Taylor 114 Soundhole Pickup - Endpin mod?

jdpjamesp · #1 01-03-2020, 11:22 AM

I've got a Taylor 114 with a Fishman Neo-D soundhole pickup. Wish I'd spent the extra money to get a 114E, but that's another story!

I love the Fishman pickup, but it has a major flaw - the unit is epoxied and the cable is fixed. As a result, if you damage the cable or, more likely, the point it enters the epoxy, you're pretty much hosed. Which is exactly what happened to me.

For my budget the Neo-D is by the best option I could source at short notice as I had a gig that coming weekend. But ideally I'd like to reduce the chances of bricking the pickup again, obviously without damaging the guitar!

My current thinking is to get an end pin with a jack input and just solder the cable from the Fishman to that. But I'm not a luthier and I'm worried that replacing the endpin might be more of a job than I'm up to. I presume I may have to drill through the side of the guitar for that?

So... is this a feasible mod? Is there a safer way of resolving this? I did think about getting a female jack to jack and attaching that to the body somehow semi-permanently with the cable of the pickup in the soundhole, but I'm not sure how great that would be.

Appreciate your ideas and comments.

pieterh · #2 01-03-2020, 11:39 AM

Depending on how new your Taylor is you may be lucky and find that the end pin is one of those that is designed to fit a hole already reamed (drilled) for end-pin jacks. I have a Furch that had this as standard which made my life a lot easier when retrofitting a k&k Pure Mini. If the end-pin has a screw holding it on you may be in luck!

I think Taylor probably does the same as Furch on all its models, with pickup or not, and ream the hole for potential end-pin jacks and then use the adapter-button instead.

jdpjamesp · #3 01-07-2020, 07:39 AM

Thanks pieterh. It's about 12 years old. I'll have to have a look if it's reamed. It certainly has a screw holding it in.

jdpjamesp · #4 02-10-2020, 06:39 AM

I've laid hands on a Rare Earth pickup instead of the cheaper cousin. This one comes with an endpin jack attached, which should make life a lot easier! Now I need to ream the hole for it and am struggling to find the right sized reamer/drill bit. It says to use a 15/32" Reamer and the only one of those I can find is in the US and costs a small fortune. 15/32" is about 11.9mm. Can I just use a 12mm forstner bit? Or will the extra .1mm make life difficult?

pieterh · #5 02-10-2020, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdpjamesp

I've laid hands on a Rare Earth pickup instead of the cheaper cousin. This one comes with an endpin jack attached, which should make life a lot easier! Now I need to ream the hole for it and am struggling to find the right sized reamer/drill bit. It says to use a 15/32" Reamer and the only one of those I can find is in the US and costs a small fortune. 15/32" is about 11.9mm. Can I just use a 12mm forstner bit? Or will the extra .1mm make life difficult?

I’ve teamed two guitars with a 12mm forstner-bit with no problems with the end-pin jack.

How did you get on with the existing strap button? Is it old style or one of those I mentioned before?

jdpjamesp · #6 02-10-2020, 07:25 AM

Pretty sure it's an old style one. I haven't had a good look yet!

pieterh · #7 02-10-2020, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdpjamesp

Pretty sure it's an old style one. I haven't had a good look yet!

If you’re lucky it’s still screwed in, should make centering the drill bit easier.

jdpjamesp · #8 02-22-2020, 09:19 AM

Whew and breathe... finally got the job done. Endpin was screwed on so I drilled a 4mm pilot hole. Enlarged that to 12mm with a really nice fluted bit. Brand new, super Sharp. Made light work of it.
Next challenge was getting the Jack in the hole. My arms are a bit too fat, my son's are too short. Finally managed it and it fits like a glove. Screwed it all together tightly and it works a charm.
Thanks for assistance. Now just need to test it out tomorrow.

pieterh · #9 02-22-2020, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jdpjamesp

Whew and breathe... finally got the job done. Endpin was screwed on so I drilled a 4mm pilot hole. Enlarged that to 12mm with a really nice fluted bit. Brand new, super Sharp. Made light work of it.

Next challenge was getting the Jack in the hole. My arms are a bit too fat, my son's are too short. Finally managed it and it fits like a glove. Screwed it all together tightly and it works a charm.

Thanks for assistance. Now just need to test it out tomorrow.

Glad to hear it went well! Now looking forward to the report on sound etc! Enjoy

jdpjamesp · #10 02-24-2020, 04:54 AM

Not had a chance to assess the sound myself yet, but I was plugged in to a PA yesterday and the sound engineer was very pleased that I was pumping out a sensible signal rather than the poor one from the passive NeoD. And it's so much nicer having a built in jack socket!! No more trailing wires!!!