Sharing an M1 Active between guitars

[ryan2johnson9 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ryan2johnson9]

I have an M1 Active pickup in an old guitar and want to use it in my other guitar, a Larrivee, but I do not want to drill a hole in the Larrivee. Would a 1/8 inch jack to standard 1/4 inch guitar cable straight from the part of the M1A that sits in the soundhole to my amp work? i.e. without the other part of the M1A that sits in my old guitar where a hole was drilled?

What is the purpose of that other part? Does it have a mic in it? or a preamp? or is it merely an adaptor?

If it is more than an adaptor maybe I will take it out of my old guitar and just somehow attach it to the outside of my Larrivee, perhaps tie it on somehow to the strap pin on the end of the guitar. Does that sound like a good idea? It would be great if this could work, then I could share the M1A with all for my acoustics when performing with them, or recording.

[Caleb_Elling Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Caleb_Elling]

Hey Ryan,
The jack harness that comes with the M1A is designed to turn the pickup on when you plug a mono instrument cable into the 1/4" jack. If you plug a cable directly into the pickup a mono cable will leave the pickup on all the time, and a balanced or stereo cable would not turn the pickup on at all. So you can use a cable out of the soundhole with the M1A, but it needs to be similar to the original cable. Otherwise, you would need to unplug the cable from the pickup when not in use.

You can also buy a second M1A cable (part number M1C2) and run that out of the soundhole. It's only about 2' long, but it does work in a pinch.

I hope this helps.

[ryan2johnson9 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ryan2johnson9]

Thanks Caleb,

Great to know!. I might get myself an M1C2, still I am not keen on drilling a hole in my guitar, so maybe I'll see if I can attach the M1C2 to the outside of the guitar in a way that does not damage it.

Cheers

[Caleb_Elling Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Caleb_Elling]

Thanks Caleb,

Great to know!. I might get myself an M1C2, still I am not keen on drilling a hole in my guitar, so maybe I'll see if I can attach the M1C2 to the outside of the guitar in a way that does not damage it.

Cheers

Another thing you may want to look into is the Vintage Jack, which is compatible with the M1A: http://www.tapastring.com/vintagejack.htm

[ryan2johnson9 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ryan2johnson9]

Thanks Caleb, regarding the mini jack, it looks good, but I cannot understand how it requires no drilling, looks like it just requires a smaller hole (which is a lot better anyway). And then we do not have the switch on switch off aspect of the lr bags endpin jack. But good to think about anyway.

[Caleb_Elling Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Caleb_Elling]

Many guitars are already drilled for a strap button, which is where this would come in handy. If you don't have a strap button installed already, then you would need to drill a new hole.