Todd Taylor banjo pickup from 12 Bar Blues Pickups

The 12 Bar Blues Pickups company in Connecticut has announced their latest model, a banjo pickup endorsed by Todd Taylor.

12 Bar Blues Pickups is a small, family business run by father and son Marshall and Jon Hammett. Their speciality is thin, hand-wired, magnetic humbucking pickups for acoustic instruments. They make a number of models for guitar and resonator guitar, depending on whether the user prefers temporary or permanent placement, and sound hole versus surface mount.

The Todd Taylor signature banjo pickup is designed to mount inside the pot, just clearing the head, attached to the coordinator rods. It ships with its customized preamp/volume control, which mounts on the bracket hooks on the outside of the pot.

Taylor made his name not so much in bluegrass, but in bringing the banjo into the pop and rock music worlds, recording perhaps the earliest examples of rock banjo as a young man. He continues to tour and record, and had something of a hit with his recent cut of Johnny Be Goode last year.

Amplified banjo is his milieu, and he has been working with 12 Bar Blues for some time developing this new pickup.

Todd demonstrates how easily it installs in their short video.

The Todd Taylor signature banjo pickup sells for $225, with mounting hardware and preamp/volume control, and will available for online purchase soon from 12 Bar Blues Pickups and their eBay store.

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.