DIY Acoustic to Semi Acoustic Guitar Mod

[cOOter]

Just got mail...



Cheap ass Christmas present time, I lashed out a whopping $18
on eBay for an acoustic pre-amp kit for my mudda's old well seasoned
acoustic Ibanez she's had for a zillion years.

All I gotta do now is figure out how to sneak the
guitar out of the house so I can hack into it with a
bloody big hammer and a very blunt chisel.



to be continued ...

[cOOter]

Old mudda is out all arvo so time to play.
I forgot she also has a Korean made Ibanez.




Thin sounding cheap thing with dents, so I picked this
one to butcher, as the pre-amp would help with it's shit sound.




New input jack should go below the strap holder
but in this case I'd get away with it above to remove a dent
at the same time.




Side profile.




Control unit has a wave contour that will only sit flush in one spot.




Side profile.




OK, strings need to come off to get hands inside.
Fark buying new strings. (bit broke atm)
A capo (blue thing) comes in handy to keep all the old strings in place.




Loosen all the tuner keys to give some slack.
Not much effort is needed for the bridge pins to come out.




Shit, some shit for brains glued the bridge (white bit) into the
saddle. It has to come out to fit the piezo pick-up underneath.






Plan B - attack the real McCoy old donkey Ibanez made in Japan. (rather an Aussie Maton myself)




Nice ass.




Nice hips.




Where was I ...

OK, strings off and the bridge comes out of this one.
Black thing (piezo pick-up) on the end of the wire has to sit under the white bridge.




Lazy folks usually shave 3mm or 4mm off the bottom of the bridge
to keep the string height the same when the piezo pick up is placed under the bridge.

The bridge on this one was wide enough to hack into with a make shift router set up.




Not real pretty - bloody thing is made of real cow bone and was hard and smelly to cut.




It'll flipping work  




Now get back in there. Ow, first ye need a hole for the wire.




Ya old cordless drill still works. Thanks  




Slip it in with no  :vasfag:




Bridge height retained as original.




Blunt chisel and hammer time.




Input socket has a curve that only really fits flush in one place.

Each guitar is different so no point waffling on about measurements.
I forget the hole measurements. (I was sober)

The idea is to make the hole a bit under sized and trim out to suit.




Same deal for the control unit hole.




I fucked up here - there goes all my future customers.

Ya gotta keep some meat in the four (4) corners for the screws to bite into.




Work around was a few cuttings that will be inside sandwiching the inside with the outer.




Cost me an extra 30+ flipping minutes to fix the fuck up, but all good and firm now  




Plug and play easy stuff. Unlike the control unit, the screws worked out fine with this square hole cut out.




I could have sworn I centered that shit with a tape measure   (bad camera angle)




The fried rice kit doesn't come with anything to hold down the internal mic,
so a kitchen clip, super glue and a bit of fuel line as a spacer to the rescue.




Everything cleaned, tuned and back together - geez, the lights even work.




$18 and two hours. One Christmas prez down.

Sound sample coming when I figure out how to play somethin' while pissed.

[Thunderbird]

Thats pretty neat I must say.

Ibanez is a good brand, my oldies bought me one of their Strat clones way back in 1976 or thereabouts from Tolmies I think it was in Scarborough Street Southport, might have been Norma's as well, cant remember.

Im glad me old drill works for ya.

You see Aldi have a NUX box on sale from the 7th?

http://www.aldi.com.au/en/special-buys/s...processor/

I got that Aussie made valve guitar amp going too, made in 1963 in Marrackville NSW, beautiful.

[cOOter]

Da old chook has had that Jap Ibanez for over 25 years.

It's been bumped around the coast a zillion times playing at
church's and old peoples homes. Cosmic condition isn't great
but it has a warm sound unlike the cardboard models
made in China and Korea.

Yes I seen the Aldi NUX. Good price I suppose.
Me cheapie Boss ME-25 is still putting up with me spilling fruity wine on it.

The NUX on sale aren't really suited to bass guitars though.

Did you ever get the little red one like mine?

Ya Aussie made valve amp 'tis up and running .. cool bananas  

To the ant infested fridge Batman. Time to see what Jap Ibanez sounds like while pissed

[number7]

Nice instrument......   

I like the sound of the acoustic thru an amp   

That one will sound beautiful in the right hands..... :toothy10:

[cOOter]

That one will sound beautiful in the right hands..... :toothy10:

Just tried it. LOL, sounds like shit so far ... 

It's either the flat strings (been on since Moses came to town) ... the yuck blue pin strips on the controller ...
my tascam mixer >> computer >> sony stereo settings ... me still not pissed enough ....... or just me.

Probably the 'all of the above' check box.

Odd having a condenser mix inside the sound hole as well. It can be cross faded, but seems to sound better than
the rear piezo so far.

Those ugly blue pin strips have to go. I got a few weeks to come up with enough dosh for some fresh strings and a lesson or two.