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Another electronic question

Hi all.... back to the trough for more help.... the build is a larger box that I plan to put an Artec SDA-t and speaker in the box. I currently have hooked up a double piezo with tone and volume. My thoughts are to take the jack outputs and just hook them to the same output pot as the double piezo. I would leave the volume up full on the artec and put it in the box as the volume on the piezo will control both (If my thinking is correct.... ??? Will this present any problems?

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 2, 2017 at 12:35pm

Wire your piezo's to volume - then tone - then the guitar's output wires straight into the amps input or use a jack to disconnect for repairs if any problem arises.
Leaving the amp volume all the way up can be good or bad, depends on where the amp's sweet spot is. Some amps sound best all the way up, some not. Depends on how the speaker handles it.
For those that don't know how to find the amp's sweet spot:
Turn all the knobs at 12 o'clock, then adjust the volume up and down while playing to find the best level. Then move to the tone or treble and bass to find the best levels. then move to gain/distortion/od. You want to do it clean before the dirt is added.

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Permalink Reply by Robert Varcoe on January 2, 2017 at 12:55pm

The peizo's were already wire..... I already see a problem in that the SDA-T has it's own off on switch with the volume..... so it is going to have to be mounted or at least a jumped off on switch.... so I guess I am asking is if I jump the input wires directly to the piezo jack will it cause problems when I use an external amp!

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 2, 2017 at 9:17pm

What you want to get is an output jack with a shunt. A shunt is an extra leg on the hot side of the jack that has the hot signal wire going to the onboard amp and guitar's output going to the longer leg. When you plug in a guitar cord, the shunt leg disconnects the signal to the onboard amp. That way you can play with the onboard amp or plug into an external amp/PA/soundboard and rock the joint.

A shunt jack can be found at most guitar parts suppliers and comes in mono or stereo. Not sure if CBGitty has them or not. If they don't you can check with Mouser or Small Bear and others online. Just search for a 1/4" mono jack with shunt.

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on January 17, 2017 at 3:48pm

Use a 1/4" STEREO jack... Wire it like this:

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Stereo Jack as ground switch.jpg, 22 KB

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 18, 2017 at 11:35am

A stereo jack would leave both legs live where the mono with shunt would disconnect one side when a plug is inserted. The stereo jack would be good if you want the onboard amp to be active while playing through another amp/PA/sound board as long as there's no feedback problems.