April 2006
Installing a Fishman Ellipse Matrix Blend pickup system in my Martin OM-35
I bought this guitar in April 2006, and did the pickup install as soon as I got it home.
Ready to begin.
Drilling the hole for the under-saddle pickup lead.
(Nice of Martin to have dimpled the exact spot for it in
advance so I
didn't need to lay it out).
Despite owning a zillion tools, I didn't have
access to an expensive end-pin jack reamer like
the one from
Stew-Mac, so my method was to a use succession
of drill bits, each one only 1/64" larger than the previous
one, to
get the hole up to the required 15/32".
This way there was little stress and little chance of splitting
the wood. The extremely
slight chip-out around the edge of the hole using this method was easily
covered
by the hardware.
DISCLAIMER: Although not a luthier, I have been an amateur woodworker for many years and I was confident that
this method would not cause visible or significant damage. But it definitely does not cut the perfect squeaky-clean
hole that you get from a reamer and I DON'T recommend that you do it this way. Unless YOUR experience convinces
YOU that it is safe, buy the reamer!
Several other steps are not shown: mounting the
electronics to the sound-board (using double-sided tape),
and sanding
down the saddle base to accommodate the under-saddle pickup. In
order to sand down the base
of the saddle, I sawed a close-fitting
groove in a block of wood using a table saw, into which the saddle was
placed. This insured that I could get a perfectly perpendicular
and flat surface when I sanded it down
(very important). Also, the
9V battery holder was mounted to the neck block using CA adhesive per
Fishman's
instructions. My new M-18 VME
Custom came with this pickup factory-installed from Martin, and they
now
have a less-invasive way to mount the battery, in a cloth/velcro
holder that appears to be double-sided-taped
to the inside of the
guitar.
Also, if I were to do this again I would seriously
consider using the Tapastring end-pin
jack to avoid having
to enlarge the hole.
Here's the guitar with the electronics installed.
Please visit my home page at
www.jaykeller.com
(Dachshunds, woodworking, beekeeping, music, cooking, etc., etc., etc.,
etc., etc., etc.)
Last revision: 1/22/007