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New guy needs help

HI I am new here and also new to cb guitars.

I built a guitar last week out of a wood cb, poplar neck with a laminated red oak fret board, stuff I had around the house.

Here's where I need help, I am trying to plug into my peavy amp so I went to Radio Shack and bought a condenser mic element.

I got it powered up and it works, but it seems I have to be directly in front of it for it to pick up the sound.

This presents a problem when trying to place it into the box as the bridge is 1.5" wide and the mic is only about 3/8" wide.

How can I get it to pick up the sound from the whole bridge?

Thanks for any help or advise

newbee Terry

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Permalink Reply by ReturnToSender on August 19, 2014 at 1:09am

Radio Shack has Piezo "buzzer" elements that will pick up the sound of your heartbeat from across the room...no power needed. From what I understand, condenser mics need power to work and can be kinda finicky.

EDIT: with a piezo, you kinda just stick it someplace in the box and it picks up the string vibration through the wood.

You can get piezo rod bridges as well, that have the piezo build into the bridge.

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Permalink Reply by JL on August 19, 2014 at 4:33am

Yes, what ReturnToSender said. to use a condensor mic element you need to add battery power to the element and then some other circuitry to isolate the signal return from the battery power to your amp. go back and get the piezo element 273-073 instead which you can wire as is straight to the 1/4" jack.

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Permalink Reply by Terry Cowger on August 19, 2014 at 5:20am

Thank you for the replies I apreciate the info.

I didn't realize a buzzer would pick up sound ?

I did get the mic to work, but I dont think it would work well in the guitar and the 9v batt would be a pain.

JL if I may ask... where did you mount your piezo and did ya leave it in it's housing ?

Also did ya mount it with the hole towards the soundboard?

hope i'm not being a pain ?

thanks for any help, now i'm off to radio shack !

Terry

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Permalink Reply by jeff maurer on August 21, 2014 at 3:15am

Forget radio shack. Cb gitty has piezo already wired to the jack. And in both rod and disc.

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Permalink Reply by Terry Cowger on August 21, 2014 at 4:44am

Once again thanks for the replies !

I went to RS for the part and it works very well.

As I allready had the other parts needed I didnt want to order one part.

I think on my next build I will order the electronics complete w/tone and volume from CB Gitty.

Terry

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Permalink Reply by JL on August 22, 2014 at 4:28am

piezo disks and magnet cone speakers from old headphones work well in both directions, as speakers and as pickups.

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Permalink Reply by Terry Cowger on August 22, 2014 at 5:03am

Thanks JL I did not know that and it is certanlly good informaton to know.
Terry

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Permalink Reply by Skeesix on August 24, 2014 at 5:00am

There is a circuit for the condenser mic element in Bart Hopkin's book Getting a Bigger Sound. In my experience, the condensor mic makes a great vocal or harp mic, but it's not so good as a pickup.