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Rod piezo low volume

Posted by Walter Cengia on November 14, 2012 at 8:21pm in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

Hi guys I originally posted this in the (Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts),

My bad. And MadDog responded, thanks Maddog. I'd like to know if anyone else has had a similar problem and how they rectified it.

I'm on my second CBG , on my first I used a coil pickup but on this one I decided to play around with piezo pickups. The disk I found worked very well, heaps of volume but had that annoying clattering sound, almost too sensitive. So I experimented with a under saddle Rod pickup as I thought that these were supposed to be far Superior but to my utter dismay I can hardly get any volume out of it. It's not a crook rod because I tried several of them, purchase from C.B. Gitty. The best I can get is laying the string directly over the rod and even then the old ac30 needs to be cranked up.

See photos of bridge and saddle arrangement.

Bridge1.jpg

Bridge2.jpg

Any enlightening suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

regards to all,

Walt.

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Replies

Walter Cengia November 18, 2012 at 6:18pm

Thanks for all the advice guys, I'm in the process of trying all your ideas out but I'm starting to think that I may just have a bad batch of rods or maybe I'm expecting too much because when I say low volume I mean it's like 4 to 6 time quieter than a disk. I need to turn the amp up to the point of annoying ac hum to achieve half reasonable sound. I haven't tried all ten rods but I will and I'll keep pushing on but some thing tells me I'll be going back to my hand wound mini humbuckers.

Cheers

Walt
- Randy S. Bretz > Walter Cengia November 19, 2012 at 4:00am
  
  Custom rod piezo bridgesLet me ask you...when you cut the 1/8" plug off the end of the rod wire, are you sure you got all the strands of braided ground wire twisted up together. Cause just one touching the hot wire will shorten out the rod. Also are you using a full length rod...did you cut it short? if so that would be another problem. If your not getting a good solid contact from the saddle to the rod it`ll screw up the sound. Alot of different things could be the problem, but after using the rods for about 2 years now i still like the sound they produce alot better then the touchy disc`s. The only bridge i use the disc`s in anymore are my all bone bridges, where the disc is buried in hot glue.
Greg Roberts November 18, 2012 at 11:14am

I used a brass pipe nipple that the rod would fit in and then filled it with silicone and put end caps on it and used that as my bridge really good volume
Randy S. Bretz November 16, 2012 at 6:22am

You`ll get a much better sound if the saddle is bone. Using wood will mute the sound. I put an edge on the saddle so there`s just a small spot where the strings lay on it and a slight slot just enough that the strings won`t slide on the saddle . You want to keep the rod in the bridge slot loose and the saddle too - no glue in. As far as having the strings fall on the high part of the rod makes no difference being the saddle lays on the rods length evenly.
- RTZGUITARS > Randy S. Bretz November 16, 2012 at 3:07pm
  
  is that plexiglass for a saddle Like Randy said bone you can get clean bone at the pet store or stewmac.
  
  Also build your bridge base higher it would help if the saddle wasn't so tall. This is one of Randy's see the saddle is short much more stable.
Walter Cengia November 16, 2012 at 1:59am

Ok so here's the latest and it is better but not what I expected, and the low string is considerably quieter.

Is there a specific orientation requirement for these rod pickups?

more photos

Bridge1.jpg

Bridge2.jpg
- Ron "Oily" Sprague > Walter Cengia November 16, 2012 at 4:47am
  
  'Nother thought: make sure your strings are sitting precisely over the highest points on the rod; otherwise, you'll lose some volume.
Shawn November 14, 2012 at 11:29pm

The wood saddle may also be soaking up the string vibration as well try a bone saddle on a really hard pcs of plastic like plexiglass. This should solve the problem. I tried a wood saddle my first time with a rod and then switched to a hard plastic chop stick ( that fell in my pocket from PF Chang ) and had great results the volume was right and sounded great. This was on my built Victoria.
- Walter Cengia > Shawn November 14, 2012 at 11:56pm
  
  Sooooo gee, you were in PF Chang's and you thought to your self wow these chop sticks a gonna make a great bridge saddle and one just fell into your pocket and I'll bet they're still scouring the place looking for it.
- Busyhands Slim > Shawn November 14, 2012 at 11:43pm
  
  This was my thought, too. I have a bone saddle on a CB Gitty piezo and it's really, really loud. Maybe I should try a wood one - it would be a lot easier than installing a volume pot!