Wich pickup for Kanile'a Tenor

How about the Mi-Si Acoustic Trio? Read Grumpy Coyote's review . . .
 
i use ones that I purchase are the Artec brand (they make most all guitar manufacturers preamps, like fender, ibanez, etc.) direct from their only USA distributor. The prices are phenomenal and I've installed several in my acoustics with wonderful results. I have a unit that, as soon as I get it, I'll be installing in my new tenor uke as well. They sell a mandolin/banjo pickup that is the proper string spacing and size to perfectly fit into a uke bridge.

http://www.acousticpreamp.com/servlet/StoreFront
 
Pete Howlett said:
Do you need a special cutter to seat the element properly? Retor fits can be a pain if you don't have the right equipment...
Click to expand...

Installing the pickup is super easy but it's hard to drill into your instruments!! Measure thrice cut once!!!

I use the pickup to measure how much I need to sand off the bottom of the saddle as well. The Artec model PP-407 is the one to use. The pickup has an 1/8" mono plug already installed and most of the preamps I use are just plug and play. The fishman Clearwaves I get have to be soldered in tho, so the difficulty increases there.

The great thing about all of the preamps I use tho is that the battery is installed from the outside, eliminating problematic batt changes thru the sound hole.

I install the 1/4" input at the "end pin" with also doubles as a strap button. I don't like the ones that come with the Artec (too big) and use a nice one from guitarfetish.com that actually screws in, much cleaner install!!
 
The question was rhetorical.

Let me rephrase: retro fitting with a co-axial cable style under the saddle pickup requires the bottom of the saddle slot to be reshaped with a ball end cutter. I believe Fishman were the first to produce this style of pickup which functions at its peak in a tightly shaped half round channel. When I used to fit these in guitars this is what I did... and it's a total pain! Headway in the UK has this style of piezo and sells a ball end cutter for fitting purposes. Now there must be a reason for that musn't there?
 
The "ribbon" style that fishman uses only requires that you seat the saddle in tightly on top of it. From what I understand they redesigned the way the "soldered" end went thru the hole.

The Artec brand ones that I use are made up of a channel of metal with piezo elements sandwiched in and a 90 degree wire out of the end eliminating the need for any special tooling other than a drill. At least this is how I've installed on several of mine and a few of my gigging friends with good results.
 
Yep, you would do that with a ribbon style, no question. My ask is about the co-axial type that the the Baggs, Fishman, headway and Artec PC85 are. As I use Artec products I am intrigued that they don't offer any special 'fitting' instructions... guidance required other luthiers as more clients are looking for this type of system in their instruments.
 
The active end of the Baggs element is flattened, no need for any special routing considerations.
I've not familiar with a ribbon style Fishman pickup, only the rigid ones but I don't think any saddle should be "seated tightly" in the saddle slot.
And thanks Pete, I was doing Google searches for Retor pickups.
 
This is what I love about the UU- I just leaned alot about pickups from experts in the industry.
 
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