Direct or body-mount humbuckers are more and more common. If you’re planning on upgrading and swapping them out, there are some considerations that you should be aware of, though. Check it out…
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Well, we’ve done volume controls so it sort of makes sense to throw the tone control into the mix too. And, for that, we need a new little helper. Let’s welcome the capacitor…
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At some places in a circuit, we want to see a nice, low-resistance path from one point to another. But, in the right circumstances, higher resistance can be pretty useful. Let’s look at resistance, pots, and volume controls…
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Getting a Takamine preamp out of the guitar body is something that’s confusion to many. There are no obvious screws or clips. There’s a hole that might do something but, just one. What gives?
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Taylor’s Expression System preamp mounts very sleekly in the side of their guitars. If you ever have to remove one, though, you hit some bushings that can cause head-scratching. Check out the best (and safest) way to remove them.
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Another look at the integrated saddle/piezo pickup. You’ll most often find these in Takamine guitars but there are variants around. Like this Epiphone pickup. The action needed a little finessing here and this version presented it’s own challenges.
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Advances in piezo materials paved the way for an evolution in under-saddle transducer pickup design. Let’s see the main types available now…
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First time you encounter a Takamine Palathetic pickup, you’re all, like, “Woah! Dude!? What gives?”
Yeah, it’s a bit weird-looking compared to most other under-saddle transducer pickups but there’s method behind Takamine’s madness.
Check it out… (Dude)…
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Normally, Id recommend a bone saddle as a good upgrade for an acoustic instrument. However, here’s a rare instance where I’d advise against bone. Takamine-style integrated pickups don’t always play nicely with bone saddles.
Find out more…
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Lowering the action on an acoustic guitar is generally a (relatively) straightforward task.
Unless, of course, your guitar has a Takamine-style ‘integrated pickup’. Then you need to regroup.
Get the low-down…
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Electric guitar pickups turn string vibrations into electricity. So do the piezo pickups often used in acoustic. The only difference is the way they do it.
We’ll talk more about the properties and problems of different acoustic pickups over the next few weeks so, for now, a piezo primer…
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More stuck stuff. A slightly unusual one, this week.
If you work on (or if you have) an older Gibson you’ll occasionally come across a guitar with a curious output jack…
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