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Cigar Box Bass: Piezo Location

Finished my two-string bass tonight. Looks real nice, action is fine for fretless playing (neck is a poplar 1x2 with a quarter-inch slab of red oak for a fingerboard). Plugged it in and got this: doodley squat.

I tested the piezo with the "plug it in and tap on it" test while it was under construction, and I can get a sound if I rap on the back of the box with my knuckles, so I know the wiring is functional. The adhesive has had at least a week to cure, too, so I know that's not the issue.

I placed the piezo inside the box on the back of the poplar, like I do with my guitar builds, but this apparently is not where the vibrations happen on a bass. I used an old Peavey bass bridge, bolted to a block of wood inside the box.

So...anybody have advice on where I should have put the disk? I'm willing to do some trial and error, but I'd hate to end up with fifty non-functioning piezos siliconed all over the inside of this goofy thing just to find the right place.

(Also: I don't have any magnetic pickups for it, which I wouldn't be able to retrofit this thing with anyway...I'd really like to use a piezo in this build.)

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on October 17, 2012 at 9:24pm

As RHCP used to say:

Under The Bridge

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Permalink Reply by Cigar Box Gus on October 18, 2012 at 1:08am

I was afraid of that...gonna have to take the whole thing apart to do that..

Or I could just use it acoustically. It don't sound terrible that way, and if I get some flatwound strings, it'll sound pretty alright.

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Permalink Reply by David L. on October 18, 2012 at 3:43am

Hi Uncle Gus,

You can get cheap clip on piezos which even work on the head of the guitar and previously I've stuck discs on the wooden block I've screwed a hardtail into and they still pick up the sound of the guitar - not as well as when they are fitted to the underside of the lid but all strings are picked up (6 string E to e). So it makes me wonder if the piezo is a bit of a dud or moved position since you sealed the box. If you have a spare disc with a strip of tape you could fix it to the top of the metal bridge either side of the 2 strings (so the tape doesn't lift the box finish and if you use masking tape it should lift back off easily without leaving a mess on the chrome) and see what sound you get out of your amp. If you are happy with the result you could always detune the bass and unscrew the metal bridge enough to slip a disc under the surface and drill through a hole big enough for the piezo wires to be hooked up to the jack socket inside the box.
I first read about using piezo discs as guitar pickups years ago in Bass guitar forums and they were commenting how good they sounded so I take from this that they work equally as well on a Bass as a typical non-Bass CBG.

Nice guitar you have made - I like the tear drop head you have carved and the fretboard design.

Regards,
David

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Permalink Reply by Cigar Box Gus on October 18, 2012 at 11:13am

Good ideas...I'll probably take off the bridge and "holler out" a little space to nuck a piezo disk directly under it.

I also thought of an incredibly lazy way out...remove the bridge saddles altogether and just use the bridge as a tailpiece, then make a chunky wooden floating bridge that contacts the top of the box directly, then I can move it until it sounds like it's transferring enough energy to the disk.