HAHAHA! I put a Lace Alumitone Matchbook pickup in a $25 cigar box guitar! This has to be the most unfair gear review ever! This was my version of a Mythbusters challenge where the gnarliest equipment was used for maximum results.
Note: in the video, I say that Lace Matchbook pickups are sold at CBGitty.com. This is no longer the case. Search Google for current sellers.
Those Lace matchbook pickups are amazing. I have a number plate cigar box with one. And even makes me, the worst player in the world, sound OK.
The pickup doesn't care what it's mounted on. It's an electromagnet sensing nearby vibrating metal (the strings). This demo reminds me how frustrated I get every time somebody starts talking about tone woods on an electric guitar. The wood literally doesn't effect the tone at all.
The pickup sounds great, and of course Shane is talented enough to make anything sound good.
If you'd done a comparison of the stock piezo with the lace pickup, it would have been close. When I plugged into an amp with this guitar ($20 Musicians Friend) I was amazed. Recently put a 12 on the high and tuned e-e-e, each an octave apart, for a super cool diddly cubed. Yes, it's a cardboard box and a stick from China, but still a great instrument for the money.
Awesome sound