Adding A "Lipstick" Pickup To A Traveler Guitar

Traveler makes really cool lightweight electric/acoustic guitars that are small enough to fit in the overhead bin on airplanes. I bought one recently and enjoy playing it, but the stock single-coil Alnico pickup felt a little too tinny and thin to me, so I decided to replace it. My friend John suggested I try a Tele-style rhythm pickup, and I just happened to have one laying around, so I went for it.

It's a simple swap, which will take an experienced maker an hour at most. Here's how I did it:

• Get the strings real loose, unscrew the original pickup plate (pictured below)

• Take the opportunity to oil your fretboard if it needs it. Your fretboard will thank you.

• Carefully extend the wire that carries the positive and negative signals for the pickup, and snip it, leaving several inches of wire on both sides so we have room to work (and can reuse the original pickup)
• Strip a centimeter of wire off each side of the new pickup and the existing pickup wire, then slide some heat-shrink onto both sides so we can make this nice and clean
• Using helping hands (if you got em) solder the positive end of the new pickup wire to the positive end of the wire in the guitar, likewise join the negative wires
• 3D print the new pickup mounting plate, which is available on this page in the attachments section. The screw holes may be too snug or looser due to printer differences- test it by printing a 1mm thin layer and then checking the fit before printing the full part.
• Attach the new pickup to the new pickup plate using the screws and springs from the original Alnico (for height reasons, the new pickup screws are a bit too tall for the Traveler's cavity)
• Carefully push any excess wire back into the cavity on the right side of the guitar
• Plug in the guitar and test out the neck pickup to make sure our connections are solid
• Attach the new pickup mount plate to the guitar with the original screws provided
• Rock and/or Roll

See the video for a demo of the sound it makes, a much smoother and fuller tone than the original single-coil. I dig it.