Is it possible?

Aside from the small problem (The trussrod) could you put a pickup INTO the fretboard?

I read in another thread someone saying that for the best response, You'd need to put a pickup underneath the 12th fret.
George from F-bass told me the reason why Wooden Pickup covers are possible is because the magnetic frequency can travel through wood.

So, essential it can travel through the fretboard, right?

The problem would be the truss rod.

In theory, the magnetic filed produced by the pickup would need to be intense enough to react with the vibrating string to produce the signal in the coil, so it would be really down to the physical space available.

Yeah, physical size needed to produce a strong enough magnetic field. I don't think you could put a pickup under the fretboard close enough to the edges to "read" the lowest or highest strings, since the neck is curved and you'd lose enough material. Also, removing that much wood to bury a pickup into it would greatly weaken the structural integrity of the neck.


MAAAAYBE if you made a singlecut and the top of the neck and body were very very fat and extending way past the 12th fret. But that would be a very uncomfortable and unwieldly instrument to play.

piezo.

I think I remember someone doing something with piezos under the frets ...wasn't it the Peavey Midibase that used this triggering mecanism?

I thought the Peavey Midibase used the split frets as electrical contacts to determine which fret was being played so that the synth could instantly go to the right frequency without a delay to measure the waveform from the pickups.

My issue would be what does the thing sound like when you play at a fret above the pickup? Now it's going to be sensing the string vibrating between the fret below where you're intending to play and the nut (however much it actually vibrates which is probably largely dependent on technique). Obviously putting the pickup under the fretboard makes no difference to the magnetic field other than the fact that the pickup will now be further from the strings in all likelihood.

The only thing a pickup under the 12th fret is going to best for is picking up odd harmonics of the open string as it's sitting at the antinode for these modes. It is also worst for picking up the even harmonics because it is exactly at the position of the node for these modes. I don't really see why it would be best to sense odd as opposed to even harmonics... I'd rather have a middle position that picks up some of each.

A magnetic pickup under the 12th fret would be out of the question unless you do all of your playing from the 12 fret down. Piezos dont work off of a magnetic response so it really wouldnt make a whole lot of difference where you put it under the fingerboard. It would be a really interesting experiment because I assume that if you placed one under a fingerboard you would get more tone from both the neck and the board than the traditional method. It would take a heck of a buffer to put out a good signal though.

Is it possible?

Aside from the small problem (The trussrod) could you put a pickup INTO the fretboard?Not a small problem!
I read in another thread someone saying that for the best response, You'd need to put a pickup underneath the 12th fret.No, what the person said was that to get the most fundamental response, you would mount it under the 12th fret, which is accurate statement only if the note is played as an open string. (In case you don't know the concepts of fundamental and harmonics, make yourself acquainted before trying to apply theory that you haven't learned.)

Regarding "the best response," I cannot state emphatically enough how much this is complete rubbish. A pickup mounted under the 12th fret would, for an open string, pick up the odd-numbered harmonics and would completely fail to pick up any of the even harmonics. It would, for the open string, produce something like a square wave, which is hollow sounding. This can be only somewhat mimicked by listening acoustically (or with saddle-mounted peizos only) to your bass, and plucking the string gently, with a pick, exactly above the 12th fret. Not pleasant to most, and not the tone anyone is looking to produce, except perhaps as an effect.George from F-bass told me the reason why Wooden Pickup covers are possible is because the magnetic frequency can travel through wood.

So, essential it can travel through the fretboard, right?True. Magnetic fields travel through wood.


If you had a pup mounted under the 12th fret, there would be sound produced only when you played between the nut and the 11th fret.



It's getting ridiculous, this mistaken concept of a "sweet spot." First of all, there is not "ideal mix" of harmonics that a person could try to acheive. Second, the mix varies over time. Third, the harmonic mix you would most prefer varies according to the register of the note. Fourth, even if you could say, "I think the perfect spot is 1/3 (for example) of the way along the vibrating string," you could only put the pup in that spot for the open string, or for a particular fretted note -- fretting anywhere else would violate your "super godly formula."

Since under the fretboard is impractical,
determine where the second octave, 24 th fret would be, in theory.
It will be someplace on your basses body.
Now that is a real sweet spot and where I placed a
Dark Star on a Fender Musicmaster.

hell just mount a pick up under ever fret than you can miss anything every inch down the whole neck and body. I am a frickin genious, or is that genous damn I forgot how to spell what I am. ;)

I've seen this done on a triple-necked mandolin built for (The Bassist Formerly Known As) John Paul Jones. It was built into the neck block underneath the fretboard, one on each neck as I recall.

Hasn't Scott French installed a piezo at the nut on one of his builds (a guitar I think?)? Maybe he could chime in.

doesn't the Manring Zon hyperbass have a piezo or 2 under the fingerboard?

Am I the only one who really enjoys that PJ's excellently-stated response was followed by one of the worst posts on the thread (who clearly did not read the other replies) which touched exactly on PJ's pet peeves? Delicious.

Manring's Zon has a piezo cable running through the neck. I have three instruments coming (not from Zon) that have this in the neck, but I'm not sure if the maker wants to talk about it or not, so I'll let him chime in if he wants.

Piezo is really the only way to do it, since very, very clearly a magnetic pickup is not going to work.

I have a bass that I put a piezo in the neck pocket on, it is very low output (even through a preamp) but does have a pretty cool sound

...
Manring's Zon has a piezo cable running through the neck. I have three instruments coming (not from Zon) that have this in the neck, but I'm not sure if the maker wants to talk about it or not, so I'll let him chime in if he wants.

Piezo is really the only way to do it, since very, very clearly a magnetic pickup is not going to work.Jack Read did a research bass with piezos in various places--bridge, neck pocket, headstock, other places I think. He liked the bridge sound best. Which is not to say that it's therefore factually "proven" to be the best by any means, but at least a respected person has done some real testing.

Piezo strip through the whole neck? Could be interesting! I'd be afraid of a string clack every time you fretted, but who knows. Or is it fretless?

piezos can come in thin films right. what about a piezo pinstripe down the whole neck?

ownage.

edit : damn had me beat.

piezos can come in thin films right. what about a piezo pinstripe down the whole neck?

ownage.

edit : damn had me beat.

NOISE!

ummm...finger noise, fret noise...clack clack clack boing clack boing screeeeetch boing clack....

mmmm...sounds really bad given the effort behind it...

PASS!

FWIW:

One never knows what one's going to run across in this forum, do one?

Matthew Seligman (Soft Boys, Thomas Dolby) said in an interview he had a transducer of some kind fitted in the fingerboard of an Ibanez fretless, that gave a double bass-like sound.

NOISE!

ummm...finger noise, fret noise...clack clack clack boing clack boing screeeeetch boing clack....

mmmm...sounds really bad given the effort behind it...

PASS!

fretless would help, i suppose.

and really, no one's talking about using it live, for mainstream music. i think it can be used post recording to add some extra zing to the sound that is almost impossible to replicate with a normal bass with normal pickups.

maybe on a solo album, or where the bass is the lead instrument.

i think this is how manring gets some of his tone.

Not that I think it's a good idea, but for argument sake if you're talking magnet pickups the neck would be huge. Too huge to play...unless you could develop an active pickup with a smaller coil.