Hello. I'm new to cigar box guitar building, and I'm close to finishing my first 3 string guitar. Pretty much trial and error so far. My questions are. Should I use the piezos I purchased at Radio Shack or should I use leftover humbuckers that I have ? I have 4 sound holes drilled already in each corner of the lid. At that time seemed like a good idea. But now I'm not sure if I use the humbucker if the sound holes will hurt or help with that style of pick up. This is a fretless guitar for slide and Im using poplar for the neck. Will that be sufficiant for the 3 strings? I hope so I'm committed now.lol
And if i use the piezo it has 2 wires coming out of it. do I just put the 2 wires directly to the jack or is the a third ground wire needed also. I read the some of the post and cant seem find a solid answer. Thanks in advance
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Sounds like you already put in the piezo, good. I use 2 piezos wired together in parrallel (red to red, black to black wire) and the sound is much less screechy, sounds really nice (for a guitar made from a cigar box). The cool part is you can always change things around if you want to try somthing different. Experiment.
YeahDolt, interesting trick with the envelope. I have heard of guys with those big 'ole Gretch type hollow electrics stuffing em with cloth or foam to effect the sound also. I think with P-90 type pickups (I think they are microphonic, but I don't know)
Now you've gotta post your pics. We love to ooh and ahh over the newborns....
JACK said:
Well I went ahead and sandwiched the piezo between a couple of cut down wooden paint sticks and glued it all together and seems to work pretty good. I figured Id go that rout instead of the humbuckers because I already built the guitar planning on using the piezo. I could have modified it for the pick up. But Ill just save it for the next one I build. This was my first attempt a cigar box guitar and had a ball building it. Thanks for everyone's input . Im learning a lot from here.
Well I went ahead and sandwiched the piezo between a couple of cut down wooden paint sticks and glued it all together and seems to work pretty good. I figured Id go that rout instead of the humbuckers because I already built the guitar planning on using the piezo. I could have modified it for the pick up. But Ill just save it for the next one I build. This was my first attempt a cigar box guitar and had a ball building it. Thanks for everyone's input . Im learning a lot from here.
I haven't done a magnetic pickup (yet!) but they complicate things by requiring more work with bracing/relieving the neck under the lid--so that all depends on how adventurous you're feeling.
Piezos are easy to wire and place, they're cheap (less painful to screw up) and, if you start with the idea that this is, after all, a musical instrument made from a cigar box, can sound surprisingly good. I've found that embedding them in a thin layer of silicone caulk helps with feedback issues.
I have gotten the best sound from a piezo by gluing it between the neck and the box top right under the bridge. Haven't used a pickup in one, so I don't know what to tell you there.
Hi Jack - In my opinion the Piezo is probably your easiest bet when starting as they are easy to wire and mount. Digi-key has them much cheaper than Rat shack on their website and the delivery is fast even out of USA. Doc O gave you very good info. Basically you have two solders. If you go for the pup you can do it straight to the jack with ground or can do the volume/tone route but will need two pots, a cap, ground, and much more complicated soldering and to mount to the guitar. Stew mac's website has good free pup wiring information. Soundwise the piezo is going to be much more microphonic - it will pick up any sound on the top of the cbg, etc. That is why builders isolate the piezo and you can do this a number of ways - most of which have been discussed in other forums. I'd start with the piezo then graduate to the pup. I've heard great builds with piezo's and not so great - same as per pups.
Replies
Thanks ,
Mike
YeahDoIt said:
YeahDoIt said:
YeahDolt, interesting trick with the envelope. I have heard of guys with those big 'ole Gretch type hollow electrics stuffing em with cloth or foam to effect the sound also. I think with P-90 type pickups (I think they are microphonic, but I don't know)
JACK said:
Thanks
Jack
I haven't done a magnetic pickup (yet!) but they complicate things by requiring more work with bracing/relieving the neck under the lid--so that all depends on how adventurous you're feeling.
Piezos are easy to wire and place, they're cheap (less painful to screw up) and, if you start with the idea that this is, after all, a musical instrument made from a cigar box, can sound surprisingly good. I've found that embedding them in a thin layer of silicone caulk helps with feedback issues.
Congrats and enjoy your instrument!
piezo= :(
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