Skylark and Skylark Spirit guitars are designed to produce the best possible acoustic sound. Nevertheless, most players need to be able to amplify their instrument. I have tried a variety of acoustic pickups, but not found any that I like enough to use exclusively. Everything I have tried picks up body resonances out of proportion to the acoustic sound of the instrument, and they also tend to be awfully bright for a jazz ensemble. I don't like the results I get using EQ to try to compensate for these problems.

I find a magnetic pickup to be the best compromise. A floating magnetic pickup can be designed to represent well the acoustic sound of the instrument. All Skylarks are pickup ready, that is, they come with an end pin jack already installed, and the finger rest bracket will accommodate mounting a floating pickup to the finger rest. I have experimented with several floating pickups; I am very pleased with a Jason Lollar Johnny Smith ("pickguard mount"), as shown below on the prototype Skylark, my main playing instrument for several years now. Virtually any floating pickup designed to be mounted to a finger rest can be used on a Skylark or Skylark Spirit.



There are not many floating pickup options. With this in mind, I designed Pannonica, a guitar which makes some acoustic compromises to provide more options for amplification. Pannonica guitars have a pickup cavity in the top which will accommodate any pickup with the same physical configuration as a Gibson humbucker. This makes the broadest range of pickup options available. I have made Pannonica tops about 0.5 mm thicker than Skylark, and body depths slightly less, about 1/8” shallower. This helps increase the feedback threshold. The first Pannonica had a Q-Tuner GL-6 installed. I have tried some other pickups, and have others in mind to try.