Cheap pickup

MartinBush · November 2022

Hi all

I am thinking of trying out a pickup on my cheap but good Yamaha acoustic.

I am not looking for something that will faithfully reproduce the tones of the guitar or even enhance them. I really want to be able to plug into effects and try out a few fuzz/ distortion sounds.

Why not do this on an electric? Well I am playing the acoustic mostly these days and think it would be interesting to do something with that seeing as that's what I am composing on.

So, what would be the cheapest way to do this? Are the sub £15 ones on ebay likely to fit the bill (bearing in mind what I have said about quality above).

Also, will I need to change strings for any of the pickup types? The ones on at the moment came with it and EAD and maybe G have a bronze-type look to them.

Thanks all

Martin

munckee · November 2022

I bought the cheapest one on amazon many years ago, it did the job and didn't sound awful to me, I just wanted to try pedals wasn't recording or anything.

Supportact · November 2022

For this use probably a magnetic soundhole pickup would be ok. No need to change strings if it's just a normal acoustic (won't work with nylon strings).

I might have something suitable here come to think of it, i will check.

ICBM · November 2022

If you want to use fuzz and distortion then the cheapest magnetic soundhole pickup is better than the most expensive, complex piezo/contact transducer/onboard mic/combination money can buy.

It will work fine with bronze strings, *especially* if you’re using fuzz and distortion - any difference in signal strength between the plain and wound strings becomes irrelevant.

shufflebeat · November 2022

Agree about the magnetic pickup, disagree about the strings.

Before bronze and phosphor bronze guitars used to be routinely fitted with steel (nickel wound) strings so no need to be precious.

Bronze/PB windings do not work with magnetic pickups, only the steel core, resulting in string imbalance and anaemic bass strings. Nickel (electric) strings sound great (if you like magnetic pickups) and, if they're a bit shouty, nickel/bronze are a reasonable compromise.

chickenbonejohn · November 2022

Old school no-nonsense clip in soundhole pickup - we are UK stockists for Bill Lawrence USA. https://www.chickenbonejohn.com/collections/pickups/products/bill-lawrence-a300-pickup

MartinBush · November 2022

Thanks @chickenbonejohn I now have a pickup kindly provided by Supportact, but your message led me to your website which is really interesting

I will give the pickup a proper go when I have some time and I expect that will show whether string type matters for what I am aiming for at this moment in time. Longer term I may try some different string types out. I still have whatever Yamaha fit in the factory on mine and, while I am not against changing strings, these are still intact and not costing me anything

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