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Permalink Reply by otis on August 28, 2009 at 5:47am

im still experimenting with piezo's but so far ive found that if you want to use a very big amp or anything with distortion of any sort i go with a more conventional electric type pickup. (i.e. humbucker or single coil fender) just a suggestion. ask Ted he's the expert.

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Permalink Reply by BT Cohosh on August 28, 2009 at 10:39am

A piezo will do raunchy blues, but Otis is right, they can be screwy about things like gain. The more gain you pile on, the more you risk horrible feedback. Some of this can be finesse-d with the type of box you use and how you place the piezo, but the potential is still there. If you're gonna play in a high-gain environment, you might want to go magnetic.

That being said, I've built exclusively with piezos, so far, though I've got this "plan" to wind my own magnetic pickup sometime soon. I play loud and smile through the feedback.

Enjoy!

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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on August 28, 2009 at 3:01pm

I'm a long time blues player and I make pickups for CBGs too. My suggestion would be to go with a magnetic pickup and a tube amp that you can overdrive. The piezos, when overdriven, have a harsh clipping that's really unpleasant, at least to my ears. This is due to impedance mismatch with the amp. If you install a piezo, it's best if you add some kind of damping material to reduce feedback and tame the high frequencies and/or run it through an EQ pedal or impedance matching buffer circuit. In general, they're best for a more acoustic sound.

Skeesix
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http://skeesixcbgs.com/
Making your cigar box guitar rock!

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