Acoustic/electric J-bass pickup fitted Ibanez

This had a dysfunctional Piezo bridge pickup assembly, and even restored with a second Piezo unit it fell well short of the sound I would find convincing or acceptable as the bass sound of a band or folk-rock band.

I have seen and played those Ibanez Talman six string acoustics and been well impressed by the tone from having a conventional magnetic pickup so I went for something quite similar for this... a jazzbass pickup seemed a good starting point and I constructed a wiring pattern that utilises the old Piezo jack input.

The Ibanez/Fishman pre-amp is still mounted in the top side of the guitar body but it is internally isolated.

You might experiment with re energising the built in tuner perhaps if you like fiddling with electrics?

I mounted the jazzbass pickup on a wooden pedestal that is secured inside to the back of the guitar with cadmium plated flat headed machine screws which you see the heads of sitting flush on the back of the guitar.

The playing scale is two inches shorter than a long scale bass at just over 32 inches, so still a very playable size, and as you can see in two of my photos it has a good low easy action.

On a six string guitar a low first fret action is far more vital as it allows effortless barre chords like F and Bb; with a bass playing single notes the pressure force is not so much the issue, but a low first fret action contributes to the upper neck low action without adding any fret buzz... as dropping the bridge would.

I played it in the studio here along with my foot-drums and it has an easy fluid feel with a good warm rounded tone... afterwards for comparison I changed to a good solid bass, but it seemed a bit dull after the Ibanez acoustic J-bass.

I would think it would go well in an electric folk or country rock band.

Cheers,

Mark D Phillips....... (Phillips Cleartone Conversions)