I have always put my pickups on the underside of the box lid . Another Nation member told me that he had started using a Forstner bit to countersink pickups on the underside of the neck instead of mounting under the lid. I tried this on my last build with great results. I will definitely continue to use this method on neck through builds. My question is my current build is an almost neck through with a Mandolin tail piece. Do you guys think placement under the neck would work or do I need to go back to the old method mounting the piezo to the bottom of the lid? Thanks to John Nickle for the tip on under the neck placement on neck through's.
Thanks in advance for replies,
Jim
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I have been mounting the peizos temporarily, just using masking tape under the bridge on the neck. I am building with a tail piece, so the neck just goes to the back of the box. If someone wants to fix them permanently, they could hot glue or use Tuck Tape.
For buffering, I have tried silicon, thumb tack replacement from an office supply store and soft rubber O rings from plumbing supply. Un-buffered, they are pretty harsh. The best I have had is from silicon buffering.
The other thing you can do, if you are trying to get a bassier tone, is move to Silk "N Steel strings. They are a hybrid steel/classical string. They are not expensive. It is definitely a warmer tone and easier to play if the bridge is a little high on that build. Be careful though, they are far more fragile than either bronze or bronze-phosphor strings.
Yes, a Forstner bit can be used to cut a shallow hole in the neck to receive the piezo pickup as the neck will also be vibrating along with the strings, but perhaps not to the same degree as the sound board. But, that's a good thing, since piezo are super sensitive, and builders usually try to isolate the piezo from excessive vibration by wrapping them in foam, in cork, silicon seal, or hot glue. My current favorite method is to use a bottle cap, filled half-way with hot glue, place the piezo pickup on that and then fill it the rest of the way with hot glue. When it has cooled, and after wiring it up to its phono jack, I hot glue the bottle to to the sound board.
I'm interested in knowing how you and John Nickle isolate your piezos. Do you use hot glue? Or is placing it in a "hollow" in the neck enough isolation?
I countersunk the pickup into the back of the neck below the bridge and glued a small piece of wood over it to hold it tight against the neck. The result was a much warmer sound with not as much unwanted noise from bumping the box or the neck. On my current build I'm not sure if the fact that I am using a tail piece and the fact that the neck does not go all the way through will effect the sound.
I'll have to give your piezo placement technique a try as the side effect of all the hot glue is a bass-ier sound than I'm looking for.
I've built both neck-thrus and neck-almost-thrus and have not noticed any sound difference due to terminating the neck early. Bridge placement seems to make a bigger difference. You want to keep the pridge more toward the center of the sound board (away from the edges). They rule of thumb for bridge placement is about 2/3 to 3/4 across the soundboard from where the neck meets the sound box. That gives you a fair sized area to strum and pick the strings between the fretboard and the bridge.
Building a simple, yet reliable tail piece on a neck-almost-thru can be a bit trickier.
Replies
I have been mounting the peizos temporarily, just using masking tape under the bridge on the neck. I am building with a tail piece, so the neck just goes to the back of the box. If someone wants to fix them permanently, they could hot glue or use Tuck Tape.
For buffering, I have tried silicon, thumb tack replacement from an office supply store and soft rubber O rings from plumbing supply. Un-buffered, they are pretty harsh. The best I have had is from silicon buffering.
The other thing you can do, if you are trying to get a bassier tone, is move to Silk "N Steel strings. They are a hybrid steel/classical string. They are not expensive. It is definitely a warmer tone and easier to play if the bridge is a little high on that build. Be careful though, they are far more fragile than either bronze or bronze-phosphor strings.
Hi Jim,
Yes, a Forstner bit can be used to cut a shallow hole in the neck to receive the piezo pickup as the neck will also be vibrating along with the strings, but perhaps not to the same degree as the sound board. But, that's a good thing, since piezo are super sensitive, and builders usually try to isolate the piezo from excessive vibration by wrapping them in foam, in cork, silicon seal, or hot glue. My current favorite method is to use a bottle cap, filled half-way with hot glue, place the piezo pickup on that and then fill it the rest of the way with hot glue. When it has cooled, and after wiring it up to its phono jack, I hot glue the bottle to to the sound board.
I'm interested in knowing how you and John Nickle isolate your piezos. Do you use hot glue? Or is placing it in a "hollow" in the neck enough isolation?
-Rand.
Rand,
I countersunk the pickup into the back of the neck below the bridge and glued a small piece of wood over it to hold it tight against the neck. The result was a much warmer sound with not as much unwanted noise from bumping the box or the neck. On my current build I'm not sure if the fact that I am using a tail piece and the fact that the neck does not go all the way through will effect the sound.
Jim
I'll have to give your piezo placement technique a try as the side effect of all the hot glue is a bass-ier sound than I'm looking for.
I've built both neck-thrus and neck-almost-thrus and have not noticed any sound difference due to terminating the neck early. Bridge placement seems to make a bigger difference. You want to keep the pridge more toward the center of the sound board (away from the edges). They rule of thumb for bridge placement is about 2/3 to 3/4 across the soundboard from where the neck meets the sound box. That gives you a fair sized area to strum and pick the strings between the fretboard and the bridge.
Building a simple, yet reliable tail piece on a neck-almost-thru can be a bit trickier.
-Rand.