I looked and haven't found any reference to this, so here goes, Has anyone embedded a disc Piezo under the fretboard? The reason I'm asking because the neck that I'm working on is laminated butcher block red oak and it has a beautiful resonance quality about it. I'm not a big fan of magnetic pick-ups for the simple reason they interfere with the looks of the guitar(my opinion). But I like the sound quality that they produce especially close to the fretboard. I'll have 19 frets on my project, so I thought I'd place the disc under the 12th or 17th. If it the sound I'm looking for happens great if not oh well! Cut the wire and move on! I'm placing a rod type in the bridge and a disc inside by the springs with the third under the fretboard and a switching arrangement. Has it been done? If so how was the sound? Any advice or thoughts?

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many moons ago, back in the 80's when i first tried a piezo disc on my 12 string guitar i even clipped it to the headstock and got sound. my only concern with it being in the middle of the neck is that as it is basically a contact mic, it will pick up all the noise of your hand moving on the neck.  now it might turn out to be a cool sound.. 

no rules, give it a go , as you said if you dont like it just cut the wires..lol

I plan on a 1uf cap to cut down some of the high end noise plus a pre-amp.

I wouldn't do 1uf... maybe .01uf  or .001  but if you're using a preamp, skip the cap!  that function is built in for you.  with a preamp and a cap,  the sound will just get muddy...

Agree - no cap with a preamp because they have one built in. Missed that.

That was a typo on my part, you are right, it should be .01. Thanks for the heads-up about the pre-amp and a cap, there isn't any information other then a couple of videos.

A lot of 6 string electric guitar guys like to put a piezo in the neck pocket of a bolt on neck guitar. You have to cut a hole for it in the pocket of the body and attach the piezo to the neck. Some have also used rod style piezo between the neck and body near the end of the fretboard and add a preamp. It works great and sounds very close to a big body acoustic.

Funny thing I was contiplating a rod Piezo instead of a disc but I don't fully understand the the placement. I was wondering if I should cut a groove length ways in the neck or perpendicular for a short one. I was thinking under 18th fret or should I go disc. A pre-amp is in the works.

Rod piezos work best when the strings are in contact with them?

That was my understanding from what I read and heard, I'm putting one in the bridge, two disc, one under the fretboard and one by the resonator spring. Each one will have a switch to bring them online through a preamp.

If you put on in the neck pocket area, you do have to have some pressure from the neck to make it work. Getting the right amout of pressure withouth breaking the crystal is the hard part. It picks up the vibrations from the neck that flow through the whole guitar. You get a very woody tone without the sometimes harsh string tone that a bridge placement gets.

I can say that I don't know which piezo would be best in this application. Either type will work, but the rod type should work fine with a preamp.

Piezo in the neck pocket.,.,?? I'm off to try that.,., sounds like a good idea.,.,ya learn something new every day.,.,.,no rules.,.,.,!!

The way to do it is to lay the piezo in the neck pocket(between the neck screws) and draw a circle around it. Route/cut /chisel a cavity that's just deep enough so the piezo crystal doesn't break when the neck is bolted in place. Cut a channel for the wires to go into the box/body. Attach the piezo to the neck, fish the wires through the channel into the box and bolt the neck into place. Wire it up and Rock on baby.

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