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About a year ago, I picked up a Yamaha SLG200NW for a travel-friendly nylon to tote with me on my teaching travels and to my surprise, I’ve grown quite fond of it. It got me thinking about the steel string versions and if I could make an bit of an all-rounder out of one by adding a humbucker/Rhythm Chief/etc.
Fast-forward a bit and I managed to pick up a second hand example at a reasonable price- it was destined for some chopping and tweaking so I was reluctant to buy new.
And I’m tight-fisted.
After doing a bit of research, I couldn’t find many examples of what worked well for other folks trying this mod so I located a couple of schematics, found the parts I thought would work well for this mod and got to tweaking.
In the end, clearance under the strings was an issue and I didn’t want to do any routing if I could avoid it. I settled for a Krivo stealth PAF. There were a few other options out there but this seemed to fit what I was hoping to achieve. Turns out that the resonator guitar world has some pretty good pickup options. Huh.
I combined this with some Schatten thumbwheel pots (500K and a .047 tone cap) and a three way mini switch so I could blend the SLG acoustic sounds and the humbucker. The pickup is affixed with some aggressive but non-marking blu-tack style putty and I’ve left enough play in the lead to change the pick-up position if I’m feeling froggy at some point.
Early days but I have to say I’m pretty pleased with the result! It sounds and plays pretty great with some TI Swings on it. I don’t see it replacing anything I have in my arsenal but it will probably be a handy addition. Paired with a Helix, it’s proving capable of covering quite a bit of sonic ground so far.
Apologies if the pics are 90 degrees out, not sure how to rotate these suckers…
It I get a bit of time in the coming days/weeks, I will upload some sound samples for those that may be interested.
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Another great low profile pickup is the Barcus-Berry Dobro. I had one on my Johnny Smith and loved the tone.
barcus berry hi tek 2522 - Google Search
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Thanks for sharing your SLG mod!
I’ve got the steel string and use it as a grab ‘n go for jams and open mics.
Thinking of using lighter electric strings on it. How do the stock pickups sound with TI Swings?
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The Swings definitely warm it up a bit but this is less noticeable on the modelled end of the acoustic range than it is on the pure piezo end.
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Just a quick update for those that are interested. I've knocked together a quick and dirty sound comparison. With the almost endless number of permutations between the settings for the PAF, piezo, SRT signal and various tone controls for all, I kept it pretty simple with just a handful of settings. I also included a comparison clip between the PAF and an FGN Masterfield Jazz FP at the end of the video.
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To channel Columbo, just one more thing:
A quick bash through some chord melody tunes for comparison of just the FGN and the SLG200S with the pure Krivo signal. You'll probably note that playing-wise, the Yamaha is a bit more forgiving to play (read: the FGN exposes a bit more...less refined...technique) 
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