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alternative piezo rod mounting

i actually got this idea from crocbite so he gets any credit due but wanted to share with others

i found a new way to mount piezo rods without having to have direct string pressure. i know some of you may already know this but i for one was struggling with finding a way to mount the rods that allowed me to use a much simpler bridge set up. a photo of one of crocbite's guitars gave me the idea of mounting the rod between the neck and lid of the box. the rod is inset in a channel i route on the neck between where the strings attach to the neck/box and the location of the bridge. the channel is only deep enough to seat the rod yet still have it proud enough of the neck that when you close the box lid it sits directly on the rod. then when you string up the guitar the pressure from the bridge on to the lid is transmitted to the piezo rod

before doing this i would have to route out a channel in the bridge for the rod to sit in and also a hole in the lid of the box and make sure everything lined up properly and that the saddle (brass rod is what i normally use) sat evenly on the piezo.

anyways here is a picture of what i came up with. hope this helps somebody

heres a pic of the box closed and strung up

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Permalink Reply by Randy S. Bretz on April 3, 2013 at 1:55am

wow thats a cool new way...but think i`ll stick to using them in bridges....Thats 1/2 my biz....lol

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Permalink Reply by Bad Wolf on April 3, 2013 at 2:03am

haha yeah well your bridges are like little works of art, mine, not so much!

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Permalink Reply by Craig Mayhem on April 3, 2013 at 2:19am

I have to try this. I like making rod bridges but I'm by no means an expert

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Permalink Reply by Coppa Penny on April 3, 2013 at 8:34am

I have drilled a 1/8' hole down the centre of a brass rod and it worked well. I didn't shorten the rod to suit a 3 stringer.

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Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on April 6, 2013 at 5:50am

That is a creative solution. You get good output from the pickup with this technique?

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Permalink Reply by Coppa Penny on April 6, 2013 at 7:58am

I have not had a great lot of experience with rod piezo but I think it was better than a disc. Next time I am going to use a cable piezo in the rod. The hole was very easy to drill with a battery hand drill.