Custom Shop Martin Fishman Pickup Install

November 21, 2016

In this post, I will be showing some of the steps involved with installing an undersaddle Fishman Matrix Infinity Pickup. I will be installing it in this beautiful Custom Shop Martin guitar.

This is an incredible little guitar that the customer needed to have some electronics installed. We decided to go with a Fishman Matrix pickup. These systems are very nice sounding, and are unnoticeable when finished

This system includes a preamp which mounts in the endpin location, a volume and tone control which will mount just inside the soundhole, the battery compartment, and all the necessary mounting accessories.

First step was to remove all the strings and lift the saddle out of the bridge.

Nest step was to drill a very small hole in the bridge slot. This is where I will feed the pickup wire through and connect it to the preamp.

Here's a shot of the pickup installed in the bridge slot.

Nest step I will need to ream out the endpin hole larger to accept the new jack/preamp.

We only hand ream these holes. This is a very specific reamer made for this job only. Drilling out end pin holes can be very dangerous and is not recommended. By slowly opening the hole to correct diameter will allow us to know blow out the hole and cause any damage.

Next step was to get my general layout of how it will all fit in the guitar.

After layout, I take and tie everything together with some small zip ties to tidy it all up.

Next step is to lower the saddle height by the same amount of thickness that the pickup is.

I like the shape of this saddle, and decided to take it from the bottom of the saddle. Sometimes I will take the saddle down from the top. It just depends on the situation.

Here's a shot of the volume and tone controls. These are mounted just inside the soundhole where the are easily accessed, but still hidden to keep the original look of the guitar.

These pickups are the perfect choice if you're looking for something high quality, yet discrete. It does not require any big hole cutout of the side of your or any major changes to your instrument.