cheap and easy guitar pickups

Step 1 Pickup basics

simply a guitar pickup is just a coil of insulated copper wire with a magnet in the center.
most things that seem simple dont always turn out this way but here is an exception(sort of).
now im not recomending that you rip the pickups out of your strat and replace them with the herein mentioned contraptions. but if your building a diddly bow or a frankenstein guitar or just looking to make a new noise then thise is for you

Comments

[musicman]

hi michael here iv got the pickups made but i dont know how to wire then in to the guitar and everything else.can you please healp me.

[lennyb]

sure micjael all you need to do is install a 1/4 inch guitar jack and wire it to the ends of wire coming from the pickup i will email to you a diagram that shows the usual configuration. and while those are more complicated than you need it will tell you exactly howit is done.

[beatlemack]

Mack here. Could you also send me the diagram or post it online?

[ckurcon]

so could i just get any magnet and wrap some copper wire around it and use it as a pickup? im trying to make a diddley bow and just need something really cheap to use as a pickup

[freewheeler]

hey how do you build a piezo pickup?do you actually create a mount and brushes for the crystals or what?

[lennyb]

the one time i used a peizo type pickup i got it from an old buzzer and wired it direct to the jack. and then used contact cement to glue it under the bridge{acoustic guitar}. or you can tape it in place with duct tape to try it out. a buddy of mine took one earphone from a broken set and wired that up and hotglued it inside his acoustic ,it worked surprisingly well.