Pickup type and placement
The CBG I am going to build will mainly be played acoustically without any amp. It might even be that I will never ever use any amp at all. Still I am considering to add a pickup just in case I would end up playing somewhere were the acoustic sound is not enough. Adding one at the building stage would be so much easier than adding later.
Most pickup installation videos places the pickup in a such way that it would dampen the acoustic sound. Is there any placement that would minimize the dampening effect and what pickup type would you use for this purpose?
Taffy Evans
Hi, I thought I would show how I mount pickups in my CBGs and still keep the top free of any damping effect.
We all know about the piezo disc pickups that do mount to the top with possibly zero damping effect on top vibrations. Besides the microphone unit shown by Brian Q, there are two other methods I use one for magnetic pickups and another using an under-the-saddle [UTS] piezo that comes up through the top under the bridge.
In the photos you can see an unfinished guitar with a single coil pickup, the difference is that the pickup is not attached to the top, but to a bracket attached to the neck block and protrudes through the top as if through a sound hole. In fact, the pickup hole could double as a soundhole.
Taff
Dec 5, 2022
Carl Floyd
Taff has also mentioned using an adjustable pole piece pickup with the pole pieces extended thru holes in the top.
Then there are the hot flat wound pickups that are mounted under a thin top, but not quite touching.
Dec 6, 2022
Timothy Hunter
i have tried one of these in a 6 string i was given free, it workes quite well. the mic worked better than i expected. what i heard coming from the amp sounded just like the acoustic sound. plus you can also mix between the under saddle piezo and the mic. only issue is the mic is on a bendable arm and could get knocked around.
i have also got one of these from ebay. mine says fishman but it has to be a ripoff. this has the mic built in and hopefully is even better.
this shows the mic better.
Dec 8, 2022