I have borrowed a pickup for acoustic guitars, with a view to trying it out to decide whether to buy it or one similar to it. It is a Fishman "Rare Earth" type that fits across the sound hole, so there is no need to make any holes in the guitar for that purpose. I don't want to make any mods to the guitar itself at this stage, in case the pickup isn't to my liking. So my idea is to have the cable from the pickup (which is fairly thin, probably only a few mm diameter) emerge from the soundhole and then tape it to the outside of the guitar body to stop it getting in the way of the strings etc.

My question is, what type of tape would be best to use for this purpose? I would prefer something that wouldn't damage the guitar surface or leave a sticky mess when removed - I thought maybe masking tape (as used for decorating) would be OK, but what about duct tape or other options? I thought someone out there must have tried this and would be able to advise. It wouldn't surprise me if music shops sell a special expensive tape for this very purpose, but I haven't seen it yet.

If I do fit a pickup I'll have to think about a more permanent option, probably replacing the bottom strap button with a combined button/socket which I assume you can get (although I've not looked into this yet, so any advice on this would be good, too. Or do people not recommend this, and is it better to have a separate socket away from the strap button?)

Any thoughts would be welcome.