Electrifying my Guitalele

peterleroux

I've just finished installing a Fishman pickup and preamp in my Guitalele, for a total cost of R390 courtesy of eBay. Full write up here, but some photos and comments:

The Fishman system comes pre-wired with moles connectors to join everything together- if your are comfortable doing the cutting work, the electronics side won't represent any kind of challenge. My only gripe is that the battery box doesn't show polarity for the 9V battery unless you squint at the labels on the PCB down at the end of the box, so I added a little label with + and - to the inside of the box. The top is fan-braced as you can see

I'm a little paranoid about cutting holes too big (you can always cut a small hole to size, but if you cut too big, well, ja) so I checked the template before taping it to the side of the instrument and cutting. Same procedure for the battery box

The bridge was pretty straightforward to drill for the pickup, a 2.5mm drill fitted the slot perfectly.

I've strung it up, tuning has settled and I'm pretty happy with it. There is an occasional buzz on some notes, I may need to treat it to a proper setup but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out

V8

Thumps UP!

Nicely done Peter - I'm digging the neat install. Went and read through the detail on your blog - great work on detailing the process. Thank you for that!

R390 for the pickup??? How is this possible, exl shipping perhaps?

peterleroux

Meron Rigas wrote: Thumps UP!

Nicely done Peter - I'm digging the neat install. Went and read through the detail on your blog - great work on detailing the process. Thank you for that!

R390 for the pickup??? How is this possible, exl shipping perhaps?

Thanks Meron! I took time to document it because there isn't much on the web- particularly for the GL1.

I bought the pickup from a Chinese supplier on eBay, paid them R360 something including shipping, and paid R22 clearance at the post office. Compared to the local options starting at around R1000, the decision is easy. Of course, I was taking a chance that the post office might lose it, but it shipped with tracking, and I also took a chance that it might be fake- but if it is, it's a fake that perfectly fits Fishman's templates. Given the number of chinese made guitars that come with Fishmans (Fishmen?) I figured there is probably a steady, legitimate Chinese supply of these.