Piezo+Mag pickup hack with ""homemade" soundhole pickup

[Tim Toberer]

This would be more for an acoustic lap steel or standard acoustic guitar, but I found a neat trick for a cheap, versatile pickup hack. I doubt I am the only one to ever do this, but it works so well I thought I would share.
I was looking at a lot of different options for amplifying acoustic guitars and decided I really like the idea of having a piezo and magnetic pickup option. There are commercially made units like the Mag-Mic etc, but I wanted a cheap hack. I also decided I really like the sound of 3 piezos in parallel placed on the bridge plate and I don't see anything exactly like what I built. So here is the hack.

Using a stereo endpin jack wire a sound hole pickup with a volume control (or add tone control) in the standard way to the tip and sleeve. To the ring wire the piezo. The guitar volume for the mag pickup all the way up is basically an electric guitar sound. As you turn the guitar volume down, the piezo signal is blended in. Guitar volume all the way down is all acoustic and the volume is controlled on the amp.

The sound hole pickup is just a metal telecaster pickup surround with a piece of 1/4 plywood and a couple of threaded inserts to clamp it in the soundhole. The story of the Rigsby guitar is basically I inherited my father in-laws guitar and it was a complete wreck. It was a 12 string with warped top, loose pocket style neck and was completely unplayable. My wife said you have to keep it, but you can do whatever you want to it. So I had a little fun and modified the neck and added the pickups. The pickguard covers some damage to the top. Now it is one of my favorite guitars!

[James Holland]

Clever. I have both pickups lying around, I should try this, even though I'm pretty happy with my Baggs M1A in one flattop, and Sonitone into a Radial pre-z preamp.

[Tim Toberer]

Clever. I have both pickups lying around, I should try this, even though I'm pretty happy with my Baggs M1A in one flattop, and Sonitone into a Radial pre-z preamp.

I am glad someone else might try this! It is low tech, but it works well. This is obvious, but this will only work with a stereo amplifier. I had never really thought about this, but these aren't that common. The Spark and the Yamaha THR amps on the smaller cheaper end. Another reason I love my homemade amp. viewtopic.php?t=409272