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How do I solder a rod piezo to a jack?

I’m brand new to making cigarbox guitars. I’m on my second one. I’ve been reading everything I can about how to put a rod PIezo under the saddle. I bought the Piezo and the Jack in the picture. I cut the end off of the Piezo . Now I need to solder the braided outer wire and the inner wire to the jack and I don’t know how to do it. Any help would be appreciated.

Any advice on how to actually mount the Piezo would be helpful too. I watched a lot of different ways to do it and I’m planning on trying the method I saw Shane spiel do. He ground out the underside of the bolt that he is using for his saddle and he’s resting the piezo right under it. That’s what I was going to try.

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Permalink Reply by Jon on November 18, 2019 at 3:07am

When I reread the first paragraph I thought maybe it wasn’t completely clear. What I really need to know is where do the braided wire and the coated wire attach to the Jack?

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on November 18, 2019 at 5:32am

The catalogue page for this jack on Gitty states that "The shorter of the two solder lugs that protrude from the base of the jack is the one to wire your positive lead to, if you intend to use this with mono plugs." That indicates that the white inner wire is connected to the shorter of the two lugs on the jack. The braided ground wires should be connected to the outer portion of the jack.

If you have any doubts, just use alligator clips to temporarily connect the wired, the plug in an audio cord and then to an amp. You should be able to tap the piezo and hear sound if you are connected correctly.

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Permalink Reply by Jon on November 18, 2019 at 11:27am

Thanks for the info and for taking the time to respond.

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on November 18, 2019 at 5:44am

Red - Signal/ Positive

Green - Braid/Ground

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on November 18, 2019 at 8:24am

FYI- a guitar cable is soldered the same & has the same connections as the schematic above. Tip touches the inner contact & ring touches the outer contact? Tip-Signal/Positive Ring-Ground/Negative

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Permalink Reply by Jon on November 18, 2019 at 11:28am

Thanks a lot for the insights and for taking time to reply. I appreciate it.

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Permalink Reply by KOOL DOG HOOCH on November 20, 2019 at 12:51am

Instead of messing with rod piezos, try the bowtie(ribbon, violin) style. It's placed between the bridge and top. No groove to cut, cable is in the middle and best of all no chance of killing the thing (shorting out) by trimming it down. No trimming needed.Bowtie Piezo(click here)

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on November 20, 2019 at 6:07pm

That’s a rod piezo? I bought that same one from gitty, really only 1/4” shorter than a regular one? a ribbon piezo is a speaker element used for tweeters? Piezo film pickup is thinner like a ribbon & is usually rolled lengthwise around a plastic rod, but not as common as a rod piezo?