ideas for electromagnetic cello pickup

[zhyla]

I picked up a cello dirt cheap a couple months ago. I can't really play it yet but I can thumb around on it like an upright bass. Anyways, today I took a tele pickup that was lying around and attached it to the end of the fingerboard with some masking tape and plugged it into my guitar amp. It sounded great and was a blast to play. So now I want to do something more permanent.

My main problem is because of the fingerboard radius on a cello (3" or something like that) you can't use a guitar pickup because it's too straight. When I taped mine in place I could only play two strings because the pickup contacted the other two. I saw this:

http://www.arbiter.co.uk/italia/electric_bass_guitars/modulo_tipo_3_bass_guitar/modulo_tipo3_bass_guitar_296.jpg

Which might work. Think I would just wire those all in parallel?

My other idea was to use two shorter pickups. I think some bass guitars have the bridge pickup split into two and cover different strings? Might still have trouble with the radius thing.

The last resort is to wind a coil and bend it to match the radius. That's pretty sketchy but it can be done.

[Son of Magni]

Interesting ideas, but wouldn't it be easier to just use a piezo pickup designed to mount to the bridge?

[moghes69]

i think if you take a split pickup and just have each on an angle at an even height from two of the strings it would be fine

[zhyla]

I don't want to do a piezo. I really liked the sound of the electric pickup.

How long are the split pickups? Does it matter where the string is oriented over them? The string spacing is probably wider than bass guitar.

[moghes69]

if you find one with the blade style magnets rather than individual poles for each string it would work best, and the length of the P-pickups shouldn't be a problem if you stagger them like on normal basses.

[zhyla]

I ordered a set with individual pole pieces. Hopefully they will line up close enough. I didn't know they had single-magnet models.

Thanks for the consultation guys, when I get it rigged up I'll post some picks.

[zhyla]

Just a quick follow up on this. I got some pbass pickups and was toying around with mounting them on near the end of the fingerboard. Then I realized they would totally be in the way of my right hand when I'm plucking. I didn't really know this until I had played cello for a while.

I think the answer is small, custom wound pickups, maybe one per string, maybe a single pickup but curved to match the radius. I wound my first pickup a few weeks ago and it's not that bad but I don't know if it's worth it.

[Sablate McNuff]

If you like the sound of it, and you're happy making music with your cello as a direct result, it is ALWAYS worth it.

Not only that, you could potentially come up with a design and market it to cello players who also detest the piezo pickup.

[zhyla]

Good point mcnuff. I don't have time to design the curved pickup that this needs right now but I'll keep it on my list.

[purple_hazer]

do you have magnetic poles and shiz handy or can you get ahold of it all fairly easily?

[zhyla]

Well I wound my first pickup a couple weeks ago, it went ok I guess. I used #45 magnet wire, made a bobbin out of wood and plastic, and some 1/8" cube rare earth magnets.

But the hard part is forming a curved pickup after it's wound.