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Permalink Reply by Blake Hatton on March 29, 2015 at 4:58pm

It really depends on the tone you prefer in any guitar.  Personally, I absolutely adore the warmer and fatter tones of humbuckers that to me say blues more than a piezo or single coil.  a piezo pickup will give you a good acoustic sound through an amp, and the disk piezos are dirt cheap.  My main irk with them is that they are really fuzzy and prone to feedback if not done properly, and a bridge piezo will need a place to sit underneath a saddle.  a single coil is also really good for clear, clean blues sound.  for single coils, think clapton, stevie ray vaughan, and jimi hendrix, and for humbuckers think b.b. king, joe bonamassa, and R.L. burnside.  for Piezo pickups, you can pretty much listen to any song with acoustic guitar, as an acoustic with a piezo will just sound a lot louder through the amp, but still sound like an acoustic guitar.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on March 30, 2015 at 12:20am

Excellent question and one I have asked myself constantly. I love the simplicity of the piezo and the fact that I don't have to hack up a beautiful cigar box top to fit it in just the right spot. With a mag pickup, that "right spot" always seems to be in the middle of the box graphic. With a piezo you also don't have to ground the strings as with a mag. You don't have to cut a deep slot in your neck for clearance of the mag body. And, you have the option of acoustic (bronze) strings with their warm sound. All of this makes the piezo attractive, but (there's always a but) the piezo, when compared to a mag pickup sounds pretty thin and tinny. And, of course, there is the box sounds that a piezo picks up.

A mag pickup, especially the mini-humbucker, produces very clean, rich sound that just sound very full. Can't deny that, but you still have the negatives of: cut the neck, use nickel strings only, cut up the box top, etc.

So, here is some food for thought.

1. Install both with a simple rocker switch. I've done it on two builds and I like switching back and forth.

2. Use two piezos wired in parallel. This is supposed to take some of the harshness out. Also run the piezo output through a good piezo preamp such as the Behringer V-Tone Acoustic Driver DI ADI21. This is a really effective device for pulling out the more mellow tones from a piezo and it is less than $30. I recently purchased this unit and was amazed at how much it change the piezo output.

There are a lot of options for you to consider, but installing both will provide you with a great deal of information you can use on your next build.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on March 30, 2015 at 7:21am

You nailed it Wayfinder. It's all about the sound that moves you personally. My be the warm tone of a single wound or the treble-oriented piezo with GDB tuning. So many options..........

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on March 30, 2015 at 9:42am

The chief executive of Nissan North American once said to the entire company staff, "We don't make enough mistakes around here."

His point was that little is learned by keeping to "the safe route". Only by taking chances and failing occasionally, do we expand our base of knowledge. Just ask Edison about his original light bulb.

I try a lot of things that look good on paper, but don't work out as planned. That's okay. I fix it. I learn something, and my next build is better for it.

Let's hear it for mistakes..............

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on March 30, 2015 at 1:06am

This is a bit like me asking the group which pizza style I should like better, New York, Chicago or California - and let's not even mention Ohio or Rocky Mountain Pies!  There is no way to know or appreciate until I try each style myself and judge based on my desires, tastes and experiences.

Many of us try a disc piezo first due to the sheer simplicity and low cost.  Some are satisfied with this and continue using them a long time.  Some try other things on their next guitar.  The First Law of CBG is, "There is always a next CBG."

I don't care for the "true CBG sound" descriptor.  It usually relates to someone's own preference or bias.  What is a "true blues guitar sound?"  To me, there is no truth.  There are only examples.

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Permalink Reply by Scott aka Farmer Ted on March 30, 2015 at 2:38am

Good point about the "true CBG sound", Eric. For true cbg sound, one could argue against any form of pickup. Since pickups and amplifiers didn't exist when cbg's were born.

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Permalink Reply by Pascal on March 30, 2015 at 3:37am

if you can define a distinctive guitar sound, we maybe can explain a distinctive cbg sound :P

as explained by others: is there a distinctive sound?

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