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What best way to mount 6 string pick up for a 3 or 4 string guitar?

Posted by Peter Taylor on February 15, 2010 at 12:30am in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion
Having just purchased a cheap 6 string pick up I was wondering what would be best way to mount the pickup on a 3 or 4 string guitar?.
 Line up some of the pins with the strings looks kind of wierd though?
or
run it at an angle to cover most bases even though not all strings will be above the pins. How will this effect the way pick up works.
I know the strings are supose to effect the magnetic field ( learnt that here already ) but with them not being aligned above the strings is this still ok?

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Replies

  • Randy S. Bretz December 1, 2012 at 5:28am

    305930369?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024Here i made a wood surround for a 6 pole mag, the surround covers over the 2 end poles leaving the 4 in the middle. Then i cut an allen wrench down and used that piece as my rail, it just lays on the poles.

  • Thomas "Duck" Petry December 1, 2012 at 2:03am

    I did mine at an angle and it seems to work quite well. No science involved, I just liked the look.

    100_3274sm.jpg

  • Sleepy John November 30, 2012 at 12:13pm

    I've used these a lot on 6 string round hole acoustic guitars, and sometimes the strings dont line up with the pole pieces. Doesn't make much difference to the sound, just put them so it looks right!

  • The Phrygian Kid March 30, 2010 at 7:03am
    theres a guy on the australian cig box site, i forgot hnis name, but he hides em inside the box, and stands a bit of aluminium or steel on the pole pieces, pokes that thru the top of the box..
    he cut this new blade polepiece only to the size he need..

    looks pretty slick

    oops i see he's already here haha cheers John..
  • ChickenboneJohn March 30, 2010 at 6:27am
    I've done loads of 4 and 3 strings with 6 pole pickups and in my experience the alignment of string to polepieces makes no difference to my (volume damaged) ears. Angle it if you want to, but don't worry over it.

    Chickenbone
  • Tex March 30, 2010 at 2:10am
    It is a single pole, traditionally an alnico magnet wound and taped with cellophane tape. I've been installing pickups and working on twangers for years now, and this is what I'm putting on my first build. I surmise that one could lose a bit of the "jangly" sound inherent in these pickups by adding a piezo under the bridge wired in series. By the way, for piezo placement the bridge is the loudest place on the guitar.

    Nathan King said:
    Hmm... Peter, I'm curious what people will answer you with. Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with 6 string pups on 3 or 4 strings.... I have, however, lined up all 6 poles of a pickup underneath a one string diddley bow, and it worked out pretty well.

    But I will add this question to the discussion in hopes of an answer: What about lipstick pickups? Do they have 6 seperate polepieces, or do they use one solid magnet inside the cover?
  • John Drake February 17, 2010 at 3:46pm
    Another way of doing this is to mount the pickup under the top of the box and extend a steel bar through the lid. A diagram previously submitted by another member on CBN shows how the bar can be kept at an appropriate length for either 3 or 4 strings. Instead of a bar you could also just extend steel rod through the top under each string so that they sat on the pole pieces of the pickup. The second picture shows one of my own guitars which has a p-bass pickup mounted under the lid with a bar protruding through. Mounting under the lid though requires modification of a straight through neck to get around the pickup. Third picture shows how I achieved this. Sound from this method is just as good as from a pickup mounted on top of the lid. Regards John D.

    • Larry Chapman > John Drake November 29, 2012 at 7:11pm

      Do you lay the bar directly on the pickup poles or do they have to be somehow insulated (maybe electrical tape)? 

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