Vintage Pickup

[Lee Baker]

I acquired a Madeira (by Guild) A-35 acoustic guitar with an unrepairable top. I am putting a new Sitka Spruce top on it. Just for me, just for fun.

 

Inside the guitar was a functional Guild GPA-106 pickup. The pickup itself was just dangling and I can see no evidence as to its placement. I have read quite a few complimentary comments about this pickup, and I have two questions.

 

First, is it worth putting back into this guitar?

Second, do you have a recommended placement or should I just experiment.

[Giorgio Castaldi]

Can you post some pics?

[Walter W Wright]

i see that it's just a little piezo "bug" type pickup that you stick to the instrument with putty.

i haven't played this one specifically but i doubt it's much different from all the other stick-on piezo pickups from that era, which are mostly awful in acoustic guitars. they tend to be feedbacky and uneven, with lots of handling noise and low output. (they seem to do better on much smaller instruments like ukes and mandolins, less feedback-prone).

old acoustic pickups mostly don't become "vintage", just obsolete. something like a K&K pure mini will be far and away better at that type of job.

that said you already have it so why not try it? try stuck directly to the bridgeplate with putty, in different places. directly under the saddle itself will probably have the hottest output but might overemphasize the strings it's directly under. you could try nudging it away from the saddle, which might get a more even response at the cost of overall output.

[Lee Baker]

Thank you very much.