can you take a original acoustic guitar and make it into an electric acoustic guitar?

Answer 1

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitar/navigation/acoustic-guitar-pickups?N=100001+304395&page=1

Answer 2

Actually, all you have to do is throw a coil type pickup in th soundhole. This is not an optimum solution, but many musicians, even professional ones, opt for this solution in a pinch. You can either put the transducer under the bridge, have a custom bridge installed, or put individual nodes under each string (A local luthier, Baron Martin, specializes in this procedure) You can put the jack in the end button, run a seperate hole out of the lower bout, or even run wireless, thanks to the latest technology. Some luthiers will even put the preamp with the four band equalizer into the upper bout for you if you want it done.

You can also get a special mike system put inside the guitar with the jack going out of the end button (even if the guitar does not have an end button, it is nice to put one in for this purpose since it disguises the connection nicely. In the case of the internal microphone, you are better off using an XLR / Canon, low impedance connection into a public address system, or all purpose combination vocal / keyboard/ bass amp.

the question you have to ask yourself is what you want to pay. It is going to run you 250 - 300 for most of these operations, and that is from a very reasonable place. When I had my FG - 75 (Yamaha) converted many many years ago, it only cost me fifty dollars, but those days are long gone.

There are kits that you can purchase, but I am not particularly handy so I've never really looked into them. As a last resort, you can always do what Les Paul did when they couldn't hear his guitar at the local barn dance. He simply tore the arm off the record player (it was mounted on top of the public address system) and stuck the needle into the bridge! That's how the coil pickup was invented by the way. Anyway, I hope this helps.

Answer 3

It is sometimes more expensive to convert an acoustic into an electrical acoustic, but there are also non-permanent solutions that can be removed when you just want to go acoustic. If you have an acoustic that you love it can definitely be converted, but the cost might make it better to buy another guitar that was "born" that way to begin with.

Answer 4

You can do it several ways. Three of the methods are:

1. Have installed a thin-line filament under the saddle, wired to the butt of the guitar into a 1/4" female jack.

2. Install a soundhole pickup that can easily be taken out.

3. Place a microphone at a strategic place near the guitar, depending on the make, model, and projection it gives.

On my J45/50 Gibson I have the under-the-saddle pickup as mentioned in #1. On my other acoustics I purchased a Lawrence soundhole pickup and that works well too.

Note: Why the thumbs-down? Do you believe I don't know what I'm speaking of? I think I have the necessary qualifications to answer this question.

Answer 5

My father did that in the forty's to his big Gibson, the kind with the big F holes on the side of the body, he played the jazz clubs in Philly for years, he decided that he wanted to make it electric so he put holes in it and all the pessary nobs, then a pick up which sound wonderful. That guitar sounded great for years, but later he had taken all the hardware off of it and it looked a mess, he put in in a closet and there it stayed for years, now it's not really worth anything because of all the damage he did to it, it's not considered original now, I don't even think that I could get $500.00 dollars for it now !!!! So don't do this if you have a good guitar, buy an electric one instead. Do you know how much I could get for that now, it would be considered vintage, and probably worth a lot of money, I could probably get my classical Ramirez if it had not been touched.

Answer 6

You defenatly can... Might want to take it to a guitar shop to do it though... breaking a nice acustic is a pain.

Answer 7

yes, you only have to get the sensors