1050s Fasan Archtop acoustic possible electrification

[Toxophilite]

I just picked up this vintage 1950s vintage Fasan Acoustic archtop
Made in german , solid carved spruce top, flame maple back and sides, ebiony fretboard , f-holes, crazy teutonic tuners, and a small round soundhole.
Plays great and sounds like it should and the HUGE baseball bat neck doesn't bother me at all, easy to play.
Very unique and interesting guitar. This model was supposedly just made for export. It has a very loud and full acoustic tone, perfect for cutting through big bands while comping. The cutaway is really nice and it has the easiest upper neck access of all my guitars.
I thought it might be fun to install floating 2 pickups on, but nothing that would require damaging the top or resting anything on it other than the usual pickguard mount. It has holes in the side of the fret board extension for a end of the fretboard style pickup and I know kent armstrong makes some floating pickups, both side and end of fretboard mounting. Both Framus and Gibson made a cool modular pickguard and pickup combo thingy but they cost and arm and a leg now so I thought it'd be fun to make my own. I have some mother of toilet seat and access to more in all colours etc if I want something different. I'll post a couple pictures, one with a mockup using some dearmond 2ks and an old pickguard just laid on the guitar but if I made something it would have a rounder shape. If I could I'd prefer to not cover the soundhole. I also was contemplating white strat style pickups as I have ALOT of clearance under the strings( about 1" easily enough for a  3/4"pickup)

[Ritchie200]

Very nice guitar! Not sure of worth (although the good sounding ones are priceless!) so I'm not sure how modifications would affect value?  What about piezo with the jack replacing the strap button?  Or you could mount the jack to the bridge rods if you didn't want to modify the guitar at all?  It would be a shame to cover up that beautiful top!


Jim

[Toxophilite]

I agree, and the idea would be to have to be completely reversible and non invasive
There was,at some time, a pickup mounted on the end of the fret board (mounting holes)and there are holes for mounting a pickguard so it definitely had one as well originally. and there is a small hole in the base of the bridge which was also for th pickguard I believe. I'm probably going to build a new one piece bridge to try that out for fun.
I don't want to make any new holes and I'd like to be able to remove the whole unit and have the guitar appear and sound just as it does now, not because i'm worried about it being stock, but because I think it's a quality acoustic instrument.

[jjasilli]

I think there are 3 Pickup options depending on your goal:  magnetic, piezzo and mic.  You can choose 1, all 3 or any combination.


Here are some images:  https://www.google.com/search?q=archtop+guitar+pickup&espv=2&biw=1680&bih=925&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwih36-fx_vNAhXEFh4KHaz5DkcQ7AkIdg



1.  Your photo's suggest the desire for el guitar.  Then mag PU is the choice.  Something attached with a bar to the fingerboard.  Or Lace makes models that adhere to the face of the guitar (don't know about archtops.)


Vol & tone controls might be mounted in an f-hole; same for output jack.  Alternatively an outboard preamp could be used for vol & tone.


2.  To amplify the natural acoustic sound, piezzo and/or mic can be used.


A mic could be external or internal.  It might be hard to fit an internal mic in this guitar, as access is limited.  Checkout K&K and MiniFlex for inboard & outboard mic's.


There are now some undersaddle piezzo PU's for archtop guitar.  Checkout the K&K Definity, and the Fishman product.  Anyway this may spark some ides.

[Toxophilite]

THanks for all the options
I tried a piezo style fishman archtop bridge in nice sounding cutaway solid top maple harmony almost 20 years ago .
The guitar had a nice acoustic sound but the pickup sounded dead and made the guitar into a drum!
No doubt they have much better ones now


they make those new rhythm chiefs but they're pretty expensive
Kent armstrong makes Johnny smith style but you can't coil tap them
There's a few more too

[jjasilli]

Agreed as to 20 years ago.  But things have changed.  I just installed a K&K PWM in my Guild 12-string & it sounds great, straight into a tube guitar amp.  Piezzo is now a fine option to amplify an acoustic tone.

[Toxophilite]

cool I have a highlander coaxial piezo in my D-28 for a similar amount of years and it's a fine sounding pickup(as piezos go..It almost sounds like an acoustic guitar!!)
i always find amplifier acoustics no matter how good the pickup, PA and soundman are usually kind of different instruments that you have to get used to. It can work though,. I'm pretty comfy with my Martin's sound

I'm curious what the archtop ones they have are like. I've heard good things about K&Ks combo unit