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John Bertotti
Jan-21-2005, 9:25pm
I need a versatile option for the pickups and electronics, any suggestions? By versatile I'd like to be able to go from a simulated acoustic sound to a rocked out electric sound. Two maybe three pick ups, I'm thinking, wired for series or parallel. thanks John

delsbrother
Jan-21-2005, 9:52pm
I don't think three pickups is really needed. Hard to cram them into that space, for one thing. Maybe something like a Godin A8 or Ovation could do what you want? I've never tried to get my solidbody to sound "acoustic".

John Bertotti
Jan-21-2005, 10:35pm
I've been reading a lot about the different wiring designs. I am winding my own pickups and am considering a Les Paul wiring design with it rewired as stew mac suggests. I want to try different bleed off caps and possibly put in a switched cap set up. Who knows it will take a few experiments first. Fear not I am not an engineer but am a trained electrician and hold a small degree in electronics. thanks John

mandroid
Jan-21-2005, 10:59pm
if youre building a solid body electric, a variety of winding patterns and 'sounds' are available in Strat pickup format [fender lacesensor has 4] you could pack 3 of them in, each being 3/4" wide.. but not very acousticcy, ..
My favorite piezo >RMCpickup.com< offers several guitar bridge formats [strat/ wilkinson/ gibson tune-o-matic as examples and an acoustic single or double string pickup for self made bridges, flattop guitar installs.
will sell 4 0r 5 bits as each, 1/6th of 6pc pkg rate.
slider V,EQ preamp #BMT 220 is offered in mandolin EQ notches, thats what Godin uses, and another hybrid preamp/buffer for blending acoustic and coilmag pickups.
Hecho in Berkeley http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

gremlin
Jan-27-2005, 12:27pm
well, a topic i might be able to help:p I was a "shredder" metal guitarist for almost 20 years and have built several solid body guitars. Check out semour duncan. they have a pickup called a quarter pounder. they can scream when need be but clean up really nicely if required with a slight bump of the tone knob and the best part they are dead quiet. I dont know if they make one for mandolin but semour duncan is really good about making whatever you need!

Lee
Jan-27-2005, 1:23pm
Here's what I tried: Start with a stock 5-string BlueStar MandoBlaster. Have Mike Christain make a set of five bridge saddles with piezo transducers in them and replace the original bridge saddles in the BlueStar. Install a three-way mini-toggle switch mid-way between the volume and tone knobs on the BlueStar. Wire the stock lipstick-tube magnetic pick-up and the Mike Christian pick-ups to the 3-way toggle so that in mid-position both pick-ups will go to the output jack, or either one alone in the up or down positions. I left the volume and tone knobs to control the magnetic pick-up only. The signals from both pick-ups get wired to a stereo output jack on the Bluestar; the signals don't get mixed onboard the BlueStar. Use a stereo cable to connect from the BlueStar to a Fishman Blender. Fishman makes a very nice 20-ft stereo cable; they're hard to find otherwise. The BlueStar output jack is carefully wired so that the one pick-up goes to the ring, and the other to the point of the cable's stereo plug. The Mike Christian goes to the Fishman's Transducer pre-amp channel, and the magnetic pick-up goes to the Fishman's Microphone pre-amp channel. I called Fishman's tech people and they said it is perfectly OK to wire a magnetic pick-up into the the Microphone channel. It can be used for a voice mike too. The Fishman is really great because it has separate volume and tone controls, and effects loops, for either channel before the signals are mixed. Once the signals are mixed the Fishman has outputs to plug directly into a typical guitar amp, or into a power amp, or a line output, and DIN connectors too. The Fishman Blender is small and can be right there on stage with you at your fingertips so you can control your tone rather than relying on your sound man. The Mike Christian pick-up system will provide a somewhat more "regular" type of tone and the magnetic pick-up the electric tone. You could also do the same thing with a Gibson E150 with a magnetic pick-up and then install a transducer in the adjustable bridge and drill a whole in the top for the 3-way toggle and retro-fit a stereo output jack. Some people wire their acoustic with an internal microphone system and a piezo transducer and mix them using the Fishman Blender. It's a slick and versatile little thing.

Lee
Jan-27-2005, 1:27pm
Bill Lawrence is quite willing to custom-wind a pick-up for you and Steve Ryder knows a lot about special magnetic pick-ups for e-mando.

testore
Jan-28-2005, 5:46pm
Here is one i made with mini humbuckers from Kent Armstrong. They are the loudest things in the world, he sent me a cool wiring diagram for what i wanted. He's very helpfull and willing to talk to anyone interested in this stuff. He'll help you get what you need. A great guy.
Gary
gvessel@earthlink.net

mandroid
Jan-30-2005, 7:24pm
Another name for 1/4" stereo cables, using TRS jacks on both ends is 'balanced'
[ + on tip, return,-, on ring , and ground on the sleeve],
[Or R+/L+/common - ]
It will do the same job, nothing rare about them.

Yamaha uses the same 3 conductor cable to provide a phantom (9v) power source, for onboard preamps with their AG stomp preamp.

I use them on mains out of mixer to poweramp in, my local music store even had different color balanced cables, to define right channel #from left.
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