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Piezo Problem and my Cohiba 6-string project

Greetings from Finland!
I am building a six-stringer from a Cohiba cigar box and a neck retrieved from a broken Eko acoustic guitar. This is my first cbg, but until now I've been progressing remarkably well considering my poor carpenter's skills, heh. Here's some pics of the unfinished axe:

I'm currently facing problems with installing piezo pickup. I've decided to install the piezo transducer under a floating bridge (which I'll fashion from reindeer horn), sandwiched between two, or more, thin pieces of wood. I ordered the piezo from certain online store (My local stores were completely dry of piezos) and they were recommended for musical instruments.

I am facing a problem with the plastic shielding of the piezo element, you know, the one you should tear off, right? Here's a pic:

The shielding seems hard to peel off without damaging the element... Any advice? How much force can I apply to it without damaging the element?

It would be easier to just leave the shielding intact and fill up the element with these thin pieces of wood, like this:

<...and then sandwich the whole thing... I'm just wondering if it might affect the sound quality of the pickup and how? Would it even work at all?

Any help would be appreciated!

This is my first post here... But I've been reading on for longer. Can't tell how much this site has already helped me...

Tags: 6-string, Piezo, help

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Permalink Reply by Doc Oakroot on June 23, 2009 at 7:07pm

It looks like that plastic leaves both surfaces of the disk completely exposed so it shouldn't be any problem. Just leave it on.

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Permalink Reply by Sven Pfitt on June 23, 2009 at 10:23pm

I would use a set of flush cutters or other wire cutting tools. You should be able to cut close and tangent to the edge of the brass disk.

Something like the Xcelite 170M Shear cutter would be good. These are designed to cut leads protruding through circuit boards flush with the surface. You can cut close to the brass disk without damaging it.

Look under electronic tools.

Good luck.

Sven.

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Permalink Reply by Juho Juujärvi on June 24, 2009 at 10:18am

Thanks, everyone, for quick replies.
I've decided not to peel the plastic off. Seems like such a hassle...

So, I'm going for small round pieces of wood plus round piece of this foamy plastic (which goes on the backside of the piezo, between the element and round piece of wood).

I'm just wondering if hot glue is the only way to go? See, I don't have hot glue right now, and I'm kinda broke (Almost to the point that when I go shopping I have to make a tough decision whether to buy food or tobacco, heh). I have some wood glue that turns harder than wood when it dries and some epoxy glue... Does the glue have to be soft? (Like hot glue is, eh?). Any advice on glue would be appreciated... If hot glue is essential, I think I'll have to try to borrow it from someone.

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Permalink Reply by Juho Juujärvi on June 24, 2009 at 10:25am

Thanks for ideas and links... The piezo is from this finnish electronics supplier, Bebek Electronics... Mail order is a bitch, had to pay about 6x of the price of the piezo in delivery fees. Well, I'm glad the piezo itself was dirt-cheap.

I might try experimenting more when I have connected the element to a jack...

Ted Crocker said:

Is that piezo from AllElectronics.com? The transducer is pretty tough, if you wanted to you could just use scissors to cut inside the plastic and it will still be usable. If you cut a piezo disk in half both sides will still work.

If the plastic ring is glued all the way around it might be too difficult to remove and still have a flat disk. I like your small round pieces of wood idea.

I'm a big fan of encasing the piezo and attaching with thick foam double side tape, or embedding the disk in the bridge.

You could just put out a big blob of hot glue and stick it in that then cover it up with more.

Have you experimented with it the way it is? If it was me I'd see if there were advantages to mounting it on an outer ring with a little air and plastic between the vibrating soundboard and the element. Try it.

Here are some sources for naked piezos next time you stock up:

DigiKey

And if you can solder stainless steel these are insane

LINK

Good luck!