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Piezo / mag pickup combo

Posted by Ted Smith on March 9, 2017 at 8:08am

I've built with piezo's and mag's. Getting ready to experiment with them as a combo. I would like some opinions on sound, piezo placement, tone / vol. control and switching and anything else that might be useful.

The Woodwisher9353886867?profile=original

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  • James "Jam" Ruddell March 11, 2017 at 11:41pm
    I also use the same circuit for an input preamp on my cigar box amplifiers if I am going to run bass mid and treble controls to limit the loss of volume and have had good luck with it
  • Ted Smith March 11, 2017 at 10:34pm
    Sorry that last comment was for Davod. Thanks again!
  • Ted Smith March 11, 2017 at 10:32pm
    Man that's some good stuff. I really appreciate it. That's a good looking rig in your profile pic. I see your using a railblaster humbucker pup. I've been using them on several recent builds. Using a switch for split coil. I like them!
  • David L. March 11, 2017 at 7:59pm
    For those interested this is where I first came across the idea of using diodes
    https://www.strat-talk.com/threads/the-stracciatella-3-volume-w-var...

    And a video demo from the person who thought of the idea (I think - the original link seems to be broken).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWJeR_O5p44
  • David L. March 11, 2017 at 7:49pm
    For wiring diagrams this artec sound PDF offers the common schematics. If you want to add a piezo just wire it in place of one of the magnetic pickups in the diagram.
    http://www.artecsound.com/wiring/wiring_book01.pdf
  • David L. March 11, 2017 at 7:43pm
    Hi Ted,
    On nearly all my CBGs I add both piezos and magnetic pickups. This is an old video I made comparing piezo discs and magnetic pickups with and without a preamp. Note the sound is very low (old camera mic) so turn the volume up on your device and if it lets you on the video window too.
    http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/comparing-cbg-pickups
    On this box guitar I used a 5 way switch with the piezos (two or more wired in parallel) wired to where the bridge pickup would be on a stratocaster 3 pickup wiring diagram.
    If I use an onboard preamp I just send the signal from both piezo and magnetic through the same preamp input.
    Since this was made I have tried using a blend switch but find it doesn't work as well as I hoped (magnetic tends to over power the piezo signal as previously mentioned).
    Now I use diodes (1N5819 type - look on eBay and you can get 50 for £1). If you give each pickup a volume pot and put a single diode on the hot output lug of the pot (usually the middle lug) you can add as much of each pickup signal as you want (including for example neck magnetic, bridge magnetic and piezos) which offers great tonal options. Note diodes are polarity specific with the shaded end pointing away from the potentiometer lug.
    As to position of the piezo
    Discs two - under the lid slightly back on either side of the bridge, glue brass side to the lid and smother with silicone or hot glue to help reduce feedback.
    Rods - has to be under the bridge saddle as it needs the string pressure to transduce properly
    Cable - under the bridge saddle but really needs a preamp as very weak signal.
    I have also added disc piezos underneath hardtail bridges on solid body guitars (drill a shallow hole for enough discs to sit in to fill across the width of the hardtail bridge), I mount them brass side to hardtail so notch out where the solder blobs are located in the wood under the bridge so they lie flat. I then wire them in parallel. Mounted like this they sound as good as the mahgnetic pickups.
    Regards,
    David L
  • James "Jam" Ruddell March 9, 2017 at 9:42pm
    Yeah this is where I found it http://music-electronics-forum.com/t23807/
  • Ted Smith March 9, 2017 at 7:09pm
    Thanks Daryl, that helps. Appreciate the info.

    Hey James is that 9v circuit on line somewhere I can have a look?
  • darryl kernaghan March 9, 2017 at 6:38pm

    Ted, if you go with separate volume controls for piezo and mag pups, you can blend in your piezo to the mag sound and get some good results, the piezo is, in effect, a capacitor, so you get a bit of tone control, to counter any problem like James mentions, just add a diode to the piezo hot wire to stop the signal returning, hope this helps

  • James "Jam" Ruddell March 9, 2017 at 5:53pm
    I have a schematic for a 9v piezo pre-amp circuit. I happened across it (from a past blog un CBN ) when I first started using piezo's , it was one of the thing's that convinced me to join .
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