Issues With Dual Piezo Output

Posted by Brian Revels on April 17, 2015 at 10:58pm

Ok, so this is not the first time I have done this and I am not sure why it's not working now.  I have two piezo discs wired in parallel.  Both hot leads are together and going to post 1 on my 250K volume pot.  The negative leads are together and soldered to the scraped back of the same volume pot.  Middle pole on the pot is going to the inner post of the jack, and the post connection of the jack is going to the back of the volume pot.  

When I turn the volume all the way up... nothing.  When I turn it down... nothing.  In the middle on the volume, I can tap on the discs and I hear sound.  

Now, the sound is faint coming from these discs. These discs are about the size of a nickel and I have used them before this way for a decently loud sound.  What gives? 

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dualpiezowithvolandtonepar.jpg

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Replies

  • jim April 18, 2015 at 4:03am

    A little tip to add into the wiring and maybe save some confusion, piezo output is AC , so there is no + or - , same as a single coil pickup. 

  • smilingdog1 April 17, 2015 at 11:45pm

    Ted Crocker306443548?profile=original306444141?profile=original306445151?profile=original

    • Brian Revels > smilingdog1 April 18, 2015 at 8:23am

      Here's essentially what I did. Why wouldn't this work?

      Parallel Piezos.jpg

    • Henry S > Brian Revels April 26, 2015 at 3:43pm

      Have not done much work with piezos (I am putting 2 into my first CBG in a week or so) but your circuit looks correct ----- if your wiring is correct and the pot is working your circuit should work. Are you sure you have the jack wired correctly ? Also unclear as to what you are plugging this into - should be plugged into a high impedance input or the signal could become attenuated.

    • Brian Revels > Henry S April 26, 2015 at 9:36pm

      I ended up re-wiring in series (like I have done in the past as well) and it worked just fine.  I only re-wired the piezos, but left all other connections.  My sound is loud and proud.  I still don't know what went wrong this time.  

  • Scott aka Farmer Ted April 17, 2015 at 11:33pm

    When I used piezos in parallel, I did it differently. Instead of each + wire from piezos going to the potentiometer, bridge the two piezo + together, then continue from one of those to the pot. In more basic terms, from piezo 1 + to piezo 2+ to potentiometer lug. 

    • Brian Revels > Scott aka Farmer Ted April 18, 2015 at 8:25am

      Would bridging the piezos together not wire them in series?

      Or are you saying to take a chunk of insulation off in the middle of one of the positive and negative wires and solder the one negative lead to that spot (and the one positive to the place on the positive wire) so that I only have one wire going to the pot? This seems more similar to the 3rd image attached. I just did this instead (see attached).

      Parallel Piezos.jpg

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