Hey folks!
I'm about to embark on my first 1 gallon metal can guitar build. I'm also a bit stumped as to how I should mount my piezo strip with such a can build. I've never used piezo's before. I can put the strip on top of the bridge, sandwiched between the metal bridge saddles and the wooden bridge... below the bridge between the wooden bridge and the outside of the metal can... inside the can between the neck wood and the can...
What would be you folks best advice as to where I should locate my piezo, and why?
This is my can. It's 98 years old, soldered together and only 3" thick... if any of 'that' matters.
Replies
Thanks for the advice/input. I 'think' that I know what I am going to do... at least for now.
I'm personally seeing three pickups, in three different locations... and a six position toggle switch to select which pickup, or combination of pickups will be active at any given time.
Pickup #1)... Piezo 'strip' in the bridge, directly under the string saddles.
Pickup #2)... Piezo 'disk' mounted into the wood of the neck, inside the can, at the base of the neck where the fretboard ends and the neck joins the can.
Pickup #3)... Piezo 'disk' mounted to the inside of the can, directly to the can, half way between the bridge and the neck pickups.
This should give me a great deal of choices for tone. I'll obviously have some wiring to do, but that shouldn't be too difficult to accomplish, internally. I'll be using a 7545R Pre-Amp on this build. The hole that I'll need to cut into the can, for mounting the pre-amp unit should give me adequate room/access to deal with the internal wiring.
Any thoughts or concerns about such a setup?
Like others have said, those discs , inside a can, will probably need some insulation, whether it's hot glue,wood, leather or whatever, you might need to experiment a bit before you're happy, as directly on the tin they'll be a bit harsh i expect.
Yes Darryl. I understand that. My internal piezo disks will be potted with either hot glue, silicone, or epoxy resin depending on the location and mounting surfaces that I plan to stick them to. I'll be playing with potting mediums to see what sounds good where. Gonna be a fun project, for sure!
If you are using a rod piezo, it needs to be in direct contact with the bridge or saddle, the reason is, unlike discs, the rods don't pick up the vibrations of the box so much, they read the strings much like a mag pup, the conventional method for mounting a rod is to place it in the groove in the bridge where the saddle sits, under the saddle, or you could place it between the bridge and the sound board , once again in a groove in the bridge just a little shallower than the rod so the string vibration is transferred to the rod adequately. Most of what i said there is mainly for a conventional wooden top guitar, but even for your can, the same basics apply, you need to consider a bridge that will accommodate the rod similarly, also, unless you mount the rod internally, which would be bloody difficult in a 1 gal can without cutting it, you will have to make a hole for the cable to go through, for that reason, i would make the guitar and get it intonated with a dummy bridge, then you know where you can drill your hole for the wire and still hide it
Taff
Nice can, I just saw one of those exact cans for sale recently, I think on eBay, still had the original fluid in it.
It's the same can that you saw on ebay. "I bought it!" I was looking for something old, with lots of character and good aging. This can fit the bill. I saw lots of other cans that also looked 'great', but didn't want to pay the high price for something that I was going to have to cut holes in.
Great minds think alike, I almost pulled the trigger on it, instead bought a different one
The can actually looks much better, in person, than the ebay pics revealed. I also went over it with a damp rag which cleaned up the original graphics quite a bit. It was really dirty in the ebay photo's. I suspect that it will jump to life when I rejuvenate the old, dry paper wrap/graphics with a few coats of clear lacquer. This is a really nice old can. I'm very impressed. The seams are actually 'soldered'! I love that, but please bear in mind. I'm also easily entertained when it comes to antiques and olden day methods. The photo shows the soldered seam of the wrapped can/shell. There's one spot on the seam where someone got a bit sloppy with their solder technique. I love it! It doesn't get any better than this! I'm glad that you didn't beat me to it! This is a sweet old can, indeed!
Solder Seam.jpg
Was wishing I had bought it, but now I'm glad someone else who appreciates these old things as much as I do, got it. Don't know if you saw this one when you were looking or if I had already bought it, it was my choice before that one.
It's going to be my 2 string "chugger chugger choo choo" lol
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