Help Identifying Pickup in 1993 Lowden o23c

[UpperBout]

When I bought this via eBay, the listing stated "The endpin has a jack that indicates the guitar once had a pickup in it."

In a lucky turn of events: it turns out that there is indeed a pickup and it does indeed work with a fresh battery.

It sounds good, like a well-refined under-saddle (piezo) pickup. Problem is I don't know what type it is, and how best to run it.

It looks like it might be original to the guitar i.e. from Lowden. I have also reached out to them, but I thought people here might recognize it and/or know what it is.

Pickup lead under bridge:


Battery housing (mounted on heel inside guitar)


Endpin from inside guitar


Endpin from outside guitar


Can anybody identify what make and type this pickup is?

[Shoreline Music]

Hard to say—that guitar predates our shop—but given the thickness of the element, I'm guessing Highlander.

[UpperBout]

Originally Posted by Shoreline Music

Hard to say—that guitar predates our shop—but given the thickness of the element, I'm guessing Highlander.

Cool, thanks!

[UpperBout]

I just heard back from Johnny Lowden:

The pickup is one of the old EMG systems we used to fit. I’m not sure of the exact specifications of it but as far as I’m aware it’s a simply ‘plug and play’ type pickup.

It does indeed sound good just plugged in...

But...

Does anyone have any more information about 1993-era EMG undersaddle pickups? There must be a preamp in the battery housing since it seems to be guitar level at the jack without additional outboard preamping.

It sounds good, and I'm not going to sweat the details too much. But I would like to perhaps get an outboard DI with some modest tone controls. Nothing too fancy or expensive. Any recommendations come to mind?

I am also going to reach out to EMG and see if I can get some specifics.