Electric guitars with acoustic pickups



fishman powerbridge on fender deluxe power

Electric guitars with acoustic pickups, an overview.

It's obvious that I'm interested in electric guitars with acoustic pickups like the Epiphone ES-339 Ultra, (the good and the bad), and the Fender Acoustasonic Telecaster.

In this post I present some other electric-acoustic guitars I like, and the acoustic pickup systems which give these electric guitars the possibility to blend electric and acoustic sounds.

Acoustic pickups for electric guitars

lr baggs t-bridge on electric guitar

The most common acoustic (piezo) pickup systems for electric guitars I found, come from LR Baggs, Fishman (both from the USA), Shadow (Germany), and GraphTech (Canada).

shadow nanomag on epiphone les paul ultra

LR Baggs, and Fishman concentrate their activities on acoustic pickups, mostly for acoustic guitars, Shadow also produces humbuckers, and GraphTech focuses on acoustic pickup systems for electric guitars.

graphtech ghost piezo acoustic pickup

Shadow offers the innovative Nanomag, Fishman scores with the Powerbridge, GraphTech invented the Ghost Piezo saddles and LR Baggs hits the scene with the X-Bridge and the T-Bridge. It's a niche market; only a small percentage of the electric guitars have the "extra", acoustic pickup. The Fishman powerbridge and the LR Baggs bridge are probably the most popular ones. Lot's of technical information about these acoustic pickups for electric guitars can be found on the producers websites.

Electric guitars with acoustic pickups

Obviously there are a lot more electric guitars with acoustic pickups than the ones below. These ones give a good view on what's available on the market, within the different price ranges.
Almost all electric guitars with acoustic pickups are also equiped with 5-way switches, pre-amps and dual output jackets; one for connecting the amplifier and one for connecting an acoustic amp or PA, for blending the electric and acoustic sound.

crafter sa(t) with lr baggs acoustic pickup

Crafter SA and SAT

The Crafter SA and SAT are Les Paul styled, semi hollow body archtop guitars. Sides and back from solid wood, and the tops come in different woods and colors. Both the Crafter SA and SAT are equiped with LR Baggs acoustic pickups. The SA also has a Kent Armstrong Lipstick pickup, and the SAT has a Kent Armstrong P90 humbucker. The Crafter SA(T) is fairly priced, around 550 - 600 Euro.

epi ultra III (3) with shadow nanomag

Epiphone Les Paul Ultra III (3)

The Epiphone Les Paul Ultra III (3) is Epiphones's answer to the demand in electric acoustic guitars. The Les Paul Ultra III (3) has 2 Epiphone Probuckers, and for acoustic sounds a Shadow Nanomag is mounted at the end of the fingerboard. The Ultra III (3) has a chromatic tuner onboard, and even a USB connection is available. After registration of the Ultra, Guitarrig software can be downloaded for free. The Epiphone ES-339 Ultra uses the same technology, my review can be found here and here. Pricing of the Epiphone Les Paul Ultra III (3) is around 560 - 630 Euro.



fender telecaster / stratocaster with fishman powerbridge

Fender (Nashville) Deluxe Power Stratocaster and Telecaster

For an acoustic plus, Fender added the Fishman Powerbridge to the Deluxe Power Strat and Tele. The Deluxe Power Telecaster comes with a middle strat pickup, and tele pickups for neck and bridge, the Stratocaster uses strat pickups for the neck, middle and bridge positions. These electric guitars with the Fishman Powerbridge have a five-way switch for blending the electric and acoustic sounds. Available for around 1100 Euro.

Another Fender electric guitar with a Fishman Powerbridge acoustic piezo pickup is the Acoustasonic Telecaster I wrote about, one of my favourites.



godin montreal with lr baggs t-bridge

Godin Montreal

The Godin Montreal is part of the Signature series from guitar builder Godin, located in Montreal, Canada, and they are well know for their new guitar concepts. The Montreal has a carved solid Mahogany body with two f-holes, Jazz Style. Godin was inspired by the Montreal Jazz festival when creating this electric-acoustic guitar. The Montreal blends electric and acoustic sounds by using two Godin Humbuckers and a LR Baggs acoustic bridge and a custom PreAmp. Pricing of the Godin Montreal is around 1600 Euro.

parker fly with graphtech ghost piezo

Parker Guitars (Fly Series)

Guitars build by Parker are something special, as Parker combines woods with modern composites and fibers. Apart from that, most electric Parker guitars are stufed with acoustic technology.

The Parker Fly DeLuxe, MaxxFly, Fly Select and others come in different, modern shapes and colors, and are powered with different humbuckers. What they all have in common is the acoustic technology from the GraphTech Ghost Piezo saddles. Parker guitars don't come cheap.



prs p22 with lr baggs acoustic bridge

PRS   P22 and (singlecut) Hollowbody II

For more than ten years, PRS is using LR Baggs acoustick pickup systems for the PRS Hollowbody II and singlecut Hollowbody II.

In 2012 PRS added the P22 in the program range, their first piezo acoustic pickup equiped solidbody guitar.
The LR Baggs system used in the P22 is the same acoustic pickup system that is used for the longer existing and popular hollowbodies. Only the design of this bridge is smaller than the original LR Baggs used in the hollowbodies, so it fits perfectly in the solidbody. The electric-acoustic guitars from PRS are expensive, starting with prices around 3600 Euro for the P22, and 4300 Euro for the PRS Hollowbody.



gibson les paul with lr baggs piezo pickup

Gibson Les Paul Piezo.

Unfortunately not in production anymore, the Gibson Les Paul Piezo, a Goldtop with EMG (rocking) humbuckers, and a golden LR Baggs piezo bridge. The Les Paul Piezo can still be found in (web)shops.





Gibson Custom Alex Lifeson LP Axcess

Still in production is the Gibson Custom Les Paul Alex Lifeson Axcess with Graphtech Ghost Bridge for authentic acoustic sound, and Floyd Rose vibrato. Humbuckers: Gibson's 496R and 498T. The first 50 guitars were signed by Alex Lifeson.