Fishman Presys Acoustic preamp with Humbuckers?

[ziggy007]

G’day all.
Had a customer request I fit Fishman Acoustic preamp to his Saz/Baglama (Turkish Traditional instrument).
Reckons they all have them.
Has got me stumped. There is two traditional dimarzio Humbuckers fitted with some weird switching and vol/tone pots.
Anyone ever seen this done before? Has me stumped.
Cheers
Gav

[Enzo]

I have a saz somewhere. Carved out of some big hunk of wood, and loooooong thin neck? Not sure how I would get inside it.

[ziggy007]

Hey Enzo,
Yeah these are hollow bowl type (yes with a looong thin neck)
Like a bazooki. The preamp is fitted and the customer reckoned it used to work before it was electrically discconected. I found evidence it was wired across the output jack but buggered if I know how the piezo wiring was hooked up! Lol.

[Enzo]

Mine was traditional - totally acoustic.

[TomCarlos]

Ok, being Greek, I am able to chime in here :-)

The Boozoki has a sound hole. Typically, you would find a single coil pickup

The Turkish Saz/Baglama is a sealed body. So maybe we think of it like a closed chamber. Someone cuts a hole and installs a humbucker, single coil, switches, etc etc etc. You need to also install the plug etc etc etc. I found this pic on Amazon.

Update: So if you can fit a Piezo under the saddle and carve a new hole for the preamp, there you go. But, the problem is getting a Piezo of the right size to fit under the saddle. That would be tricky.

[olddawg]

Would need some pictures... but I don’t see why you can’t pull the pickups out so you can get to the inside. Them place som piezo disc pickups under the bridge. It may take some experimentation to get them in the right place. Hook those pickups to the preamp. I would use a 4 position switch with the first 3 positions working like most guitars to the jack and the last position switching the piezos and preamp to the jack. I own a thin bodied resonator guitar that has one mini humbucker and a piezo with a blend pot and no preamp. It works and sounds great.. I have yet to figure out how it’s wired.