Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on December 14, 2016 at 10:34pm

Pics of your git would help...

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Permalink Reply by Timothy Hunter on December 14, 2016 at 10:46pm

piezo's are contact mic's. so a solid contact with the soundboard and possibly heavier strings should get more volume out of it. also the size of the disc also determines output.. do you have it wired the right way round? black/ground to the brass side and red/hot to the white ceramic disc ? do you have a volume pot on it? 

sound holes will only help the acoustic sound.  you could always add a second piezo in parallel  to boost output? as a thought are you using the right input of your amp? 

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on December 15, 2016 at 2:43am

unusual for a piezo to be quiet, often it is the reverse, i'd suggest checking all your solder joints etc, generally also, piezo's don't require a ground circuit to the strings, as Timothy says, a soundhole will have next to no effect on your electrified volume, if there is a problem it is between piezo and jack if the amplifier and lead are ok, there is a chance the disc may be faulty, and a very remote chance you've smothered the disc in glue or other deadener, but i'd suggest, either a bad disc, or bad connection

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Permalink Reply by JL on December 15, 2016 at 2:43am

Surprising that a piezo has a weak output, was it stronger before you grounded the strings?

BTW, with a piezo it is not necessary to ground the strings, they don't pick up on ambient EMF.

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on December 15, 2016 at 5:37am

I have had similar issues with smaller piezos. In my experience, 20mm piezos are weak. Try adding another one in parallel.

Placement is key, how are you mounting it?

Another solution is to add an acoustic preamp, like what you'd see in an acoustic guitar...

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Permalink Reply by Alan Hergert on December 15, 2016 at 9:06am

Welcome to the "science" of cigar box guitars!

I agree with the other comments here but would add a little tinkering will need to be done to get your guit up and running.  I usually try to do a simple sound check before I button things up.  Tapping on the sound board should indicate if the piezo circuitry is in order.

I just got done with fixing a similar problem on one of my guitars.  I had low output from an under bridge piezo rod.  I added a disc under the sound board.  Still low signal.

The pots were donors so I decided to replace them.  Viola!  The guitar is sounding pretty good now.

Another issue I have run into is the thickness and material of the sound board.  I have a Romeo box that is 1/2" particle board.  I dropped Strat type pickup in that because the sound board was so thick.

Just some thoughts.  Below is a cool video on piezo installation.

Keep playing around with it.  You'll get it!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSlqaM5Dbeo

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Permalink Reply by Joe Nanzer on December 15, 2016 at 5:14pm

Thanks for all the replays to everyone. I think the thicker gauge strings made the difference, I put the standard Aetna strings from a standard electric guitar and it beefed it up a lot. I have to double check I ran it through my pig nose and it was good, the batteries may be going dead on it so I'll do another run on another amp tomorrow hopefully. As far as the ground on the piezo, I was getting a hum that I posted about and the replies I received said to run a ground to the strings. I will definitely keep that in mind.

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Permalink Reply by JL on December 16, 2016 at 12:44am

With a piezo pickup, there are a few places that HUM can come from

If you are standing next to a microwave, or under a large bank of fluorescent lights, or next to the transmitter tower of your favorite radio station, and your wires are not twisted, you might get a bit of EMF

But more likely the hum would come from dirty power or a bad instrument cable....

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Permalink Reply by Sergio Roman Pessina on December 16, 2016 at 12:43pm

Hope this help somebody. First of all, sorry about my english. I learn myself. I make my cbgs with triplay as a lid. So, I make a depression under it all the way until reach the last veneer of wood. All this process is made under the bridge, lightly on the bass side. I put the piezo there with a little drop of silicone, and from there straight to the output jack. This way, my guitars sound full of bass, rich and with a little bright. By the way, my bridges are all the same. Old little piece of cedar with a fret clamp on it. Cheers for all!

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