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Permalink Reply by JL on January 23, 2017 at 6:25am

Step 1, plug into another instrument to make sure its not your cable or amp.

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Permalink Reply by Todd LeRoy on January 23, 2017 at 8:17am

workd fine with my elec/acous guit

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on January 23, 2017 at 10:37am

What JL said... I had a jack that if you pushed te cord in too far it would short the connecttion... try tapping on the box, turn the volume way up...

It was a cheap knockoff of a switchcraft jack...

Double check your solder connections. If you soldered the piezo, you can overheat and melt the crystal down... the end result is both wires could be connected to the ground plate...

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Permalink Reply by Todd LeRoy on January 24, 2017 at 3:32am

Thanks john .  Glued the piezo to the underside of the top . Due to the soft cedar wood construction I reinforced the top of the CBG where the bridge is mounted . Maybe its too thick to pick up the vibration of the strings ? I bought the piezofrom CBGitty already soldered .

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on January 24, 2017 at 11:59am

No such thing as too thick... the piezo will pickup any vibration. Where is it located? can you take a pic of the piezo as mounted?

At this point it could be anything: the hot lead broke off the crystal piezo, back jack, bad instrument cable, even super low output and you haven't cranked up the amp to 11 to test... :-)

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Permalink Reply by Moritz Voegeli on January 24, 2017 at 7:09am

Is there anybody around here who could explain Todd how he gets a piezo on a cbg with a hardtail bridge working? Something I would never try out as I'm rather on the acoustic side...

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on January 24, 2017 at 12:01pm

It's not about the bridge type, though a lower-mass bridge MIGHT transmit more vibrations to the top... If it's glued right under the bottom side of the bridge, it should work ok...

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Jordan on January 24, 2017 at 7:51am

When my piezos don't work , I find its the jack or the solder joint to the quartz element of the piezo. I bought a huge bag of jacks from China cheap, and the sleeve of the jack is crmped into place. If the crimp is loose or not tight enough the sleeve will spin and it can cause a short.If I had bought a prewired piezo and it did not work or stopped working, I would take a multimeter to it to test the components.I would look for a short caused by the jack, or an open in the wire.On my builds when the jack is not the issue, I find the solder joint to the piezo has "popped off" from a weak solder joint.I but piezo's in bulk, but each batch is a little different even though I order the same part.Some are easier than others to make a good connection to the quartz piezo element. The bottom line is use a meter to test, and if you don't have a meter find a buddy who does. Sorry for the wordy answer.,.,

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on January 24, 2017 at 12:03pm

Hi Moritz, the hardtail bridge is steel so would not the sound be the same/similar to using a bolt or something metal like that as a bridge? I'll admit the look is not acoustic. Probably results in a brighter tone tho.
Just a thought Taff

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 24, 2017 at 12:48pm

You need to check the piezo for a broke wire/lead or a broken crystal(ceramic material on top). Could be wires are crossed, cold solder joint or just a defective piezo.

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Permalink Reply by Wichita Sam on January 27, 2017 at 11:57am

wires crossed won't make a difference.  other things you mentioned are all possibles.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on January 28, 2017 at 7:09am

Depends where they're crossed, like at the jack or the pots.

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