Post by newey on Jun 17, 2012 10:50:34 GMT -5
I seem to be in "acoustic mod mode" lately, as work on my yard-sale junker Fender acoustic continues . . .
I've posted before about how much I liked the DeArmond soundhole pickup I have for my Yamaha acoustic. To my ears, it sounds much better than any piezo. It's a wee bit noisy, but not terribly annoying.
The only downside is the fixed cable, as seen in this photo:
It has a phono plug at the other end, with about 6 feet of cable attached. The cable just hangs out the front of the soundhole. This arrangement is a huge PITA.
In order to get a reasonable distance from one's amp, one has to carry either a pedal of some sort, with an extra cable, or a male-to-female adapter cable. And the cable hanging out the front moves around as one plays, and on occasion gets in the way. If one yanks on it, the pickup can move or dismount as well, as it's only spring-loaded into the soundhole.
So, when I was at the local shop getting a nut for the junker Fender, I also picked up an endpin jack. My thought was to cut off the phono plug and hardwire it into the endpin jack, thereby solving the cable issues.
But when I went to start the project, I balked at cutting the cable. The DeArmond is somewhat of a "vintage" piece (although I'm not sure exactly how old it is), and I have all the original packaging, manual, etc. Maybe someday I'd want to get rid of it, and it wouldn't be original if I cut the cord.
More importantly, my original thought would have meant there was no way to remove the pickup if I ever wanted to use it on a different guitar, and no way to play the Yamaha without the pickup in there.
So, I rethought the "hardwire solution". Instead, I soldered a length of shielded cable to the endpin jack, and soldered another jack to the other end, so that I had a jack to plug the pickup into. I then used cable ties to bundle up the excess cord from the pickup and used a bit of velcro to hold it in place to the lower side of the soundbox, so that it wasn't flopping around in there.
Now, if I ever want to reverse it, I just remove the pickup, tug on the cable so as to pull it free of the velcro, unplug the pickup from the jack inside the guitar, and it's out- and the pickup hasn't been modified in any way. This can be done without removing the strings.
It all works fine now, and no cable to be seen. I suppose an acoustic purist would complain that all the excess cable and extra jack inside the guitar is somehow ruining my tone, but it sounds fine to my ears.
So, I thought I'd share this, in case anyone else was wondering about a temporary soundhole pickup installation.
I've posted before about how much I liked the DeArmond soundhole pickup I have for my Yamaha acoustic. To my ears, it sounds much better than any piezo. It's a wee bit noisy, but not terribly annoying.
The only downside is the fixed cable, as seen in this photo:
It has a phono plug at the other end, with about 6 feet of cable attached. The cable just hangs out the front of the soundhole. This arrangement is a huge PITA.
In order to get a reasonable distance from one's amp, one has to carry either a pedal of some sort, with an extra cable, or a male-to-female adapter cable. And the cable hanging out the front moves around as one plays, and on occasion gets in the way. If one yanks on it, the pickup can move or dismount as well, as it's only spring-loaded into the soundhole.
So, when I was at the local shop getting a nut for the junker Fender, I also picked up an endpin jack. My thought was to cut off the phono plug and hardwire it into the endpin jack, thereby solving the cable issues.
But when I went to start the project, I balked at cutting the cable. The DeArmond is somewhat of a "vintage" piece (although I'm not sure exactly how old it is), and I have all the original packaging, manual, etc. Maybe someday I'd want to get rid of it, and it wouldn't be original if I cut the cord.
More importantly, my original thought would have meant there was no way to remove the pickup if I ever wanted to use it on a different guitar, and no way to play the Yamaha without the pickup in there.
So, I rethought the "hardwire solution". Instead, I soldered a length of shielded cable to the endpin jack, and soldered another jack to the other end, so that I had a jack to plug the pickup into. I then used cable ties to bundle up the excess cord from the pickup and used a bit of velcro to hold it in place to the lower side of the soundbox, so that it wasn't flopping around in there.
Now, if I ever want to reverse it, I just remove the pickup, tug on the cable so as to pull it free of the velcro, unplug the pickup from the jack inside the guitar, and it's out- and the pickup hasn't been modified in any way. This can be done without removing the strings.
It all works fine now, and no cable to be seen. I suppose an acoustic purist would complain that all the excess cable and extra jack inside the guitar is somehow ruining my tone, but it sounds fine to my ears.
So, I thought I'd share this, in case anyone else was wondering about a temporary soundhole pickup installation.
