piezo help please

Hello there,

Attempts at wiring my first piezo have, unfortunately failed! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I used the wiring diagram below. I used the input jack as pictured.

First question : I wired the tab on the far right of the jack as the Hot (tip) - is this correct?
Aside from this Im confused. The wiring is correct as per the diagram, all of my solder points look good, all of the gear is new and my guitar cables and amp also work correctly.

I hope I havent cooked the pot (250k), as I did solder the grounds a couple of times after first using a length of wire too short. But i dont know how easy or hard it is to cook a pot!

My first CBG plays beautifully ( will post pics in another thread), but Im frustrated I cant run it amped!

Thanks for your help

volumeonlyschematic.jpg

mono2260.jpg

Replies

Rastus February 21, 2010 at 12:44am

Thanks David, you were spot on! The photos really helped, really appreciate it. Sounds great now- cheers-
David L. February 19, 2010 at 10:09am

Hi, The jack socket looks like this one - if so note how the soldering connectors run up to make the contact for the plug but only one side goes over the top to make contact with the plug (in this case the side not connected to the wires - this wiring didn't work either until I switched sides for wiring up)

when you plug your guitar in the connector making contact with the jack plug gets lifted and if you connect to the wrong side you loose your link up.
If you wire up to the other side you get a great contact
Once you realise this happens ( they are meant for circuit boards and normally the lugs would have a contact between the front two and back two when in place so this wouldn't be a problem) and you solder to the correct connections it works as a brilliant socket and hold the plug really tight. I use them in all my CBGs. Hope this explains it better than my late night ramblings above. (If it is not this then I haven't a clue what the problem is :o) ) Regards, David
Roger Morin February 18, 2010 at 10:19pm

You might want to check out jjb-electronics.com they have some very reasonable piezo pickups with volume control or with tone and volume. The one with two piezos and volume is less than $25.00 free shipping.
Jkevn February 18, 2010 at 8:47pm

My guess is a problem at the plug as David suggests. A piezo will work no matter which wire goes to where. I like to go red = hot but, with A/C.....they're kinda both hot....follow David's tip for a second look at that plug, let us know how it goes.

+1 on removing the actual piezo from the case...if ya hadn't already...
David L. February 18, 2010 at 7:02pm

Hi,

I had a similar problem previously using a similar jackplug socket. If it is the same as the one I had it has 4 lugs on the bottom you can wire upto. If you use the ones without the extra metal bit going across the top when you plug in the extra bit is pushed up by the plug and you get no contact - you need to wire upto the other two lugs with the attached elongated metal piece bent over the top.

If this doesn't make sense let me know and I will post some pics in the morning.

Regards,
David
darren brown February 18, 2010 at 6:34pm

yes try reversing the red and black ,with the 4 doller buzzer thats all ya do it will buss with red to tip and picup with black to tip

Rastus said:
The piezo is sold as an Audio Transducer

This is an electro-acoustic transducer contains no electronics but will transform AC voltages to sound pressure waves. It will also generate an AC voltage across its terminals when stimulated with a sound pressure wave.

I assumed that meant red was hot. I hope Im wrong as it would make an easy fix! Thanks
Rastus February 18, 2010 at 6:10pm

The piezo is sold as an Audio Transducer

This is an electro-acoustic transducer contains no electronics but will transform AC voltages to sound pressure waves. It will also generate an AC voltage across its terminals when stimulated with a sound pressure wave.

I assumed that meant red was hot. I hope Im wrong as it would make an easy fix! Thanks
darren brown February 18, 2010 at 5:53pm

hi is it a peso busser? if so the black wire gos to tip you have to look between the layers to follow witch one is tip the red one gos to ring ,hope this helps a bit