feedback busters

[vandenboom]

I have used K&K pickups with external preamps on several recent steel strings and use this in my own playing . I love it.
On a guitar I finished last week, I installed K&K's ultra pure mini as the client wanted volume control on the guitar. He is very happy with this.

The client for the next project also wants volume control on the guitar and is not interested in the ultra pure mini as he often plays in pretty loud settings and needs to use a feedback buster. I wondered about the possibility of still using the ultra pure mini & making a more tasteful feedback buster out of wood that fits around the preamp vol slide control. Alternatively, I could just cut a section out of the 'off the shelf' rubber plugs.
So my question is this - does proper functioning of a feedback buster require a fully closed hole, or would it still work ok with a small opening around the vol contol in this case?

Thanks. Frank.

[Tod Gilding]

G'day Frank, I played (Guitar That is ) with a guy years ago that stuck a badge to his feedbackbuster with CF when he decided to remove it ..well lets say it wasn't easy to remove,and he ended up cutting it out,long story short he ended up with a 20mm hole in the centre of his buster and it still did it's job, so I would almost bet that yours would be fine.also have you seen the rosewood feedback busters on Ebay, cheaper than the real deal and would be easier I think to work with in your situation.

[Nick]

I've never had experience with a feedback buster Frank so take this as you will, but thinking about acoustic principles I would think that the size of the hole required for a volume wheel poking through the side (is it one of those edge on wheels?) would be so small in relation to the 'blocked' soundhole area that it would be insignificant & shouldn't affect the buster doing it's stuff.

[Alastair]

Can't comment as a player, but in my capacity of No. 1 son Techy ...

We took a bog standard rubber FBB, and I cut a "half-moon" segment out of the edge, to give access to the thumbwheel. As far as we could see, had no negative effect on the performance.

FWIW, to do this neatly, I used a hole saw, in the drill press, and just proceeded slowly. Worked perfectly.

[vandenboom]

Thanks guys, I am going to try and talk him into using the K&K and fit the feedback buster around it.
Those of you who have installed one of the K&K ultra pure mini's would know that they use a magnet to hold the preamp and volume control in place.
When installing these in a finished guitar, I have found that the sound hole brace limits placement of the magnet and I have had to add additional velcro to hold the the thing firmly in place. It actually results in the slide control being lower in the sound hole than I would prefer for my own use.

ultrapurepreamp.jpg (11.71 KiB) Viewed 5711 times

In this case, I am thinking of either omiting the sound hole brace and making a little wood frame for the preamp to slide into which would have it sitting firmly against the soundboard and the volume slider at its hightest point. All of that is more easily done before gluing the top on.

If the feedback side of things ends up being bad, I can always pull out the K&K unit and replace it with something that is cut into the side, at a small cost.
Thanks. Frank.

[Bob Connor]

Why not use a soundhole patch rather than a brace Frank.

You could make it the right size to accomodate the K&K controls.