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Installing My Piezo - PreAmp or No Preamp

Posted by Daniel Koenig on December 2, 2010 at 11:32pm in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion
I plan on installing a rod style piezo beneath my bridge and using a pilot bit to make a small hole through the lid in order to pull the wire through to the inside of the guitar body. I am doing this instead of gluing the piezo underneath the lid on the recommendation that it will improve the quality of the signal. Moving on, I would like to purchase and install the following to use on my CBG:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Acoustic-Guitar-Endpin-Active-EQ-Equalizer-Pickup-PP91-/120625755058?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item1c15daf3b2

It is obviously not the bees knees of endpin preamps, but for my purposes I believe it will be more then adequate. Im going to actually install it into the body of the guitar instead of using the crappy plastic mounting system that comes with it for people who don't want to cut their instruments up. Does anyone see any problems I might run into doing this?

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Replies

  • David L. December 3, 2010 at 1:50pm
    I found for the type of piezo rod I bought it was just the right size to fit under a big paperclip (75mm) and once cut and the edges filed smoothed I fixed it to the top of the piezo with a bit of superglue - great pickup of all 6 strings.

  • Shawn December 3, 2010 at 11:56am
    I just finished a guitar using the rod style piezo from C.G.gitty on my build called Vicky worked great. Go with your plan but make sure the rod sits flat to the base of the saddle or you volume out put will be weak as hell. It MUST make conntact with the saddle to gain the max out put. I hade to pull mine 3 times to get it just right. I finally made a small shim to keep the rod in conntact with the saddle as everytime I set it down on the box and pulled on the cable it would shift away from the saddle just enough to leave a gap and kill out put. As for a preamp it helps a bunch to acheive the output we all look for. My grandpa told me once "crap in crap out use the best you can afford for your build".
  • David L. December 3, 2010 at 7:58am
    I have just finished adding an undersaddle bar piezo to an old 3/4 classical guitar using one of the "passive" preamp kits listed here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1505154962...
    currently $7.85 with free shipping. I am really impressed with how good it sounds (obviously not a preamp as it doesn't have batteries but instead a slide control for tone and volume - and the tone actually works well as a passive filter).

    Another bonus I have found is that because the pickup is under the saddle rather than a disc glued to the soundboard you get no extra noise from touching the guitar and I can use it with effects cranked up with either no or much less feedback compared to a disc piezo.

    I look forward to your views on the preamp you are trying.

    Regards,
    David
  • Don Thompson December 3, 2010 at 6:23am
    No problems I see. It will not run down the batttery unless you leave the cord plugged in.
  • Daniel Koenig December 2, 2010 at 11:42pm
    Another thing I was thinking about doing is running a copper wire from the battery and wrapping it around the head of the endpin so the circuit would only be complete when the guitar had a jack in it. Is this a bad idea?
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