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Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 1:22 am
by doublev2
Hi. is there any pickups that can be hid inside body of solid guitar that has no pick guard. Basically something like a gunslinger but with hidden pickups. Any help would be great.

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 3:08 am
by poserboy71
Why not just go the piezo route ?

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:56 am
by ankh
I should take alook at the guitar in question, to give a good advice, but i try anyway...........
you could do somehting like this:

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Please not that the sky guitar has a very powerful preamp with insane amount of clean boost


You can also try putting a fake piece of plastic with the same design or texture of the rest of the body.
The problem is related to the pu height,since to make it not visiblee it should be routed way down, same level of the top of the body.the it would requirea onboard preamp. Hope this help a bit.
Another option would be a sort of jazz pu, the one you attach to the end of the neck.............

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2017 7:19 pm
by Genebaby
Dino, pickups are usually "hidden" by them being painted the same colour as the guitar, be it one colour, or a graphic. They need to be fairly close to the strings to get a signal.

Or you could use digital pickups installed in the bridge and then play only through a Synth unit, like the Roland VG series.....

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 6:36 am
by poserboy71
poserboy71 wrote: Sun Nov 05, 2017 3:08 am Why not just go the piezo route ?
We all know that Dino isn't going for high gain,etc...
Piezo is the way to go !

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 9:41 am
by ankh
Having both the VG8 and the variax, i've noticed that piezo gives you a faster atack and sometimes this isn't good for electric guitars( at least the ones that are sampled in the line 6).For electric guitars simulation, the gk2 gives you a response human ear is more accustomed to.

If Dino doesn't want to route the body, PB is right.Not sure if he likes the piezo response,tough.
Can you please elaborate a bit more, Dino?

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 11:54 am
by poserboy71
Dino is old school... a purist...unaffected...natural.
THE TRUE OWNER OF THE BROWN SOUND !!!!
With him, I believe it is about the sound of flesh ( sometimes plectrums of various materials) , wire,and wood.
I can really see Dino exploring the use of wood and stone plectrums.

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 3:44 am
by doublev2
Haha. I am having a guitar made for my daughter and she said she would love a guitar that you can not see the pickups but she wants les Paul sound so quite hard or impossible. I am having her a pink tigertailz swiss cheese guitar made but slightly different. Was just exploring and sort of option but I realize that pick ups need to be near strings.
Was going to have port orford cedar body but I see its not an eco wood. Would love to explore some sort of non wood product like the Remo drums I have which to me sounds like wood but maybe better. I would actually like to get my hands on the Remo patented product and have that be the material used for the body but if not we are going to try something else. Alder a possibility.

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 4:52 am
by ankh
then you can have the pu cover Painted the same way as the body,or traspalnt a variax 300 hardware into a les paul copy and having it Painted like swiss cheese.

Or you can do this:

Image

of course, such guitars are meant to be played with those:

Image
or:

Image

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 6:02 am
by poserboy71
Nice !!!! LOL

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 6:41 am
by tukoztukoz
Urgh!!!! I'm Swiss but I hate cheese!

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 5:59 pm
by Genebaby
Dino, using the digital pickups for midi and a Roland VG system she can program it to sound like a Les Paul, the possibilities are endless, but only within the confines of that system.

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 3:56 am
by ankh
....or you can purchase this:

Image

and choose among those options:

Image

trust me............it works ;)

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 12:11 pm
by shramiac
Cool ankh.


Line 6 used to make a pickupless guitar, the Variax. Looks like they only make versions with P/Us now, so you'll need to hunt ebay...etc


Image

Re: Help. Hidden pick ups

Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 6:31 pm
by ankh
ankh wrote: Mon Nov 06, 2017 9:41 am Having both the VG8 and the variax, i've noticed that piezo gives you a faster attack and sometimes this isn't good for electric guitars( at least the ones that are sampled in the line 6).For electric guitars simulation, the gk2 gives you a response human ear is more accustomed to.
yep, shram, that's the one i did mention earlier in one of my posts........the 300 is the less expensive model.Many people took the guts out of the body and trasplanted in a better one.Warmoth, if i'm correct, used to sell a new body with special routing to accomodate all the variax hardware.People seem to notice a difference,sound wise but, since the variax work on a piezo principle, what's below the saddles dosn't matter so much....

Back to our topic, Dino could buy a 300 for cheap and work on that........even to the point of drilling it to look like swiss cheese :P.

When you play with it, it is a good idea to just listen and not think about what guitar you are holding ;).
Please also note that the Variax fortè are the chance to put different virtual pu's on diferent models in different postions AND alter the virtual pots and condenser value. This way you can create interesting mixes or even a brand new sound.

The alternate tunings possibilities also are a huge plus.Sound wise it is good for the studio,especially if the guitar is recorded in a song with other instruments.
Compared back to back to the original models, you can hear and feel the difference.Acoustic sounds are good.The dobro sample needs a bit of chorusing to sound good.
Even scott Henderson used the variax in the "jazz" setting for one of the Tunes on the HBC record.