Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on May 22, 2012 at 5:45am

You may have a bad volume pot, or there may be a bad solder joint. You could also have a problem with the piezo making sufficient contact with the sound board (lid) to pick up the vibrations. I would double check all your connections first.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 22, 2012 at 6:01am

Josh,

Nice looking build!

Piezos even from the same batch can act differently. Also, piezos are really good at picking up high frequencies and sudden volume spikes (like knocking the box hard). They're not so good at picking up lower freqs. Location of the piezo on the bass side may be what's causing this.

Sounds like you might need a pre-amp with this one. It may also be that the impedance is slightly different on this piezo versus your first one. Anything else different? Jack? Cable? Any grounding issues? There are Pocket battery powered pre-amps on the market ranging from $29 cheapos to studio quality $600 models.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Josh Thompson on May 22, 2012 at 6:47am

Thanks for the reply.  The jacks, cable, piezo all came out of the same package as my first one, only thing different is I added a volume knob.

That might be what it is, I put it on the bass side so it's not picking up as much.  I'm learning as I go.  : )

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on May 22, 2012 at 8:15am

I put all mine on the bass side and they all work just fine. I seriously doubt it is the location.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on May 22, 2012 at 7:22am

Josh,

Normally, I give Dan's "check yer connections" talk ;-) I think he may be right, now that you've told us you added a vol pot.
Yeah,, I know, it's right there in the Frickin' pic; but that wouldn't mean his first one didn't have one.
Check your solder joint on the vol pot; sometimes, you have to scratch the coating off the back to get a proper solder joint for your ground. Check all your connections. 2-3 times.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on May 23, 2012 at 1:16pm

tolerances are huge on cheap pots.  ive seen 250k pots with resistance as high as 290k and as low as 210k. Did you use an audio or linear taper pot?

i doubt its your soldering, if it were either it would work or not, seems to me you just got a linear taper pot by mistake.

• ▶ Reply