behind the bridge pickup mounting and placement

knpknpknp · Post by **knpknpknp** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 5:34 pm

Although my guitar ownership is limited nowadays (I currently only own one very funny plywood department store shortscale) I soon plan on putting together a jazzmaster to call my very own.

One thing that has been intriguing me a lot as of late has been the pickup behind the bridge, and I have had a surprisingly hard tim finding a lot of info as to how people actually went about installing them / what they used and how they controlled it.

I'm hoping there are a few people that have messed about with this that can chime in. I have a body hopefully being constructed soon, and I think I'd like to avoid routing for an extra pickup. It would be neat to keep things clean. One thing I thought about was possibly using a small surface mount pickup (like, a silly old bolt on pickup) and somehow mounting it on top of the trem plate. but small may not be small enough in that case.

Either way, I am hoping some of you offset players can chime in!

laterallateral · Post by **laterallateral** » Fri Sep 24, 2010 6:33 pm

This is the only way I've ever seen this done.
I believe that two way toggle you see there is behind bridge on/off

Perhaps just taping a contact mic to the underside of the trem plate and wiring it to an on/off switch would yeild interesting results.
If you're not a rhythm circuit user, you could just rewire it for use with the contact mic/pickup?

Otherwise, I can't think of any conventional pickup that would be short enough to surface mount behind a JM/Jag bridge...

Will · Post by **Will** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 9:27 am

Why would you want to do such a thing?

The flattest PUPs I can think of are the Lace resonator pickups, but they're not cheap.

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 12:32 pm

just get an acoustic sound hole pickup that comes with its own jack. slide it in, tape it down and plug another lead into another amp.

24HRS2MDNT · Post by **24HRS2MDNT** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:09 pm

Headstock pickup?

bob the r0bot · Post by **bob the r0bot** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 3:37 pm

I think thurston and lee had a few jazzmasters with behind the bridge pickups that were just JM pickups wired straight to the jack and secured with tape

knpknpknp · Post by **knpknpknp** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 4:24 pm

I actually play an old traynor tube amp, which has two channels with separate inputs. I may try my acoustic pickup in there to see how that works.

Admittedly I'm not entirely sure I want something in there all the time, as I haven't used one yet. I just love the aesthetic of the guitar so it would be a shame to mess with it for something I may not use. Admittedly I really thought some secretive pickup in the trem would be a wonderful idea until I realized how small it would have to be. However, One half of one of those fender split pickups could potentially be pretty tops with a really skilled trem plate cut. It would only pickup a few of the strings, but really for an effectual thing it would do the trick.

Thinking about it, a chrome lipstick pickup would actually look pretty ok routed, it would just look like an extra bridge assembly, or may fool someone into thinking you use a buzz stop.

So what you may learn about me from this thread: I really like the idea of functionality, but not if it won't look pretty. Makes me sound pretty horrible really!

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Sat Sep 25, 2010 8:58 pm

Will wrote:Why would you want to do such a thing?

It's a Sonic Youth thing. It's for noise, not for music... to that end it works great.

You don't need a pickup there to get that sound, it'll come through if you pick behind the bridge on the other pickups, you'll just also get sympathetic open-string sounds unless you've got a hand muting all the strings on the fretboard/picking area.

johnniespring · Post by **johnniespring** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 10:57 pm

picking behind the bridge can be used to create tunes rather than just noise and i can make much more noise in front of the bridge than behind it. i reckon sonic youth can also make more noise in front of the bridge than behind so i reckon they have the pickups behind for the songs that they pick behind the bridge for tunes rather than noise. i've not got a guitar with a pickup there cos i don't do it enough to make it worthwhile and cos i'd have to switch it on and off and that would be too much hassle.

knpknpknp · Post by **knpknpknp** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 2:53 am

Has anyone run into a recording (or youtube demo) that shows the pickup picking up the sympathetic ringing instead of just the picking? I like the idea of that extra possible layer but once again, it would be nice to actually experience it through pickup before doing it to my own.

I feel like with youtube these days, there are demos for everything, yet I can't find much!

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 3:31 am

It's experiment, yo. I would like a blank board I could slide a pickup the length of the entire guitar to see what it do.

knpknpknp · Post by **knpknpknp** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 7:36 am

I think Ill just have to wait until I start putting this together I s'pose!

I think Ill shove the LR baggs acoustic thing I have in there to see if its a sound that I want, and then maybe go from there. As for the trying a pickup everywhere, why not just wire a spare pickup to a quarter inch jack, and run it along the top? Obviously you may need the help of an extra hand, but it would allow you to see what positions sound best to you.

gavin_rossdale · Post by **gavin_rossdale** » Thu Aug 18, 2011 11:20 am

johnniespring wrote:picking behind the bridge can be used to create tunes rather than just noise and i can make much more noise in front of the bridge than behind it. i reckon sonic youth can also make more noise in front of the bridge than behind so i reckon they have the pickups behind for the songs that they pick behind the bridge for tunes rather than noise. i've not got a guitar with a pickup there cos i don't do it enough to make it worthwhile and cos i'd have to switch it on and off and that would be too much hassle.

what song did sonic youth do it?? I always wonder how guitar players do thats.. And it affects my skills on how do i play guitar..

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Thu Aug 18, 2011 11:25 am

I believe it was "If I Could Turn Back Time". Or maybe "Yesterday".

Or maybe stop fucking pointlessly bumping threads.

(and give your missus one from me).

michaeltullo · Post by **michaeltullo** » Sat Dec 29, 2012 5:53 am

so did he do it?

how'd it sound? how'd look?

think theres enough room to pop something in on a jag without modding the trem plate?

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Sat Dec 29, 2012 6:55 am

Ha ha

Half the people is this thread don't even post anymore.