How to Do the Changeover of an Acoustic Guitar to Electric
- 1). Buy a guitar pickup from a music store. You can also find them online. Steel string guitars can use a piezoelectric pickup, which is mounted close to the bridge and converts the movement of the strings into an electrical signal that is sent to an amplifier.
- 2). Remove the guitar's strings to give you access to where you will mount the pickup. Grip the bridge saddle with the pliers and pull it away. The saddle fits in its slot very tightly but is not usually glued so should come apart fairly easily.
- 3). Drill a hole using the drill and 1/8-inch bit through the bottom of the bridge closest to where the high E string sits. This hole allows the pickup to be connected to the jack socket, which then allows the guitar to be connected to an amplifier.
- 4). Glue the pickup's preamplifier inside the guitar body close to the sound hole. Make sure you are able to access it through the sound hole so that you can connect it to the pickup and jack socket. Some pickups do not come with a preamplifier and you will need to plug your guitar into an external preamp.
- 5). Insert the pickup into the slot that you removed the saddle from earlier, pushing the wire through the drilled hole. Push the saddle back into the slot firmly, making sure that the contact between the saddle, pickup and guitar body is even and secure.
- 6). Remove the screw holding the end pin and extract the pin with a pair of pliers. This hole may have to be expanded to accept the jack socket--if so, use a fine grade wood file. The other option is to drill a completely new hole, however, this type of work should be left to a professional.
- 7). Solder the battery terminal wires to the jack socket and push the terminal through the end hole. Fix the terminal to the inside of the guitar body with glue. Connect the 9 volt battery to the terminal and secure in place with duct tape.
- 8). Solder the pickup's wires to the jack socket, following the instructions supplied, and feed them back through the end hole. Push the socket into the hole and secure with its locking nut from the inside. The guitar is now ready to be used with an amplifier.
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