small bodied guitars | Claescaster

Tag: small bodied guitars

I recently had my friend Rafa’s little Martin 000-15M over for a set up. I didn’t have to do that much to it, just adjust the trussrod and file down the saddle a bit to get the action down. I realised that I have completely mixed up the Martin sizes, I always thought that the 000 was smaller than the 00, apparently it’s the opposite. That means that my dad’s old Levin LT-16 is a copy of a Martin 000, at least size wise, and not a Martin 00. It could be good to know next time I’m looking for some old guitar and they refer to it as being 000 sized, smaller than that is probably not for me. I don’t like jumbo guitars, but I do like the bass response of a good dreadnought sized guitar, and I think that anything smaller than a 000 would most likely sound like a parlour guitar in my ears. These Martins 000-15M have a pretty descent bass response for their size, I guess because of the shape and the all solid Mahogany construction. It’s a beautiful looking guitar, very light and easy to play and with a warm nice sound that I can highly recommend to anyone looking for a new guitar.

Martin 000-15M, Made in USA

August 2, 2013

How to… fit a undersaddle pickup

IMG_7470 copy Vintage V880N Parlour acoustic, newly fitted with a ARTEC PP-607 undersaddle Piezo pickup

I got the basic ARTEC PP-607 undersaddle Piezo pickup cheap of eBay, I think it was 15€ with the endpin jack including shipping. I got around to install it last night and I have to say that I’m well pleased with the result. I had read that Piezo’s without a preamp isn’t much but I have to say I disagree. This pickup is way louder than some magnetic soundhole pickups I’ve used in the past and sounds ten times more acoustic and natural. It’s without any doubt my favourite way to amplify an acoustic guitar, well I still haven’t tried fancy things like the LR Baggs M1, I have been thinking of investing in one of those. However, this is a cheap, discrete and really nice way of playing electric with an acoustic guitar.

I just drilled a 2 mm hole through the bridge. I wish I wouldn’t have been so lazy and gone and bought a 3 mm drill because the 2 mm was too small and the next size up in my tool box was a 4 mm which would have been too big. I tried to widen the hole with a screw, which worked but it was still a bit tight so when I was fiddling with getting the plug through the hole the plug came off. I was so happy to have purchased a solder free pickup that you could just plug in to the endpin jack, but no, not this time. I had to take the soldering iron out and fix it. I managed to figure out that the thin wire in the middle, the one shielded with plastic, should be connected to the top of the plug and the wide braided wire should be soldered to the side. It worked.

I start to get used to making holes in acoustic guitars now to fit the endpin jack, this was the third one I did. I normally use a round file first to make the hole big enough and then even it out with some sandpaper rolled up, just to get the hole perfectly round. It’s important to check all the time with the plug from the outside so you don’t make the hole too big. Next I had to file down the saddle to compensate the extra height from the pickup.