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First CBG/LicPlate Guitar Build

Posted by Brian Smith on September 15, 2015 at 9:44pm in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

Got together with 2 friends, created a spreadsheet with parts from CBGitty.com, ordered all the stuff and turned my old New Hampshire Veteran Plate (now have personalized vet plate) into my first ever build.  Installed a mag pickup as well as a piezo pickup.  The mag is dirty-dirty...sounds just like you'd want.  The piezo is a clean sound.  The middle switch combines the two for a clean front, dirty in the background.  All in all, VERY happy with it!

LicPlateGuitar.JPG

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Replies

  • Bluesheart October 3, 2015 at 3:30pm

    Nice job, looks really nice, esp. for a 1st!

  • Blues Frog September 22, 2015 at 10:37pm

    That's a nice git! Hows she sound?

    Oh, I missed that entry. Apparently that's how.

  • Brian Smith September 22, 2015 at 10:34pm

    <update> more playing with it and I found I had the pickups backwards...the magnetic pickup is the clean one and the piezo is the dirty, but it's only when running it thru a pedal with some gain added.  The piezo seems to have more volume and therefore picks up the gain more to turn it into the distortion you'd be looking for.  The mag pickup ends up with less volume running thru the same pedal and comes out clean. 

    Running the guitar directly into an amp with no adds gives clean to both pickups.  Still, I'm extremely happy with how it sounds as well as how it plays.  Great add to my stable.  :-)

  • Paul Craig September 17, 2015 at 2:25am

    Thanks for the pic. Rock on

  • Brian Smith September 16, 2015 at 6:55pm

    Here's a pic of the wiring on the back of the plate...

    LicPlateWiring.JPG

  • Brian Smith September 16, 2015 at 8:07am
    Hi, Paul...I have to say, I owe all the wiring expertise to my buddy I was doing the build with. His will be done soon, but I was trailblazing for him so he wired mine first. The two pickups are wired into a 3-way switch so you can select either, or, or both. No preamp or anything fancy. It turned out like having a distortion effects box built in...couldn't be happier. No feedback from the piezo (it's on a bed of hot glue and covered with hot glue as well). I'll post a pic of the back of the plate to show the wiring.
  • Paul Craig September 16, 2015 at 3:15am

    First of all, Thank you for your service.

    Your CBG looks great. I've heard in the past that magnetic pups and piezo's didn't play well together without a onboard equalizer/preamp. How did you wire yours? Did you use a equalizer/preamp?

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