I built my first CBG, but it sounds funky, a little too funky. I dunno how but with a slide it doesn't sound too bad, but fretting it it sounds out of tune. So far only acoustic, but there is a weird sitar sound mostly from the middle string, lots of strange harmonics, I guess.
The frets are mahogany, and they might be wearing already, there is a little buzzing caused by the 6th fret. I guess they need to be leveled better, because when I checked them it seems that from the 6th fret down they are slightly taller, it is hard to see, but I used a straight edge and yup they are higher.
Hi, my name is Lee and I'm addicted to tinkering. So even though it is getting played a lot more, I can't stop tinkering with it. Piezo sandwich, yum, new configuration inside has best tone and doesn't pick up slide noise. The action is lowered with brass nut and bridge (on mahogany, I love that wood). There is stil a little intonation issue, but it is small and as long as I tune each string carefully I can compensate for it (mostly).
I gotta stop messin with this thing, and learn to play it. The piezo is now on the underside of the mount and it's a little less trebly, still better for slide, gettin a real full sound now.
OK, so now I mounted the piezo using door shim (a soft wood?), at first wood glued to the inside bottom part. It was too bright and crispy, but no feedback, now it is wrapped in felt, still fairly loud but better tonal quality.
The sandwich is a good idea, the glue is critical too, I think, you want a little damping from it, maybe. I know super gluing it directly to the neck was way wrong, and now I have a little too much damping. I might try installing two piezos, each slightly different and a simple selector switch.
Alan Roberts said:
Lee Fields said:
ITime for a new approach, suspended the thing in foam with opening to neck, but now it is only taped in position, but it works, kinda OK.
A lot of people make a sandwich around their piezo out of wood, flet, foam or hot glue. I think that will help. Even so, I put a distance between me and my amp.
ITime for a new approach, suspended the thing in foam with opening to neck, but now it is only taped in position, but it works, kinda OK.
A lot of people make a sandwich around their piezo out of wood, flet, foam or hot glue. I think that will help. Even so, I put a distance between me and my amp.
I had two wiring diagrams to work from, one for one piezo, the other for two. So, I went to rat shack, with a parts list, but they only one pot' of three I wanted. They did have plenty of piezos (273-073) and 1/4" jacks. Anyway I got a couple of pot's even though they were not the values from the diagrams I had, along with one that was on my list. When I got home I decided to just try a single pup setup first, which worked OK, the two piezo attempt didn't work at all, these were done using jumpers. I tried different locations in the box and decided to glue the piezo pup to the underside of the neck, when I plugged it in feedback and every noise from an y contact with the CBG. Time for a new approach, suspended the thing in foam with opening to neck, but now it is only taped in position, but it works, kinda OK.
So since it actually is playable now and I like the overdriven/sustain sound, I was wondering about putting in piezos, 1 or 2, volume and tone or blend controls, or maybe single coil pup on the cheap. I copied a couple of diagrams, but was wondering about folks' experiences.
Most people here have much more experiance than I do. My first piezo attempt was a DISASTER; I used radio shack materials and I won't make that mistake again. My second one used C. B. Gittys piezos and jacks and the results were COMPLETELY different. [Insert plug for C B Gitty here]. It is just the piezo hot-glued under the bridge and no pots, volumns etc. I wish now I had put a volumn nob on -- there's one on the amp, of course, but if I get close to the amp I still get feedback. Having a volumn knob will be my new minimum config.
Keep me posted on your results. I wouldn't mind learning from someone ELSES mistakes for a change. Ha, ha.
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Very nice looking guitar. Much better than mine
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Alan Roberts said:
A lot of people make a sandwich around their piezo out of wood, flet, foam or hot glue. I think that will help. Even so, I put a distance between me and my amp.
Most people here have much more experiance than I do. My first piezo attempt was a DISASTER; I used radio shack materials and I won't make that mistake again. My second one used C. B. Gittys piezos and jacks and the results were COMPLETELY different. [Insert plug for C B Gitty here]. It is just the piezo hot-glued under the bridge and no pots, volumns etc. I wish now I had put a volumn nob on -- there's one on the amp, of course, but if I get close to the amp I still get feedback. Having a volumn knob will be my new minimum config.
Keep me posted on your results. I wouldn't mind learning from someone ELSES mistakes for a change. Ha, ha.
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