I have recently started playing in a band with keyboards and drums, and decided that I'd like to have a better-sounding rig than my old
Mc-Feather that I had Tim install when I bought my maple Scheerhorn. It was "OK" when used with a Baggs Para-Acoustic DI, but after hearing
JerryD use the full Aura system, I knew I wanted better than "OK".
So, I decided to try the Aura stomp-box with the Mc-Feather, just to
see if it might give reasonable results without having to alter my guitar's setup. I know Billy Cardine is using the Aura pedal with a
Schertler Basik pickup. Unfortunately, the sound I got with the Feather>Aura Pedal>Baggs was worse than just Feather>Baggs. So, I
decided to break down and get the full Aura setup, by installing the Aura pickup in one of my 'horns.
But, which one? The maple guitar is
my favorite, and while I'd like to gig with it plugged in, I didn't want to sacrifice the acoustic sound of the guitar. Reports have varied
over the amount the acoustic properties change when installing the Aura. It ranges from a slight improvement to the tone (in reference to Beard
guitars) to having a negative effect (Scheerhorn, Clinesmith)...as much as 15% negative. I really didn't want to lose that on my maple guitar,
so I decided to install the Aura pickup in my rosewood/spruce 'horn. This required hole-drilling which didn't entirely please me, but as I
don't play this guitar nearly as much as the maple, decided it was the one. As it turned out, the rosewood/spruce guitar still sounds very
good, but the sound is definitely different. It's not as "rich" as it was, but it was not as negatively effected as Brad thought it would be
based on some conversations he'd had with a pro using the 'horn/Aura combo. Overall, I'm happy enough with the acoustic sound, but it did
definitely change in a negative way.
I'm a complete klutz around mechanical stuff, so I contracted the services of Brad Harper for
installation of the pickup. I've heard enough of Brad's work to know he knows how to set up a guitar the way I like, and I trusted him with the
drilling of my Scheerhorn...which I certainly wouldn't trust myself for! Beard recommends professional installation of this pickup, and maybe
some of the following will illustrate why that's important.
Now for the installation of
the pickup:
This is the pickup:
You can see the pickup is made with a maple insert, and a Tusq cap, with the piezo element sandwiched between. The leads are both run through a
bit of heat-shrink tubing, and then the signals and shield from the bass and treble sides are simply soldered together on the other end.
I
got the special adjustable spider, which comes from Beard pre-levelled. Unfortunately, the USPS decided to bang the box around a bit and
smashed the box hard enough that a couple of the legs were bent out of shape, so Brad had to re-shape the legs and level the spider again. To
Beard's credit, Howard Parker was quick to offer to replace the spider due to the damage, but after discussing it with Brad and Howard, and
taking my schedule into consideration, we decided to just fix the spider.
Here Brad is working on the leveling process:
This is extremely critical to getting a nice clean
buzz-free sound when setting up your guitar.
In order to match the string height from my old setup to the new one, Brad had to adjust the
height of the saddles - which is the main reason for getting the adjustable spider. Unfortunately, in my guitar, the Aura saddles were too
tall, requiring Brad to shorten them a bit:
Notice how Brad has to hold the wire and other half of the assembly away from the belt sander. Also, he used some scrap wood in the
adjustable spider to check for proper height before sanding on the pickup.
Here's a closeup of the adjustable spider:
As you can see, it appears to be a standard #14
spider that has been modified by installing bushings and screws to allow the position of the inserts to be locked down. As it turned out in my
case, the pickup saddles had to be shortened anyway, and since the saddles were fully inserted, in my installation, a standard #14 would have
been fine. This may or may not be the case in other guitars.
One of the things we noted about the spider was a bit of a residual burr on
the inside of the slot, which Brad had to file down, as the saddles would not slide in as received:
Once the burrs were removed, the saddle was still a bit too thick to properly fit
the slot, so Brad had to remove a bit of the thickness from the pickup saddles:
Again, you need to be careful of the wiring to ensure it's not damaged in this process.
Once
everything was fitted, it was an easy process to press the saddles in. Brad uses a special tool he built in conjunction with a drill press to
get a nice, tight fit:
Brad noticed that
there was a mold line across the top of the Tusq, so he carefully sanded that down so the profile of the Tusq was smooth:
At this point, we had a spider/pickup assembly that
was ready to fit to the guitar:
Since my rosewood
guitar didn't have a pickup, it required the drilling of two holes: one through the end for the jack, and another through the top for the
cable to run from the saddle to the inside of the guitar. The first hole required using a reamer to size the hole to the jack Fishman included
with the Aura pickup. Here's Brad drilling a pilot hole. Yes, this was difficult for me to watch!
The next hole was through the top...this hole is hidden by the coverplate and is
positioned so the cable can run from the top of the cone to the body of the guitar without binding the cone. This drilling was just as
difficult to watch!
The next step
involved slotting the Tusq. First, Brad checked the spacing on my original setup and marked the new saddle for the same spacing. Here, Brad is
using a special ruler that Stewart-McDonald sells for this purpose: it properly compensates for the different sizes of strings, ensuring even
spacing:
After marking the string spacing, the
slots are rough-filed:
And then more precisely
shaped:
The cable is run, and soldered to the output
jack, and re-assembly is started...using the "magical" brass screw!
Brad uses a special modified coverplate (handrest removed) to make access to the saddles easier for final tweaks to the
setup...it really doesn't take much change in the shape of the slots to have a huge effect on the sound:
OK, but how does it sound?
Well, I've only played one gig with the rig so far. My initial setup was Aura Pickup>Aura Pedal>Baggs Paracoustic
DI>Board. I was having a distortion problem that was new when we first set up. I suspected the battery may be getting low on the Baggs, so
I pulled it out and exchanged the Baggs for an unknown passive DI that the guitar player had. By this time, I didn't have a lot of time to
tweak the sound, so I decided to just go with it...to my ear it was definitely better than the Feather/Baggs. One of the other guys in this
band plays dobro and has a Scheerhorn, so I had him listen to the FOH sound, and his immediate response was "it's worth the money". I still
want to play with it a bit and see how good I can make it sound, but so far I'm very optomistic.
I'm also planning on recording the Aura
and putting up a sound clip here at R-N. Stay tuned.
Offline
