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I may be trying to do something dumb here but I'm hoping somebody can tell me if there's a solution I haven't seen. I built an acoustic archtop guitar and I want to add a floating pickup wired to an endpin jack. I don't have experience with the jacks that mount under the pickguard and it seems kind of an inconvenient place to have a wire hanging from when playing so I'm hoping to avoid that. But my guitar has an ebony tailpiece with a wire tailgut-type fastener. Is there an endpin jack that can accommodate that tailgut and also the strap?

I happen to have a cheap endpin jack that I can't use for this guitar because it has only a single nut for the inside of the guitar and a fixed flange on the outside. But it has a strap receiver that's like a fat washer with a 1/2" inside diameter and a groove around the circumference for the strap. That thing slides over the 1/2 shaft of the jack. I thought of using that on a Switchcraft endpin jack, under the screw-on strap receiver that's normal with that jack. So there'd be 2 strap receivers, one for the tailgut and one for the strap. But it would all stick out farther than a normal endpin jack.

It feels like I'm trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Is there an accepted solution for this or should I just give in and mount a jack under the pickguard?

Yes, I believe Archtop.com carries them. They make a kit with the jack, two controls that go under the pickguard, and so on that sells for something like $85. Probably StewMac or Luthiers Mercantile carries something like that. You might check to see what Bob Benedetto uses. He sells many of the parts he uses on his excellent archtops.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Hi Chris, Thanks. I didn't think of archtop.com. They seem to offer the standard switchcraft/Fishman endpin jack (or at least one that looks just like it) but they suggest that it can be strapped to the tailpiece. Maybe that's my answer.

In general the switchcraft end pin jacks do just that. They even have a grove around the decorative cover that perfectly accommodates a wire/rubber strap like the ones LMI and Stew Mac sell.

That said, I stopped doing that. Instead, I now place the jack into the side (reinforced with a couple of laminated layers of thin birch ply). I will show you a picture of why.

When that broke off the guitar made a noise like a gun going off. In the immortal words of Sid the Sloth, "I think I did something involuntary... and messy". Here is a picture of the temporary fix I needed.



From then en I placed the jack in the side.



And use a brass hinge epoxied to the tail piece to anchor it.

I use the same and pick up Jack as you have on many guitars for 30 years and have never had a problem with it.

I buy mine from Allparts, but you could just look it up you can get them online as well for about 12 bucks apiece if I remember correctly.




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Holy cow! That must have made an impressive sound. Geez. Now I’m really flummoxed. Have to rethink this whole thing. I really like your brass hinge. Do you make that yourself or is it off the shelf?