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Permalink Reply by Timothy Hunter on December 28, 2019 at 5:09am

is the punch an acoustic build?  that bridge is too close to the edge of the box for an acoustic. volume will be low and a bit dead sounding? for better sound the bridge should be closer to 1/3 of the box width frome the edge then work out neck length according to the scale length you want .  just my 2c  others may have better advice.

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Permalink Reply by Jon on December 29, 2019 at 6:32am

Thanks for your opinion. It very well may be too close to the edge. It’s making me re-investigate the whole idea of where to place the bridge and I need to learn more about that. Thanks. It’s an electric with a bar Piezo underneath the bolt  but it does sound dead and not loud enough

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Jordan on December 28, 2019 at 11:26pm

The Punch problem should be simple enough to fix.,., what is strange about the sound.,.,?? could just need a different set of strings.,..,

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Permalink Reply by Jon on December 29, 2019 at 6:42am

The way I would describe the sound is when I have the distortion on it’s kind of tinny  and hollow compared to the other one was the box bucker which is like really Full andraspy. When I don’t have the distortion on it’s quiet and even if I turn the volume up really loud it still doesn’t really get very loud. I’m not really sure what’s going on with it it has a bar PIezo that’s underneath  the hollowEd out bolt, i hollowed the bolt out with a metal grinder I have another guitar that I made that’s exactly like that and it sounds fine there’s a small chance that I have it miss wired to the output jack but I don’t really think that’s the problem. Anyway I’m not sure that new strings would do the trick. If I cant come up with any other ideas I’m probably just gonna try to change the pick ups to some other style and see what happens then. Timothy Hunter’s post was helpful making me think about the distance that you put the bridge from the end of the box I’ll have to look more into that and learn more about that.  Thanks for taking the time to respond and for your opinion I appreciate it.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on December 29, 2019 at 1:28pm

Hi Jon, nice builds. The issues you have could be down to how different pickups work in different situations.

If you can understand what makes them work you get a better idea of where to place them for good effect. Its an involved subject but I'll try keep it short,

The humbucker [magnetic pickup] sound is what one would expect. It is positioned under the strings and reacts to the electrical energy created between it and the vibrating strings. The further the strings are moved from the pickup the less volume, until there is none.

With the piezo pickup it works differently, it does not "read" what the strings are putting out directly, but what the strings have excited into motion or vibration. It senses the "pressure" created by a vibrating top usually, and changes that into electrical energy. 

If you hold a piezo transducer close to the strings it will not pickup any sound, but touch it to the top and wallah! big sound, move it away from the bridge area [sound source] and volume drops, but can be more pleasing.

So........[if your still here].........in the same way that the mag pickup will lose a strong signal away from the source, so will a piezo pickup, and conversely, the closer the pickup [mag or piezo] to the source the less pleasing the sound can be.

What I'm thinking is that your piezo pickup sound the way it does due to being mounted in metal bolt and in direct contact with the strings. Add to this , as Tim H points out, the bridge is not ideally positioned to create strong top vibrations.

As a possible guide to piezo considerations, strip pickups under the saddle read more string output, while the disc type transducers, attached to the timber body of the instrument, read timber/tonewood output.

Both have their pros and cons. 

Hope this helps, sorry couldn't keep it short. Taff

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