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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on February 7, 2019 at 11:00am

Hi, have you considered an external pre amp? I often mount a guitar pre amp in to a small box that sits on top of the amp or on the floor.

Taff

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Permalink Reply by ILL GREEN on February 7, 2019 at 1:35pm

Depends on the client's prefered tone they are looking for. I think you can make passive piezos to work.  You might already know this, putting the piezo under the first strings will give a bassy sound. If placed under thinner strings, you'll get a brighter sound.

There is a diagram around here of installing a tone pot to piezos the correct way. You'll need a 100k resistor between the piezo output and the tone pot. There were more instructions but thats my memory. I think it was Brian Q's discovery, maybe he can chime in to clear things up.

Also, by word of mouth, I hear larger piezos are better.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on February 7, 2019 at 2:48pm

Hi again, I did not answer your question fully as you made mention of saving the cost of a simple wiring task. The better quality the piezo element the better the sound/quality/output. This better quality comes at a cost. I use JJB electronic and K&K pickups and pre amps in my full acoustic builds, but these would be far too expensive for the simple CBG style guitar/uke.

The goal with acoustic pickups is to try to have the best acoustic sound from an acoustic instrument one can get when amplified, very hard to do I think with cheap equipment.

K&K recommend their larger size piezo's for larger instruments, 12 string guitar etc.

Do what Ill Green suggests and play with positioning, and I would also try different mounting methods, with nylon strings you should get a reasonable sound.

Taff

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on February 7, 2019 at 6:00pm

If you’re not trying to do any wiring, then try one of these little guys. Only 1 5/8” x 2 5/16” plus it comes with a rod piezo?

https://www.cbgitty.com/guitar-electronics/pre-amps/ukulele-cigar-b...

I tried suggesting a stand alone preamp like taff mentioned ,but the site was acting weird the other day? What was that?

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on February 8, 2019 at 7:08am

Here’s a tutorial for the stand alone preamp

https://www.cbgitty.com/news/improved-stand-alone-preamp-hack-use-t...

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