Pickup Installation

April 13th 2003

After a bit of research and some discussion in the Alt.Music.Guitars.Resonator newsgroup, I decided to install a Schatten Design pickup in my National Style N resonator guitar.

You may also find the installation of a pickup in my Tres interesting.

Please bear in mind that I am not a luthier, and I've only limited experience at making modifications to any of my guitars. I wanted to have a go at this because I wanted to understand a bit more about how the instrument was built, and, of course, the take-it-to-bits mentality.

I settled for the Schatten because the installation instructions were available on their web site and I could get an idea of how hard it was going to be to fit. Additionally, it claimed not to need a pre-amp - and this appealed to me.

As I did the install, I took pictures of the various bits, and present them here for your information. This is in no way a replacement for Schatten's instructions. It simply represents my own experience. I have no commercial relationship with Schatten other than being a customer. I accept no responsibility etc. for any fool thing you might do based on viewing this page.

Contents of the kit.

Strings off. An operation of some trepidation, but I'd practised it before. The fear is basically an uneven tension on the cone causing the cone to break. For this reason, the general advice is to only ever change one (or maybe) two strings at a time. By slowly unwinding the tension evenly across each string, I eventually get to the stage where I can take all the strings off. The photos on the left shows the guitar with the strings removed, then the removal of the cover plate to reveal the cone itself.

The cone lifts out easily. It is made of aluminium, very light and feels quite fragile.

Turning it over reveals a small screw at the top of the cone which screws into the biscuit (the bridge). In order to fit the pickup, this screw is replaced by one of the screw/bolts provided in the installation kit. You get two of these new screw/bolt things in the kit (I guess for when you change the bridge/cone) they are at the centre of the picture of the installation kit. Basically, you remove the existing screw and replace it with the new double sided screw/bolt. Fairly simple.

Now we prepare the pickup. Basically, bead the putty around the edge and try not to get any on the exposed metallic part. This is pretty well covered in the installation guide.

All seems to be going pretty easy. Now we fit the sleeve over the bolt, and cut it back so that we can put the nut on.

Oops. Now it seems we have a bit of a problem.

Where am I going to put the output jack? I didn't want to make any modifications to the guitar, so I was hoping to use the external mounting jack socket, but how can I get the cable out of the guitar anywhere close to the tail-piece. Simply resting the cable under the cone would unbalance the cone (the cable is 1-2mm thick). OK, I could take the cable out of the f holes but that would be a bit impractical in operation.

In retrospect, I think I'd got myself into the mindset that the cable had to come out through one of the small holes in the cover plate, and that I would then use the tail-piece to hide the cable. So I drilled a small hold in the rim of the cone holder so that the cable could exit without touching the cone.

Clever hu? Until I look at this picture and noticed later that there is a b****y hole above the strap button which is probably for a pick-up cable. How I failed to notice this is a mystery. I hang my head in shame.

OK, so I've now got an external jack fitted. But how on earth do I get a strap to fit on? I tried several straps, the one pictured just happened to be the one I normally use with the instrument. The guitar won't fit in it's case with a strap on. Guess I could tie it, but the whole things looks so untidy, and I'd worry about this heavy guitar falling off.

And so a deep breath was taken, and an end-pin jack (Allparts EP 4161-001) was ordered. As I thought that it would be better to make an existing hole bigger. But when I'd taken everything to bits again, and looked at the internals of the tail arrangement (the picture is looking back towards the tail of the guitar)...

...I thought that for this to be right, I have to make a proper hole, and fit a jack socket to it. Note that the guitar is upside down in the picture. I used the Allparts jack rather than the one supplied by Schatten because I could tighten it from outside the guitar. Also, the Allparts jack required a smaller hole, and if I made a f'up, it would be easier to make a smaller hole larger. Also, I used some wide tap washers on the jack assembly to spread the load internally.

That's the assembly complete. The pickup works, and it is very loud. It can easily overload a Tascam US-428 - a USB external sound mixer sort-of-a-thing using an unbalanced line level input.

So what does it sound like? Well, I haven't used it in anger yet, but I've put some MP3s comparing a microphone (Sure SM57) with a DI recording (straight from the pickup). There's is no EQ or effects on the recordings.

WS - Pickup is with the pickup, WS - Mic is the same thing with a mic. 21cb - PU is with a pickup, 21cb - Mic is again with a mic. The MP3s are at Soundclick, the link will open in a new page.

Bear in mind that I tune the National down one tone and have elixir nano-web 10s strings. Which is fairly untypical.