Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Doc Oakroot on May 25, 2009 at 2:04pm

Either the piezo or the humbucker will work. Each has its own issues, but all the issues are solvable.

The 4 sound holes are fine if they're not too big... too big and they'll kill the acoustic bass response. Either way, it won't have any effect on the humbucker. A bass cut from too much sound hole will affect the response of the piezo.

A poplar 1x2 is sufficient for 3 steel strings as long as you don't tune too high - if it bends, you tuned it too high :)

The black wire goes to the sleeve terminal on the jack. The red wire goes to the tip terminal. (If you wire it backwards it will still work).

If you decide to go with the humbucker, you will need to ground the string. If your bridge is metal, just run a wire from the bridge to the sleeve terminal (if you have a non-conducting bridge, you'll have to get creative). It is not necessary to ground the strings if using just the piezo.

Hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by JACK on May 25, 2009 at 2:44pm

Doc Oakroot said:

Either the piezo or the humbucker will work. Each has its own issues, but all the issues are solvable.

The 4 sound holes are fine if they're not too big... too big and they'll kill the acoustic bass response. Either way, it won't have any effect on the humbucker. A bass cut from too much sound hole will affect the response of the piezo.

A poplar 1x2 is sufficient for 3 steel strings as long as you don't tune too high - if it bends, you tuned it too high :)

The black wire goes to the sleeve terminal on the jack. The red wire goes to the tip terminal. (If you wire it backwards it will still work).

If you decide to go with the humbucker, you will need to ground the string. If your bridge is metal, just run a wire from the bridge to the sleeve terminal (if you have a non-conducting bridge, you'll have to get creative). It is not necessary to ground the strings if using just the piezo.

Hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by JACK on May 25, 2009 at 2:49pm

Thanks. Thats what I needed to know!

Thanks again

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Permalink Reply by Roosterman on May 26, 2009 at 6:49am

Personal choice my friend!
Piezos are easier, but me, I hate them and would use a 'proper' pickup every time.
Plenty of people get good sounds from a piezo by encasing it in wood etc, but mine always sound 'tinny'. Mine were very very cheap though! lol
I agree with the Doc, the neck is fine, and a piezo would be easiest, but for my money, Id use the humbucker - that way you can add a volume (+ a tone) if you fancy it.
Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by HOLLOWBELLY on May 26, 2009 at 7:07am

humbucker= :)
piezo= :(

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Permalink Reply by paul @ huckleberry guitar on May 29, 2009 at 6:57am

Hi Jack - In my opinion the Piezo is probably your easiest bet when starting as they are easy to wire and mount. Digi-key has them much cheaper than Rat shack on their website and the delivery is fast even out of USA. Doc O gave you very good info. Basically you have two solders. If you go for the pup you can do it straight to the jack with ground or can do the volume/tone route but will need two pots, a cap, ground, and much more complicated soldering and to mount to the guitar. Stew mac's website has good free pup wiring information. Soundwise the piezo is going to be much more microphonic - it will pick up any sound on the top of the cbg, etc. That is why builders isolate the piezo and you can do this a number of ways - most of which have been discussed in other forums. I'd start with the piezo then graduate to the pup. I've heard great builds with piezo's and not so great - same as per pups.

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Permalink Reply by Jacob Blackwood on May 29, 2009 at 7:58am

I have gotten the best sound from a piezo by gluing it between the neck and the box top right under the bridge. Haven't used a pickup in one, so I don't know what to tell you there.

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Permalink Reply by BT Cohosh on May 29, 2009 at 2:00pm

Hey Jack!

I haven't done a magnetic pickup (yet!) but they complicate things by requiring more work with bracing/relieving the neck under the lid--so that all depends on how adventurous you're feeling.

Piezos are easy to wire and place, they're cheap (less painful to screw up) and, if you start with the idea that this is, after all, a musical instrument made from a cigar box, can sound surprisingly good. I've found that embedding them in a thin layer of silicone caulk helps with feedback issues.

Congrats and enjoy your instrument!

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Permalink Reply by JACK on May 29, 2009 at 4:14pm

Well I went ahead and sandwiched the piezo between a couple of cut down wooden paint sticks and glued it all together and seems to work pretty good. I figured Id go that rout instead of the humbuckers because I already built the guitar planning on using the piezo. I could have modified it for the pick up. But Ill just save it for the next one I build. This was my first attempt a cigar box guitar and had a ball building it. Thanks for everyone's input . Im learning a lot from here.

Thanks

Jack

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Permalink Reply by BT Cohosh on May 30, 2009 at 3:15am

Now you've gotta post your pics. We love to ooh and ahh over the newborns....

JACK said:

Well I went ahead and sandwiched the piezo between a couple of cut down wooden paint sticks and glued it all together and seems to work pretty good. I figured Id go that rout instead of the humbuckers because I already built the guitar planning on using the piezo. I could have modified it for the pick up. But Ill just save it for the next one I build. This was my first attempt a cigar box guitar and had a ball building it. Thanks for everyone's input . Im learning a lot from here.

Thanks

Jack

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Permalink Reply by YeahDoIt on September 8, 2010 at 11:35pm

I folded an empty envelope two times and put it inside my CBG. It reduces the screech of the piezo without losing much high frequencies.

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Permalink Reply by MichaelS Country Boy Guitars on September 9, 2010 at 1:06am

Sounds like you already put in the piezo, good. I use 2 piezos wired together in parrallel (red to red, black to black wire) and the sound is much less screechy, sounds really nice (for a guitar made from a cigar box). The cool part is you can always change things around if you want to try somthing different. Experiment.

YeahDolt, interesting trick with the envelope. I have heard of guys with those big 'ole Gretch type hollow electrics stuffing em with cloth or foam to effect the sound also. I think with P-90 type pickups (I think they are microphonic, but I don't know)

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