Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on January 11, 2013 at 6:03am

BW,

Seems like all you'd have to do is attach the rod to either the underside or topside of the bridge. Try double stick tape, or a coupla three dots of super glue (not on the bumps, but on the ends). On the second or third try, seems like you could "rout" a channel in the underside plate of the bridge, and either glue or silicone it in. No, I have not done this; just thinking aloud about how to accomplish it...

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Permalink Reply by David McQueen on January 11, 2013 at 6:58am

I went and took a look at these. There is a separate piezo element for each string. What I cannot tell is if they are wired in series or parallel. There are a slew of fine wires coming out. I can see why they are looking for money.

If you have lots of piezo wire, you could try making small separate elements and shoving them under the bridge units. The wire would have to be insulated. Then try out series and parallel wiring to find what works. I imagine by the time you are done you will be well and truly sick of soldering. How you would actually do it would depend on how the bridge is built. What would be nice is to space them out on a tape and just slide them under.

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Permalink Reply by Bad Wolf on January 11, 2013 at 7:39am

yeah some of the ones ive seen have individual elements with 6 wires coming off but i have seen a few type with a single lead. i suspect they are built the same way with individual element and just wired differently

i need to get my hands on a bridge and see how they are actually put together i guess, thats probably the way to go. the piezo rod elements work with direct string pressure rather then vibration as the discs do so theres got to be a way of mounting the elements directly under the little separate string holders. im not sure if there is enough room under neath to just stuff one in there but that would be the easiest solution

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Permalink Reply by David McQueen on January 11, 2013 at 10:16am

I don't think that they really work any different than the discs.  They are just not as sensitive and have different output characteristics. They put them under the bridge to get the maximum vibrations and then still need a preamp.

The other experiment that could be fun is to cut up discs and put them under the individual strings.. You could probably get away without a preamp.

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Permalink Reply by jabes on January 14, 2013 at 6:31am

my first thought was to do just this ,you could prob get away with using just 1 disc

 

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Permalink Reply by Bluesheart on January 11, 2013 at 1:04pm

I'd make sure you can even use a bridge like that before going to a lot of trouble. Aren't Tune O Matic type bridges rather tall? You may need to angle the neck back quite a bit to make sure it is not too tall to have decent action. I'm just sayin.

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Permalink Reply by Bad Wolf on January 11, 2013 at 3:48pm

lot of guys use them but they mostly use magnetic pickups

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Permalink Reply by Randy S. Bretz on January 12, 2013 at 12:15am

I know this custom bone carver, that`s where i buy my buffalo horn off of. He made something simalar, where he replaced the 3 metal string saddles with carved bone ones which he made special. Bone piezo bone and laminated all 3 together. I`m sure one of you guys can come up with something, just alot of detailed work.

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on January 12, 2013 at 5:30am

BW,

You can do a really quick mockup to see if it works, if you have a TOM bridge and a rod piezo. Take an already strung up TOM bridge git, wire up your rod piezo to a jack, and plug that into an amp. Place the piezo rod on the bridge, holding it down lightly with one or two fingers against the bridge, while strumming the unplugged git with your other hand. See if you get a sound. If you do (and you should), then all ya gotta do is attach the rod to the bridge somehow. You could unscrew all the saddles, and see if there is enough room inside the base of the bridge to carve a channel to fit the rod into, so that the saddles sit directly atop the rod. That's only if you want a really finished look. Otherwise, you can just tape or glue the rod to the bridge, like I suggested earlier.

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Permalink Reply by Randy S. Bretz on January 12, 2013 at 5:43am

The rod works better from direct string contact from a saddle on it, i`d go with individual piezo disc`s glued on the string saddles then all wired together to one cable. Usually the high end strat style fixed bridges with piezo`s have some type of disc of film imbedded into them. That`s why their big bucks...alot of fine detail wirring.   http://www.ebay.com/itm/LR-Baggs-T-Bridge-Tune-o-Matic-Electric-Gui...

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Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on January 12, 2013 at 6:53am

Randy,

You are right, of course, but BW was sounding like he was trying to save some coin...

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Permalink Reply by Bad Wolf on January 12, 2013 at 5:07pm

this is gonna sound dumb but i just remembered my six string ibanez has this same bridge on it. i never play it so i had forgotten all about it! anyway im gonna do what you suggested and do some experimenting with it tomorrow

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