Thanks Frank, my own thoughts are some sort of floating pickup mounted somehow into a single fixing point at the end of the fingerboard. I realise that there are a lot of "ifs, buts and maybes" along the way and it is entirely possible that it will just not work. However, here is the best place I know to throw ideas around.
I just fancy a short scale magnetic thump now and again and realised that I have the instrument just not the pickup.