that the pickup can flush mount into the neck, coming quite close to the lid if not touching it, close the box, use the magnetic field to snap a bit of steel or other magnet on the outside, thereby extending the magnetic field toward your strings and hiding redundant pole pieces..

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Tom T on April 4, 2015 at 12:18am

Snapping some of those small disc magnets on the outside to extend the field makes a lot of sense. I guess I'll be prowling ebay for magnets. Thanks for the suggestion.