A really quick and dirty way to make a pickup in a pinch. A bolt, some wire and a super magnet. Attach to a xlr microphone cable and plug it straight into a mixer. And by winding this one up the right way, it will become balanced - And therefore have hardly any noise problems.
You need
- Old steel bolt
- Insulated wire
- Neodymium magnet ("Super magnet")
- XLR-cable
Steps
- First wrap first half (maybe around 50 or whatever) winds of the wire on the bolt.
- Take out a loop of the wire to access later.
- Keep winding the rest of the wire.
- Attach the wires to an xlr microphone cable as indicated in the drawing
- Attach the super magnet to the end of the bolt. Tape or glue it in place, so it does not snap to the string.
- Plug it into the mixer and play!