Quote:
Originally Posted by RalphH
It's definitely not the original pickup. That's a Fishman Neo-D.
Certainly not what it would have come with. For a start the Neo-D isn't designed for an end-pin socket; it comes with about 10 feet of cable attached that you run out of the soundhole and into an amp - you would have to cut the cable and solder it in to make it a permenant addition to the guitar. Also, it doesn't need a preamp, which that guitar almost came with.
It's a pretty good pickup though - I have one 'round here somewhere. It sounds surprisingly woody for a mag pickup. I would want to know whether it was the single-coil or the humbucker version. I bought the single-coil first and I got a LOT of RF noise on it. I had to send it back and get the humbucker.
Also, seeing the New-D in the sound-hole doesn't mean the original pickup is not in there - the shadow pickup is an under-saddle piezo, so it might still be there. But if it is in there, it's at least unsoldered from the endpin jack. Either the pre-amp packed up and this was an easy fix, or someone really wanted to change to a mag pickup. It clamps to the soundboard so it's easy enough to remove, or would be if it's not soldered to an end pin jack.
Hope that helps.
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That helps me sooooooo much. At least I wasn't going crazy. I will contact the store. Actually, as I think I said, the pickup is not that big a deal for me and, in fact, if I could find one I'd prefer to get a straight-ahead AJ500R without a pickup. This model at least doesn't have the cutaway. But I'm having a doozy of a time trying to find one like that ... that doesn't charge me an arm and a leg, actually two legs.
I wonder why the pickup was swapped. The store has no info on that. I will try go get some more info on how the pickups are now set up. I asked the store clerk to plug it in and it works ... but that's all I know about it. Perhaps that's why the price is a bit lower than normal. Actually I don't know what "normal" price would be. I paid only $300 for my AJ500MNS with the original (and beautiful) Epiphone case which I've now found to be a steal.