Self installation of fishman natural 2's

[unccrombie]

anyone ever pulled it off? guitar center wants $65 and the local alvarez dealer wants $60 and frankly i dont have it along with a 2 week wait time and i have a show in a week. a few buddies of mine are real good in soldering and my enpin is already drilled to the right width width from my last pickup. is it really difficult if you follow the directions after this?

[ZaqDiesel]

assuming you're using an external preamp, or that the hole is already in the guitar side from the previous one, it shouldn't be too hard to pop the new one in. just remember to pick up an extra saddle or two because you have to sand the old one down to compensate for the extra thickness of the pickup. in the case of an old one already being installed, sometimes the saddle needs to be higher depending on the thickness of the old pickup, hence having a few extras comes in handy.

[Rob]

Don't do it. Don't even think about doing it. This is not an easy operation, and you don't want to be doing trial and error on your own guitar. Getting the angle of the strings off the bridge just right is a task best left to professionals who have installed hundreds of these. Any one of a bunch of things can go wrong, leading to poor intonation, frequent string breakage, neck warpage, etc. It's not worth saving the $65.

[unccrombie]

Don't do it. Don't even think about doing it. This is not an easy operation, and you don't want to be doing trial and error on your own guitar. Getting the angle of the strings off the bridge just right is a task best left to professionals who have installed hundreds of these. Any one of a bunch of things can go wrong, leading to poor intonation, frequent string breakage, neck warpage, etc. It's not worth saving the $65.
well if the saddle is already sanded does it make a difference? all the directions seem easy for preparing the saddle

[Rob]

Is the Fishman exactly the height of your old pickup? Did the old pickup have a taper to it?

I stand by what I said before- this is not something for a DIYer.

[unccrombie]

Is the Fishman exactly the height of your old pickup? Did the old pickup have a taper to it?

I stand by what I said before- this is not something for a DIYer.
im not exactly sure, im still trying to find some place to do it for $40. maybe i can widdle them down since the endpin is drilled

[Rob]

You can ask them to charge you based on time, but that could bite you in the ass depending on how much work needs to be put in. Drilling the endpin takes seconds, so that isn't much of a basis for negotiation, unfortunately.

[unccrombie]

You can ask them to charge you based on time, but that could bite you in the ass depending on how much work needs to be put in. Drilling the endpin takes seconds, so that isn't much of a basis for negotiation, unfortunately.
well all that needs to be done is the saddle prep and the solder. my buddy said the solder takes like 15 min if someone knows what they're doing. at most this should be an hour job.

[Rob]

Is there already a battery mount? That's a huge amount of labor, and often requires interior modification.

There's more to this- not only do you have to do the soldering, the wiring has to be cut to the correct length and it has to be placed correctly in the body (away from view, away from itself to prevent interference, etc).

[unccrombie]

Is there already a battery mount? That's a huge amount of labor, and often requires interior modification.

There's more to this- not only do you have to do the soldering, the wiring has to be cut to the correct length and it has to be placed correctly in the body (away from view, away from itself to prevent interference, etc).
there's already a battery mount

[unccrombie]

http://www.daddys.com/content/service/service_pricing.shtml

im assuming its minor electronic work and not re-wiring?

[Rob]

All you can do is ask.