Posted on March 3, 2024May 15, 2025 by Dale Phillips Humbucking Pickup Wiring Humbucking Pickup Wiring by Daniel P. Coyle Originally published as Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #203, 1982 The use of dual-coil or “Humbucking” pickups enables a wide range of samples of string sounds, along with a heightened complexity of switching problems. A flexible switching installation for either 6-string electric guitars or electric basses has the ability to arrange the coils of the two separate pickups in the following configurations: a) Pickups in either series or parallel configuration. b) Coils within the pickups in either series or parallel configuration. c) Coils within the pickups arranged as “single-coil” or “Humbucking”. d) Ability to select either pickup individually or both pickups at once. e) Phase reversal between pickups. f) Tone control defeat. g) The regular volume control and high-cut tone control. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on April 21, 2023May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Battery-Powered Instrument Amplifiers Battery-Powered Instrument Amplifiers by Joseph Ennis Originally published in American Lutherie #69, 2002 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 After reading Francis Kosheleff’s description of building speaker enclosures which resemble instrument bodies, I thought I would offer my experience of what has worked for me. I have added battery-powered amplifiers and speakers inside instrument bodies to either augment the sound of a weak instrument like a harp or mandolin, or just to act as stage monitors. The thing left unspoken in Mr. Kosheleff’s article is that not just any speaker will work well. The speaker should be chosen to match the instrument body resonance. The first air resonance of a hollow body instrument is essentially the same as the Helmholtz resonance of a tuned speaker cabinet. The same math applies. The formula is given below. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on April 21, 2023May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Constructing an Under-Saddle Transducer Constructing an Under-Saddle Transducer by R.M. Mottola Originally published in American Lutherie #68, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Piezoelectric transducers or pickups (I use the terms interchangeably) are popularly used to “electrify” acoustic instruments, and are increasingly found embedded in the bridge saddles of electric instruments as well. Manufactured transducers are available from a number of sources, but this article provides instructions for making an undersaddle piezo pickup for a flattop guitar from basic materials. If you know which end of a soldering iron to grab hold of, you can build this pickup. Piezo material will generate an electrical charge when mechanically deformed. There are four types of piezo materials used in the manufacture of instrument transducers: lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramic chips, PZT ceramic “bender” disks, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) plastic film, and PVDF coaxial cable. PZT chips find their way into first-generation undersaddle guitar transducers, transducers for various bowed instruments, and manufactured archtop guitar and mandolin bridges. PZT disks consist of PZT material bonded to thin brass disks, and are commonly used for soundboard pickups for flattop guitars and for bridge-mounted pickups for upright basses. PVDF film may be found in all sorts of transducers from undersaddle guitar transducers to under-bridge-foot transducers for bass viols. PVDF coax cable is manufactured just like the single-conductor shielded cable used to make instrument cables, except that instead of an insulating material between the center conductor and the outer shielding braid, we find PVDF material. It is used in manufactured undersaddle pickups for acoustic guitars and is the material that will be used to construct a transducer in this article. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on April 21, 2023May 29, 2025 by Dale Phillips Questions: Amplifying Flattop Bass Questions: Amplifying Flattop Bass by Harry Fleishman Originally published in American Lutherie #65, 2001 and Big Red Book of American Lutherie Volume Six, 2013 Mark Brantley of Appleton, Minnesota asks: I recently ordered Tim Olsen’s plans for the Flattop Bass (GAL Plan #13). Do you have any advice on a good electric pickup for it? Harry Fleishman of Boulder, Colorado responds: It’s difficult to offer too much advice about amplifying your acoustic bass without more input about how loud you need to play, how high a fidelity to the instrument’s actual acoustic voice you want, and what your budget is; but here goes anyway. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
Posted on August 1, 2022May 19, 2025 by Dale Phillips Transducers Transducers by Reagan Cole Originally published as Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #54, 1977 The purpose of this particular article is to project one man’s opinion about the theoretical whys and wherefores of the transducer for acoustic instruments. This is not a consumer’s report analysis of commercially available products. Anyone interested in this information may consult the series which is currently running in Mugwumps Instrument Herald. A full market report and commentary has been promised. I have never had the money to run out and A-B all the stuff that crops up in the pages of Guitar Player; anyway, I have never used any of the commercial units since I build my own systems. There seems to be several major camps regarding the amplification of acoustic instruments. These I would categorise as follows: (1) Only microphones should be used. These devices are, after all, an electrical analogue to the human ear, so if the mike is good all will be well. Absolutely nothing should be attached to an existing acoustic instrument. (2) Transducers are a necessary evil. They do allow musicians playing acoustic instruments to compete in an electric or an electronic ensemble. At any rate, if they are used they should be easily removable, leaving no trace. (3) The acoustic-electric is yet another evolutionary phase. The performance of the instrument transducer system is of paramount importance; It may be necessary to modify the instrument or even to design a new type for acoustic-electric use. I don’t believe that there are grounds for a serious feud lurking in any of these arguments; all are correct from their own frames of reference. Become A Member to Continue Reading This Article This article is part of our premium web content offered to Guild members. To view this and other web articles, join the Guild of American Luthiers. Members also receive 4 annual issues of American Lutherie and get discounts on products. For details, visit the membership page. If you are already a member, login for access or contact us to setup your account.
