Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on November 14, 2020 at 5:18pm

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Terry Brennan on November 16, 2020 at 5:24am

Hey Pick, and Taffy...Thanks for the replies. I was able to glean useful info from both of your suggestions. Taffy, your approach seems to be the best approach for my situation, and should provide a  mount less susceptible to vibration than my idea. Thanks guys...Bless...Terry

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on November 14, 2020 at 5:19pm

Hi . Any "magnetic-able " metal close to,  or touching,  a pickup will  have some effect on it , even with a thin barrier . this  can be undesirable . yet sometimes  desirable  or acceptable ..

 Depending on why you want this configuration, there may be other options also . for example , you CAN  mount the pickup inside the box  under the lid, and the pickup will still read the strings through the wood top  ,, even up to 1/4 inch thick. This is a good option for folks that dont want to ruin artwork on the box or fear cutting into it .  the trick is to leave a very small space between the pickup and box lid . and not have it touch , otherwise it can sound microphonic and  "piezo-ish " .  also , strings that are too high can cause  it to be less effective .  but you can also  drill small holes into the lid and insert  small bolts /screws to extend the pickup poles . etc etc .. 

Also . if the box is tin or metal , it may cause you issues ,  you most likely want to separate any electrical parts with   non magnetic  materials (.ie ; rubber washers  etc)   and no direct contact with box .  otherwise the pickup wants to read the  entire box ,, not just the strings  etc .. 

hope that helps .. or maybe i just  gave you more questions  . lol. 

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on November 15, 2020 at 10:55am

Hi Terry, just to expand on Picks fine explanation.

I started doing this a few years ago, see photo, as a way of mounting a pickup in a box where the pickup does not touch the top.

The reason was to not have anything on the top that could interfere with the tops vibrations. Trying to get the best out of an acoustic/electric set up. The pickup sits in a hole in the top and looks like it is mounted there, but actually the angle bracket is mounted to the neck block, and nothing touches the top.

Oh, the brackets are thin aluminium sheet folded to suit.

Taff

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on November 22, 2020 at 8:13am

Aluminum and steel both effect the pickup's magnetic field. Sometimes it's in a good way and sometimes in a bad way.

One thing that is good about aluminum is that if enough aluminum is used, it can make 60 cycle hum disappear from single coil pickups.;)

• ▶ Reply