Wow! If you are making the investment in time and money to build your own guitar from a D-28 Kit, it seems to me that you would want to have something that is of equal caliber to go with it! Is this the kit from Stew Mac?
For me personally, I would not cut a gaping hole in the side of my guitar if one did not already exist. I would instead install whatever transducers/pickups I was using, route the signals to an endpin jack, and then run the signal through an outboard preamp for blending/EQ before running out to the final amplification.
I am curious about these Artec preamps though. I have a Takamine that I am trying to resurrect and am looking at different options as I do have a gaping hole in the side of my guitar that needs to be filled!
Are these Artec preamps at least as good as what originally came with this guitar? This is a Takamine "G Series" we are talking about here. I am looking for something with a tuner (so long as it is something that is useful) and an auxiliary output for a magnetic pickup or microphone to blend with the piezo transducer.
On a side note, my guitar has the two-piece saddle so I need a two-piece piezo transducer to go with it. Are these commercially available in the aftermarket or do I need to get these from Takamine! Or should I pitch all that, make some new saddle pieces, and go with a LR Baggs "I Beam" or something like that?