Pickup problem i think, on a Telecoustic

thecolourbox

Hi all, yet another piece of gear i own that doesn't work properly.
I have a Fender Telecoustic. It sounds to me like some strings (particularly the low E) are booming through the pickup when plugged in, and others are not. The D string in particular i cant hear. Is this something i can fix? Or do i dump it in the other pile of faulty gear i got ripped off on ? Thanks all

ICBM

Sounds like either a faulty pickup, a poorly-routed saddle slot or an uneven saddle bottom. These things are all fairly common with piezo undersaddle pickups.

Not sure whether the soundhole on these will take a magnetic pickup... if so, I'd do that because they sound better as well.

thecolourbox

Oh right ok thanks. Like the Seymour Duncan Wood things? Ill look how much and how big they are, and weigh it up against scrap value ha ha

ICBM

thecolourbox said:

Oh right ok thanks. Like the Seymour Duncan Wood things? Ill look how much and how big they are, and weigh it up against scrap value ha ha

Yes, that's the sot of thing - although there are even cheaper ones too. The soundhole does look about the same size as a standard one in that direction, even though it's oval, so it may fit. If you're creative you can probably wire it into the onboard preamp too.

Of course you could replace or repair the bridge pickup too, but it's likely to cost about the same if the piezo strip needs to be replaced and there's any other work.. This is a major bugbear with electro-acoustics and is one of the reasons why I dislike them so much! (And because they don't sound very good usually.)