(left) "Nickel" from the Vintage BarThe Red Acoustic Guitar I use is a copy of a Gibson Hummingbird that I bought about 18 or 20 years ago at Rockin Robin Guitars on Shepherd. It had a cracked neck and was in a bath tub with other clearance items. I used epoxy to repair it and have gotten alot of good use out of it. It also had a split in the wood at the back of the body that I filled with wood puddy and sanded off.
Several months ago, I took a Fender Single Coil Pick-up and installed it in this guitar. I had bought some new pick-ups for one of my electric guitars several years ago and it was one of the ones that I had replaced & had just been sitting around in a box of stuff.
I used masking tape & Coat-hanger wire to attach the pick-up in the sound hole of the acoustic guitar. I didn't do any fancy wiring either. I just soldered the positive and negative wires to a cable and I plug it straight in to my amp. It is a little noisy but when I plug it into a fender tube amp, The tone is pretty good.
In my show I now use it for the Robert Johnson bottleneck slide stuff(open G tuning), Several Lightnin' Hopkins tunes, & a few other tunes also in standard tuning except I have been keeping it tuned down a half a step.
It doesn't have the built in EQ controls that most acoustics have with built in pickups but I keep my amp close enough that I can reach over and make adjustments. I generally have to cut the treble and gain back about 20% from when I am using the electrics.
Even though it was realatively cheap guitar & doesn't sound like a Martin or Taylor, It does have pretty good balance in terms of how it resonates. The low end, Middle and high notes all come out at about the same volume. I have traded away a better made guitar because it didn't have the good low end & didn't work as well for hitting the bass notes with a metal thumb pick.
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