Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jim Saraceno on May 7, 2017 at 5:29am

BTW... I don't see any on/off switch anywhere. Am I supposed to turn it on somehow and if not, is there no way to turn it off?

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Permalink Reply by Rick Alexander on May 7, 2017 at 6:28am

You have to unplug the cables when you're not playing or it will drain the battery. I made one with a Gitty unit a while back and I think I might have had to resolder the jack to the braided end, it didn't work the first time around. I recall that it pulled right off the jack with not much effort. Also, I think tinning the ends really well was the fix, and that was sort of a pain in the arse.

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Permalink Reply by David McQueen on May 7, 2017 at 7:45am

1. You can buy rod piezos on a braided wire to replace the one you cut. They are on eBay and they are cheap.

2. The on off switch in the preamp is the guitar jack going to the amp. Plug it in and the preamp is on.

3. I just soldered the disk piezo directly to the braided mini jack wire and plugged it into the preamp at the mini jack female plug.

4. Once you do that, put in a battery and plug the preamp into an amp. Touch the piezo to test the preamp.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Saraceno on May 7, 2017 at 8:42am

It sounds like I have done everything right. I'm not going to mess around with it anymore, I just ordered one from Gitty like I should have from the beginning. I can just put the piezo from the new unit and put it in the bad unit and return it.

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Permalink Reply by JL on May 7, 2017 at 8:57am

if its the same 1/8 in mini jack on the end of the piezo rod that the gitty unit has, you can test the pre-amp with an aux cord from your music player or smart phone.  if that works, you can buy a 1/8 male end and use that instead of cutting the braided cord

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Permalink Reply by Jim Saraceno on May 7, 2017 at 9:42am

It is not an 1/8" jack, it is a 3/32" jack. (2.5 mm. instead of a 3.5 mm). It'll be interesting to see if the Gitty unit has the 1/8" jack.

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Permalink Reply by David L. on May 7, 2017 at 9:58am

You could try a new 9v battery, make sure all slide buttons are on max and also make sure the small master volume knob is switched to max too.

Are you using an amp cable with mono plugs? (The shaft of a mono plug connects two negative wires from the battery switching the unit on. A stereo plug doesn't connect the two wires so the unit stays off).

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Permalink Reply by Jim Saraceno on May 7, 2017 at 11:03am

Thanksabut I tried a new battery and all knobs at max (and mid, and min just in case). I have no stereo jack plugs, they are all mono.

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on May 9, 2017 at 2:02pm

Post a detailed pic...

Does the battery check light work?  show us your soldering job, etc...

I'm pretty famous for wiring things backwards once in a while... My R/C airplane friends call me wrong-way...

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Permalink Reply by Jim Saraceno on May 10, 2017 at 3:47pm

Thanks but I just received a unit from C.B.Gitty and it works just fine. Apparently I did everything right on the first unit but it just doesn't work. I'm sending it back.

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Permalink Reply by John Rivers on May 11, 2017 at 12:10pm

Gotta cut the piezo between the humps

I have handled at least 1,000 piezos and never saw one that had no sound.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Saraceno on May 12, 2017 at 12:50pm

Thanks but it is not the piezo that doesn't work it is the pre-amp.

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