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Permalink Reply by Mike on April 3, 2015 at 8:33am

Thanks, I am going to try it but I may not be the best person to judge as I have only put piezos in 3 so far.  One has 2 in parallel wired to volume then jack.  The other 2 have single wired directly to a jack, no volume.  Of the 3, the one I like the sound of best is one of the singles.  But all 3 as different builds so hard to really compare.  The one with the 2 in it besides being a different shaped box is also using bronze strings from cbgitty.  One is a diddley bow with a single bronze cbgitty string and the one I like best is a single with nylon strings.  It has the best overall sound, at least to me. 

So anyway I will report back on how it sounds but won't know for sure if it will be any better than had a done one set or even a single...

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Permalink Reply by Mike on April 3, 2015 at 4:07pm

I think I will leave that test of awesomeness to somebody with a little bit more experience such as yourself... :).

Today I wired it all together and might put it in tonight, if not tomorrow will do it. With there being four piezos, I need to figure out how to mount all of them. I am mulling that over as we speak with a cold drink or 4... Any suggestions?

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Permalink Reply by Mike on April 5, 2015 at 4:10pm

Ok, so I have wired my newest CBG with 4 piezos as discussed. I can definitively say that I have no idea if it helped if not. :). I can say it sounds good and I am happy with how it sounds but cannot say it is any better for sure than the others I built already. Wayfinder I think you need to try the 3 way switch and let us know how it goes. :-P

I just don't have the confidence to do that yet. I also don't have time. I am working on a CBG for my daughter and one as a surprise for her friend as well as have to prepare 15 diddley bows for assembly with my daughters brownie troop in a week. I am doing all cutting and drilling ahead. I have bitten off a big mouthful and hopefully I don't choke on it. :)

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Permalink Reply by Mike on April 5, 2015 at 4:36pm

Well I've only made 3 and 1 diddley bow so my experience is minimal and I can't play and only mess around so far so I'm not the best judge. The others I have made are wired as follows:
CBG with 2 wired in parallel with volume.
CBG with 1 wired with no volume
Diddley Bow with 1 wired with no volume

The CBG with the single and no volume to me actually sounds the best. But all have boxes of different dimensions and sound hole configuration so again not the perfect test. My next for me CBG will have a mag pickup. I ordered 3 so want to try one out.

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Permalink Reply by Mike on April 6, 2015 at 3:10am

I took two piezos and wired in serial, then took two more and wired in serial. Then wired both sets parallel to a volume pot then the pot to a jack.

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on April 5, 2015 at 4:48pm

Not my personal knowledge,[i think it came from Ted],but someone who has done a lot with piezo's over the tears told me they max out at 7 discs combined,and i THINK that was in series

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Permalink Reply by The Phrygian Kid on April 5, 2015 at 11:03pm

Yes talk to ted about it.

Mike. This is a good idea. But take it a step further. Put a pair in series (if you really think you must) in the hot spot under the bridge. Then put the other 2 (or more) in parallel (individually) with that pair in order to bring the impedance back under control. Smart.

There is however a potential issue to be aware of, phasing. If you amplify two or more parts of the same soundboard you can easily create weird phase combinations. Which might be great, but might not. So be prepared to move em around.

WayFinder. This is not more, it's less. More discs in parallel. -> Each time you halve the impedance. And as Darryl says, seven such halving a will bring things to a level that your amp and fx are built to expect and work nicely with ;)

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Permalink Reply by Mike on April 6, 2015 at 3:14am

Thanks I will try it out. I have a bunch to mess around with and will try it. Worst case it helps with my getting more used to working with soldering and seeing what areas produce what sounds.

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Permalink Reply by Mike on April 8, 2015 at 12:55pm

Ok so just an update on this. I was very wrong on there not being much difference at least against a single piezo. I just did another single for a friend of my daughter as a surprise and was very disappointed with the sound when plugged in. I went back and listened to the single I did for my youngest daughter and after listening to the 4 I realized how much better it sounds. I am going to redo both that have singles. By putting 4 in it jumps the cost to where you are not far off from some of the cheaper mags that cbgitty sells so depending on if you were in love with having piezos or not you might want to just go up to a cheaper mag. I'm not sure if the cheaper mags are good or not as I have not done one yet but will be soon so I could be wrong in that assessment...

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Permalink Reply by Jim Morris on April 8, 2015 at 1:15pm

I think Nicola Tesla tried this back in the 30's and created an unnatural earthquake.It really rocked!!

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