Pickups for acoustic BG

[Dr Dorkenstein]

Hi Everyone,

I recently acquired a 20-25 year-old ABG from a friend. It's a bit battered but fun to play. It has a piezo pickup with no pre-amp, just a passive tone/volume pot mounted near the neck.

The problem is that the pickup hardly picks up the D-string at all - the other 3 strings amplify OK-ish (sound is broadly acceptable but not great). I'm thinking that I should have a go at installing a new pickup.

Bob Gollihur sells the K-K ones that mount under the soundboard - does anyone have any feedback on how good they sound?

Alternatively, I could try to put in a new piezo pickup under the saddle, but I'm wondering if that's going to be a bit beyond my skills - so far the only guitar maintenance I've done is changing strings, setting intonation and adjusting truss rods, so taking off the saddle is a little bit scary! Any suggestions? I don't think the bass is worth spending money on by taking it to a proper luthier.

Cheers!

[Dr Dorkenstein]

Sorry guys,

It seems you get this question all the time. I did a search before posting, but obviously not a very good one. Now I've found previous postings on this topic which seem to answer my question. Sorry again if I've wasted your time.

The consensus seems to be - buy the K-K and fit it myself.

Any other suggestions welcome.

Cheers!

[fokof]

If there is a string you hear less than another in a piezo situation , it's probably because that string has a lesser contact than the others.
Remove the bridge , check if your piezo stripe has an equal contact on the four (5?) strings.

For the preamp , I found a RMC piezo for my upright bass , I fitted it with the pre from Graphtech , sounds VERY good. It's called "Ghost Acousti-Phonic Bass Preamp" .
You can add option at will , volume , mid boost, etc....
It's very small , easy to install , fits itself with a dual sided tape.

http://estore.graphtech.com/gti/aquarius/Itemdesc.asp?CartId={65CFE5EE-2AEF-EVEREST4FA3-9021-32B225F298D6}&ic=PE%2D0240%2D00&eq=&Tp=

[Dr Dorkenstein]

Thanks - that set up sounds nice. Trouble is, my ABG has a fixed wooden bridge, so (a) I don't think there's any way to fit the graphtech saddles and (b) I'm worried I'll have to take the whole thing off the soundboard to find the piezo.

[KOOLHAND]

Originally Posted by Dr Dorkenstein

Thanks - that set up sounds nice. Trouble is, my ABG has a fixed wooden bridge, so (a) I don't think there's any way to fit the graphtech saddles and (b) I'm worried I'll have to take the whole thing off the soundboard to find the piezo.

Hi Dr D,
I don't know if you've solved this problem yet, but if not, this might help.
The piezo pick-up on these basses are normally a thin metal strip that sit directly under the white plastic bar that the strings sit across on the bridge, and sometimes the white bar is part of the actual pick-up with a lead attached that goes up to the controls or pre-amp.
When you loosen the strings to check it out, then at the same time look INSIDE the bass, right to the top where the tone and volume controls are and you may find a clip attached that holds a 9volt battery. If there is one there you may only have to replace the battery.

By the way glad to hear the Nylon gut cord is working for you on the Palatino Bass!

Luke

[Philbiker]

Originally Posted by Dr Dorkenstein

Bob Gollihur sells the K-K ones that mount under the soundboard - does anyone have any feedback on how good they sound?

The one in me seagull guitar sounds so good that I would not consider any other pickup for any acoustic implementation, guitar or bass.

[Philbiker]

Originally Posted by Dr Dorkenstein

The consensus seems to be - buy the K-K and fit it myself.

That's what I did with my guitar. Worked great and was relatively easy to install.