Got an old pick up?

Subject: Got an old pick up?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 06:16 PM

I'm looking for an old, workin magnetic pick up. Any style. FRom some old cheap solid body Cloneocaster is just fine. I am trying an experiment.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: 53
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 09:14 PM

my son might have one, i'll check and get to you. BOB

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 10:05 PM

Thanks Bob, but I found a source where I can buy a new so cheap it's silly not to.

The experiment? A solid body 5 String banjo in the Banjocaster tradition. Why solid body? I want to go for just a little more sustain.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: 53
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 10:10 PM

OK, DON. bob

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 10:28 PM

Hey Don,

Hook it up to a Marshall Stack and crank it to 11. How about a whammy bar while you're at it.

I mess around on the five string and that's my dream.

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 10:42 PM

Now watch your friggin' hand Don!

I built something like that years ago, and guess what? It worked! Played it for a while and then gave it to someone who actually had a USE for it. Good luck.

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: Jeri
Date: 07 Jan 02 - 11:08 PM

Rick and Don, maybe you guys already know this, but I've seen solid body banjos for sale. Weeeeeird, man.

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: rangeroger
Date: 08 Jan 02 - 01:39 AM

Jeri,for years Greg Deering has produced the Crossfire solid body Banjo. When I lived in San Diego, Greg brouht the protoype out to a desert campout. We hooked it up through a Pignose and had a ball with it all weekend.

Bela Fleck has one he runes through a synthesizer. Amazing sounds.

rr

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: Bert
Date: 08 Jan 02 - 02:37 AM

I got an old Chevvy I need to get rid of.

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 02 - 08:40 AM

Jeri,

Why buy what you can build yourself. I need a winter project and this sounds like it may take a week end.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: Jeri
Date: 08 Jan 02 - 11:04 AM

Ok, ok...so solid body banjos are old news and it'd spoil the fun to buy one. Will you use wood for the body? Metal? Metal and wood?

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: Amos
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 09:46 AM

Well, there's sompn women love about a pick-up maaan!

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 10:54 AM

Bert, what year is it? lol

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: beadie
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 05:29 PM

Pickup ? Hell, I married one.

And, speaking of solid body five-strings, it seems I've seen the Dixie Chicks use one on some of their more "out there" pieces.

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: beadie
Date: 10 Jan 02 - 03:44 PM

Now I remember where I saw a solid body!

The picker for the Blue Canvas Orchestra (house band for the Lake Superior BigTop Chautauqua (The Carnegie Hall of Tent Shows] in Bayfield, Wisconsin) plays one.

Check them out, they're on the net.

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: CraigS
Date: 10 Jan 02 - 07:04 PM

Man in London tried to sell me a National tenor. Lovely instrument, only 1000 English pounds. Better than any banjo I ever played (includes Gibsons, Bacons and Abbotts). Still might be more useful with a pick-up. But what's wrong with converting an electric guitar to five strings - less work, I might think.

Subject: RE: BS: Got an old pick up?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 10 Jan 02 - 09:52 PM

Jeri,

I'll use some old Rock Maple I have lying about for the instrument. I'll make a slightly shorter scale length to be kind to my crippled fingers. The finger board will probably be Rosewood, possibly Purple Heart or Formica.

Everything else will be as basic as is possible. BUT!

I am tempted to route from the back side a channel that will coincide with the bridge location. I'll rout it down so the top of the banjo is abour 2 MM thick at that point. Then I'll fasten in a transducer for a bridge pickuo and embed it in Epoxy. (Will it work? Don'y know. Thats why its an experiment.) But I will have at least one magnetic pick up near the finger board. And maybe just for shits and giggles I'll build in a spare Sabine tuner I have kicking about.

Don