Behind-the-bridge Pickup projects

[natthu]

Update.... I missed the cutoff for this round of Rhoney plates
...but I'm on his list so the plate will be made with the next batch

So there's going to be a bit of a delay, but rest assured this project is still going to happen.

[WonderCouncil]

I'll be waiting with bated breath. I'm really curious to see how it turns out. Can you tell me if the Tele neck pickup fits the trem routing with out having to enlarge it at all?

He (Stereordinary) had mentioned he's made a plate like this in the past but whom ever the buyer was wasn't concerned with having to route out more if the need be.

I had initially suggested doing the plate with a slanted pickup cut out thinking that would allow enough room. I know at least with the body I have a standard Mustang pickup won't fit vertically in the hole.

Actually looking at it slanted I don't think that would really work either. The sting holes would be just about if not actually overlapping the pickup.

So yea...guess you got it right straight from the start hah. Maybe I'll see if I can get in on this batch of up come plates. I think I'm signed up for a "Tweedy Rhythm" plate anyways.

As a side note there's a chance that there's still some room in the trem route to fit...say a GFS ModBoard Delay...

[Harrison]

Stop me if I'm totally incorrect, but what about a piezo inside the cavity? Would that do anything or am I imagining a perfect world?

[WonderCouncil]

I'm sure it would pickup some of the sympathetic notes, definitely would pickup any kind of picking behind the bridge. My concern would be for feedback and potentially turning the whole guitar into a pickup of sorts. I know at least with the piezo discs I've messed around with in the past, you'd possibly get a lot of extraneous noise.

Example would be like if you attached the piezo disc to the underside of the trem plate...anything the trem plate is in contact with will also possibly be amplified. So if you had say a belt buckle on, scraping the back of the guitar...that sound could be picked up by it.

I guess it would depend on the sensitivity of the pizeo. This is just my experience in the past experimenting with them...so take it with a grain of salt.

It would be interesting to try it with an acoustic piezo bridge....like one of those long thin ones that the saddle rests on top of....or even the Graph-Tech Ghost piezo saddles...run that thru the Graph-Tech Hexpander and add a different delay time/repeat to each string as well as panning each string separately...360 around the room...maybe a touch off vibrato and

[Harrison]

Again I'm going on magic theory, but would you be able to install a volume pot to tame the more extreme noises?

[WonderCouncil]

Yea I don't believe adding a volume pot would be hard...as far as I know you'd just wire it up like you would a guitar volume. Or run it out thru a separate jack to one of those acoustic preamp pedals...

Perhaps?

[weed_killer]

I've done the pickup behind the bridge, and piezo embedded into the vibrato cavity. I like the piezo better because it can pick up other noises; I can turn my guitar into a percussion instrument
with some gain. There is feedback if it gets too loud/too much gain, but it still works fine for me.

[natthu]

Can you tell me if the Tele neck pickup fits the trem routing with out having to enlarge it at all?

Definitely not. There will need to be some enlarging of the cavity to fit the ears in.

...there's a chance that there's still some room in the trem route to fit...say a GFS ModBoard Delay...

As the Rhoney plate is flat and the only other thing in there will be a smallish pickup, there will be loads of space for 'extras'.....

I'm still trying to decide where to mount a volume knob (if any) for the BTB pup...

[natthu]

...I like the piezo better because it can pick up other noises; I can turn my guitar into a percussion instrument....

I was toying with the idea of adding some piezo saddles to one of my other guitars, would that act in a similar way, or would the piezo system need to be in the body somewhere?

[chnlone]

Hmm..

[Ceylon]

Again I'm going on magic theory, but would you be able to install a volume pot to tame the more extreme noises?

I did that on a Les Paulish thing that I wired up with a pickup behind the bridge. Worked nicely.

[aegert]

The K&k Pure mini bridge plate transducers are amazing PU's.



http://www.kksound.com/puremini.html

You can just apply them to the trem plate and run them out to the control cavity and put a switchcraft 12B Jack in. Change your cable to a 3 conductor and break out 2 mono plugs on the end to your effects board. Put the K&K's into a Pre or effect and and your standard output to your main loop of your pedal board . Or to a good Buffered ABY switch on your board.... You will get all the benefits of behind the bridge but you will look completely stock :-)

[WonderCouncil]

I was toying with the idea of adding some piezo saddles to one of my other guitars, would that act in a similar way, or would the piezo system need to be in the body somewhere?

I'm don't think the saddles them selves would be sensitive enough to pickup anything not directly touching them.

I do have some piezo discs I can send you if you want them. Not sure if Radio Shack still stocks them. Thrift stores that carry children toys is another great cheap source for them. A lot of those dancing/singing stuffed characters around the holidays use piezo's for speakers, as well at smoke detectors. I've gotten some pretty hefty...durable discs out of detectors before. If you surf C.L.'s free section you can often find "curb alerts" that will have at least one item with a piezo element in it as well.

Thanks by the way on commenting about the routing and Tele pup!

Hmm..

Hey...we don't take kindly to shifty eyes around these parts...


Those K&K pickups are interesting...might be worth experimenting with them. I don't now how much vibration they would pickup from the trem plate tho...it's a pretty solid...thick piece of metal. As opposed to the thinner wood top on an acoustic.

This was my idea for if you were going to use piezos behind the bridge...something like this. Bolted down to the plate. Note sure if the travel on the saddles would be enough to tune them though.


There were some super cheap piezo TOM bridges on eBay though. The idea with the Ghost pickup and Hexpander is really making me think though. I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on it...if it would be a worth while route to explore.

Would the sympathetic vibrations behind the bridge be enough to "activate" the piezo/midi effect? Or would it be more hit and miss with it?

[rank]

What kind of body is that? It looks very nice!

[WonderCouncil]

It's a Canvas CVN20HH. There are more pictures of it before I striped it and everything in these two links.

http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t259 ... tar/Sitar/

http://s162.photobucket.com/albums/t259 ... 0projects/

It started as a kind of cherry sunburst...but they also come in a tobacco two tone burst and solid black as well. Don't believe they are made any more tho. Can be found super cheap on eBay, this one cot me I think $70 with shipping. Mahogany body, spruce veneer on the front and back. The neck takes some getting used to though, really feels quite akin to like a classical/nylon acoustic, very flat and wide. It'd be great for finger picking or slide tho I think.

I'd love to have the body copied at some point and have one made that wold be 24" scale. Use a Mustang neck, two sing coils, Mustang bridge and Jazz/Jag trem.

Kinda like this...


These for pickups, or just the rings...


Shouldn't be too hard to cut a new body, like a one piece mahogany slab body, finished in Epiphone Silver Fox but I digress...