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switch between rod piezo and mag pickup?

I am on build #12, a very special box and neck. As you can see, the box is long and not very deep (1 3/8"), but with a gorgeous two-tone wood and "Man O' War" logo. Neck is mahogany with a koa fretboard (still being polished). I'd like to put in both a rod piezo built into the bridge, and a 3-pole, single coil pickup with a switch to choose between either one, or both. Will this work if I have them connected to the phone jack through a 3-way switch? Will I get decent performance out of them wired in this way? I would have volume and tone controls plus the switch on the front of the box. Anyone tried this?

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on May 29, 2016 at 4:18pm

If by phone jack you mean,just a normal jack socket,yes,it'll work ok,the rod may not give full output without a pre amp,but all else should be good,nice f/board B T W

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Permalink Reply by Michael Zack on May 30, 2016 at 7:15am

Thanks for the response.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Zack on May 30, 2016 at 7:16am

Thank you. I'm now looking for an inexpensive preamp, but I don't want it to be onboard.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Zack on May 31, 2016 at 10:26am

Thank you, Wayfinder, for pointing to the post. It was very helpful and looks to be the best way to boost and shape the rod piezo signal. Does the piezo have to have a separate jack or can the mag pickup run through the preamp also?

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Permalink Reply by Michael Zack on May 31, 2016 at 11:49am

Thanks. So, it sounds to me like I can run both the piezo and mag through the same volume pot to the jack, which then goes to the preamp, and both or either signals can be adjusted at the guitar via vol. and tone pots as well as boost and further refinement of the signal at the point it hits the preamp. Time to put in a parts order at C.B.G.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Zack on May 31, 2016 at 12:04pm

That's perfect! Time to get building this circuit, along with a preamp.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Thompson on May 30, 2016 at 2:17am

I can't speak about your question, but I sure like your guitar.
The Koa is beautiful!

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Permalink Reply by Michael Zack on May 30, 2016 at 7:18am

Thanks. I have enough koa fretboard blanks for another 20 guitars. Also just acquired some mango wood that is just beautiful. Can't wait to use it.

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Permalink Reply by JL on May 31, 2016 at 3:50am

Beautiful.

I'll be interested to hear back how the 3-way switch works out, I'm wondering if switching between mag-pup and piezo will cause a great change in volume.