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mini-humbucker

hey josh I noticed the pickup on one of your guitars looks like an archtop mini humbucker made by artec, I recently place an order for one and if it is what you are using maybe you tell me how it sounds. I have always used piezo's, but I am really looking for a "swampy" or "dirty" sounding pick-up. Not sure if a humbucker is the way to go or a single coil. Any advice for a novice builder?

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Permalink Reply by Josh Gayou (SmokehouseGuitars) on December 27, 2008 at 1:13pm

The Artec mini is the same one that I used on one of my guitars. These are great sounding pups for an excellent price. The big drawback is that they don't make a pickup ring to go with them because they're designed to be screwed into the sides of the fingerboard or slipped under the pick guard. That means you either need to be really good a cutting a tight hole to match the shape of the pup or make a ring from scratch.

The sound quality of these is such that you'll probably be dissatisfied with piezos after using them.

Permalink Reply by bucky on December 27, 2008 at 1:53pm

I was thinking of just glueing the pick-up directly to the box under the strings. The dimensions say that this pick-up is 3/8" thick so it should work as longs as I keep my string height around1/2" at the bridge. I am glad that it sounds great and for the price it seems like a great deal. Thanks for letting me know!

Permalink Reply by bucky on December 31, 2008 at 1:30am

Any suggestions on how to make a pup ring from scratch? i don't really whant to cut a hole because I am afraid I don't really have a tool that would simplify that process and I'll probably ruin the box that way.

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