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what do I put in a converted acoustic?

A

Armacielli

Oct 16, 2008
160
0
#1
I'm in the middle of converting an acoustic guitar to a bass. What kind of pickups should I outfit it with?
this is my first time in this section as I usually reside in the LC, so I'm just about pickup clueless
 
#2
i would think an under-saddle piezo would do the trick. get one that has a continuous film sensing area rather than individual piezo crystals, and get an active system (passive piezos without the exact right preamp sound horrible.)
 
#6
You're probably going to want a bass-specific one, because it is the pre-amp which is important here, and it is very important. The pickup itself is going to be pretty much identical to every other piezo pickup there is, and they're all pretty worthless without a good (and the right) preamp.
 
#7
Armacielli said:
what do I put in a converted acoustic?
Click to expand...

Pirates and ninjas! :D



...seriously though, use an under-saddle pickup, as people have stated above. That, and the right pre. You might also want to check Stewmac.

Although, if it were me, I'd use a magnetic pickup - one thing I would try would be hiding something like a humbucking J under the soundboard, and running it through a powerful onboard pre to make up for the string distance.

Another thing I would do, if that failed, would be to CAREFULLY carve a pickup route into the soundboard, and just mount one properly - I'm a giant fan of magnetic pups and passive tone, you see, but that's just me.
 
#8
I've actually been considering a single J pick-up near the bridge. My only problem will be wiring the thing since I don't know what kind of wiring components I'll need for a single pickup or how to actually wire it.
 
#10
I just had a K&K Sound "Pure Bass" pickup installed on my acoustic bass & it sounds great - just like the sound of the bass, only louder. It may emphasize the bass frequencies a bit, but that can be EQd out - and better to emphasize the bass than to be lacking in it.

No preamp necessary - I plugged it into an amp and it sounded amazing out of the box. I pushed the mids to get a sound I preferred, and that was it. A phase switch & EQ would be nice, but I may just look for a stomp box version of these & be happy to have a good, passive hassle-free acoustic bass pre.
 
#11
Here's the Duncan Scorcher I just installed in my converted acoustic:

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I still need to wire an output jack and a volume knob. I think I also want to install a tone knob. Any suggestions on what I should do for the tone knob (wiring, capacitors, etc)?
 

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