How much to turn an acoustic into an electric acoustic??

[the_doors_girl]

HI all

Its is great to be back in the forum :). Its been so long since I have been in here sorry about that. Oh just to start thanks to Shawn for the help getting me back on here :). As for my question I am thinking of taking me Equip Gibson AJ10 and adding some pickups to it so it can be an electric acoustic. I was wondering if anyone knows of a web site on how to do this what to get etc. Also I would like to know what people think should I mess up me sweet sounding guitar or should I just buy a elect/acous.
Thanks all for the help :)

[adenine!]

Depends how much money you have, if you're broke you might want to consider putting on pickups, if you're Bill Gates, go for the new guitar :D

[jaytee]

i think...if i had a choice...id rather keep my nice acoustic and just go pick out a new one...have a better collection...

[SteelSlider]

There are nice p/ups for acoustic guitars. Nice cheap ones and nice expensive ones.
I do a fair share of traveling and have noticed different music stores carry different brands. The kind of p/ups the stores in your area carry may be differnt from where I am. Price vary too.
Best thing I can tell ya is to shop around the local music stores in your area, talk to the sale persons, try the p/ups out on 'your' guitar, in store, of course. There is an adhesive backing you can use, and some will clip right into the sound hole.
Like most everything else, doors_girl, you get what you pay for.
Shop around, get the best you can afford. If you get the cheapest, well, that's probably what it'll sound like.
I mic'ed three of my acoustics with my homemade mic sys. Cost about $125 for each guitar, for what I do, but you can pick up a cheap, or if you prefere, inexpensive, P/up for somewhere around $40 bucks. Give or take a few.
Good luck, and let us know what you got and how much you forked over for it. I'm the nosey sort. Hee, hee.

I just noticed the poll.
A pickup is a lot cheaper, even a real good one, than buying a new guitar. It's like having an electric and wanting to carry it to the beach to play. It just won't sound very good.
With and electric acoustic, you'll have two guitars in one. I advise on a P/Up. You can play at home or on stage with an Amp, then toss it in the car and head to the beach and play it there, unpluged.

[SteelSlider]

Hey, adenine!
I just noticed your from Olando.
I use to play at a place called "Maverick's Gin Singin' Bar" near the Colonial Plaza back in the mid 60's.
Use to play at the huge barn on Hwy 50 east of Orlando where the road splits to go to Cocoa or Titusville.
Played all over Orange County. All over Fla.
We were from Titusville.
Just saw where ya was from. I got excited, and lost control.
Yeah, I'm a redneck. A rancid, raunchy redneck.

[Bison38]

When I got my new guitar, I asked the guy at the store if I should get an electric acoustic, or just stay with the regular one. He said that it would cost a few hundred dollars more if I added one in later, but would only cost around ten dollars more to start out with the elactric acoustic. If I were you I would go ahead and get the new one if you have the cash.

[Coffee]

I've got an old Aria accoustic that has a very good accoustic sound. I once wondered what to do with it as well. I found that miking the guitar with a mike on a stand restricted my movement too much and was prone to feedback. At that time I purchased a Lawrence pickup. I love the sound and it has a three point mount that simply fits into the soundhole of the guitar by tension. The weakness with this setup was that the chord from the pickup kept getting in my way when I played and I was stuck with the length of cable that came with the pickup. I taped it down to the front of the guitar a few times but this was definately ugly so I decided to modify it myself to make it more convenient. To do this, find someone who knows how to solder and knows what they are doing. Preferably a guitarist who knows what he's doing. Make sure you have the parts before you start cutting.

I bought a male and female mini jack (any small connectors will do) from a Radio Shack (Yeah, I know, I know) and a 1/4" mono jack from the music store which was designed as a connector for a standard guitar cable plug in and as a guitar strap button.

I then cut the wire on the pickup to about 5" from the pickup. These wires are very thin compared to a standard guitar cable. I soldered on the mini male plug to the end of it. Then I took another length of wire from the cable that had come with the pickup and soldered the 1/4" jack to one end of it and the the female mini to the other long enough to connect to the pickup plug inside the accoustic chamber. Make the wire long enough that it will extend out the sound hole about 2 or 3 inches. Take all the strings off the guitar (time to change them anyway) and pull the bottom strap button out of the guitar. Slide the mini plug through the button hole. Then reach inside the sound cavity and put the nut on the 1/4" jack connector securing it to the base of the guitar. Make sure the connector wire and the pickup can be connected

When you want to use it as an electric you simply shake out the wire that's inside the guitar through the sound hole, like you would a pick, connect the pickup to it, slide the wires back into the guitar and mount the pickup in the in the soundhole.

These are the advantages to this setup. It does not alter the look of the guitar. When used with the pickup, all you can see that's different is the pickup in the sound hole. No long pickup wire to get in the way or to get damaged in transit. You can connect any length standard guitar cable to the base of the guitar. If later you decide to sell the guitar, you can keep the pickup and install on another guitar. When the pickup is removed, the guitar looks exactly like what it did before the modification.

One other thing I did with my guitar since I perform standing and like a forward guitar position to ease playing was I bought a locking guitar strap button and placed it in the base of the tenon of the guitar neck (that's the part of the neck that attaches to the guitar at the guitar body.) http://guitarrage.virtualave.net/guitar/construction/lesson1/index.html shows where this is. This places the guitar in the same relative position as an electric would be with the strap on. This is not absolutely necessary but to me it makes the guitar feel much more secure.

[the_doors_girl]

HI all yet agian

Sorry but what I never put in this post is the amount of money I am willing to spend on this adventure. I was thinking of no more then $300 (canadian) cause I got school bills to pay. I dont care about what company it is made buy and tools as well as time is not a problem.

Thanks

[ESP_Viper]

I'd say get the nicest pickup for acoustics out there! With that kind of cash you can get a nice pickup and still have money to spare.

[Coffee]

I agree with ESP_Viper. If you check my previous post you may want to have it wired in so it can be removed and so the wire doesn't protrude. Try out the pickups with your own guitar and pick the one you like the sound of. Also, make sure you're the one putting it in the sound hole. Most of them attach easily, but you'll find some are awkward. Turn the volume up on the amp loud enough that you hear the true sound of the pickup and not just the accoustic sound of your guitar or a combination. Don't forget to play with the tone on the amp if you haven't played an electric to see what kind of timbre it has.

[LabRat]

I am not a fan of sound hile pickups. I think if you want a good sound, get an under saddle type piezo pickup by Fishman or
LR Baggs. These pickups use a thin film placed under the saddle with a preamp mounted in the endpin. The endpin replaces the guita strap button on the bottom of the guitar. They also make these pickups with on board preamps with EQ and volume controls. Go to a good music shop and ask about Fishman under saddle pickups. Fishman is used by all the big guitar companies like Taylor and Larrivee. They also make the Martin thinline series.