I don't know how to get that guitar thing inside of my instrument. The bottom would need to be removed, a cable drawn under the fingerboard, plus the cable must be connected to the strings in some way. I'd actually like my instrument amplified that way - same basic idea as Michael Edinger's Stringamp and some old Norwegian electric guitars - but I should have thought of that before the instrument was glued together. I know a guy amplifying fiddles that way but he won't install his system on acoustic instruments, or rarely on instruments he hasn't built himself.

Any way, installing that system is a very complicated operation and miles beyond my skills.

Now I think I've understood the basic principle of that Taylor system and it's not stringcoil like I first thought. It seems to be something like old telephones, coils responding to metal membranes. It seems to be similar to that Schertler electrodynamic system, only Taylor is integrated while Schertler is mounted on the outside. The advantage with stringcoil systems like Stringamp is that they're not in touch with any vibrant part; the Taylor system probably affects the acoustic tone in the same way a piezo does.

It's a very interesting idea though. When I realized how old telephones worked, I started to think of that idea, as well as using it as a microphone.

The least complicated solution would be finding a pickup that's mounted on the fingerboard. If I only change fingerboards I could actually mount a REBO. If I can't solve it that way I may be overweighing one electrodynamic solution or the other, but it will be a lot more expensive and time consuming. Metal membrane or amplified strings are probably better, but I should have thought about that at an earlier stage.

Fiddlestix said
Why not just buy another electric violin for about $ 800.00 and be done with it ?

My thought's are, when you get finished jazzing up your acoustical with all the stuff inside and out, it's not gonna sound right unless you use it as electric. You've ruined the original "meant to be" sound.

Solidbody is my first choice for amplified playing. There's a one being built right now, but I have no idea how long that will take and I need to be amplified while waiting for that one. Of course, if electric violins were manufactured commercially, I wouldn't bother with this mess. I'm not paying 800 for a fancy broomstick. Besides, the major problem would be unsolved: amplifying it.

So now I need to find some emergency amplification for the acoustic one.There will probably be no added stuff inside the fiddle if I can find something that can be mounted on the fingerboard.

Seems like it finally works. Far from optimally but definitely acceptably. I had a guy make a dock for the coils to fix them into their right positions, then some other guy soldered it to the permanent cable inside the body of the fiddle. Today I glued it to the fingerboard

The coils are lying down so they're not sensible in the same direction as if they were standing. The sight of the field seems to have a wider angle, which in this case is not a good thing. First I had those swelling sounds which indicates that the pickup favors the plucked tones, so that the tone grows when the bow releases the string. So there was some trying before I found the right position for the pickup. Looking at the pickup now, it seems as if the coils pick directly upwards, but they don't. It's the sides of the fields that pick the strings, but the fields are so wide, so I had to place the coils right under the strings to get the sides of the fields right... Follow?

The coils are a bit weak so I have to turn up the amp quite a bit. I can't make it distort, but being acoustic, the sound is fat enough without distortion. I'll probably use an overdrive pedal any way for the preamp effect. The clean sound is very clear and amplifies the acoustic sound without adding anything. I don't think any piezo would sound as natural as these coils.

Still... This is very much a temporary solution. I have amplified sound good enough for a live gig or perhaps even a recording, but I'd like the sound a bit more hot. But I won't fight any more with this one, in the future I hope to have a solidbody for electric playing. But that one is still jigsaw pieces and until it's ready, I'll use this acoustic fiddle.