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Permalink Reply by BT Cohosh on April 22, 2009 at 10:30am

Thanks for the tip. It had crossed my mind to cannibalize my old CB handset, so I'm glad to know this works. May be the way I go....

I take it that the piezo approach doesn't get glowing reviews?

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Permalink Reply by Mark Werner on April 23, 2009 at 5:10am

I just finished a reso built very similar to what you describe (check my page) and I used a piezo on it. I have a mic element I stole out of a thrown-away wireless, but though it was "live" it didn't have enough volume; I fear it would need a pre-amp.

The piezo is working very well. I mounted it just ahead of the bridge on the underside of the aluminum resonator, and used the 3-M silicone method. Laid down a fairly thick layer of silicone and set the piezo into that, then when it was dry put an additional layer of silicone over the whole thing.
I incorporated a volume control as well.
This is very clean-sounding, not nearly as microphonic as my direct-to-wood builds, and the volume control works very well.

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Permalink Reply by BT Cohosh on April 23, 2009 at 10:58am

Good to know. I like piezos b/c they're cheap and make me feel MacGyver-y. I've been using the encase-them-in-silicone method on my regular builds, so I'm glad to hear it translates.

BTW, I actually have been following your build. It's one of the ones that put the bug up my rear. Have you figured out what to do for a coverplate, yet?

Thanks again for the info.

Mark Werner said:

I just finished a reso built very similar to what you describe (check my page) and I used a piezo on it. I have a mic element I stole out of a thrown-away wireless, but though it was "live" it didn't have enough volume; I fear it would need a pre-amp.
The piezo is working very well. I mounted it just ahead of the bridge on the underside of the aluminum resonator, and used the 3-M silicone method. Laid down a fairly thick layer of silicone and set the piezo into that, then when it was dry put an additional layer of silicone over the whole thing. I incorporated a volume control as well.
This is very clean-sounding, not nearly as microphonic as my direct-to-wood builds, and the volume control works very well.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Werner on April 23, 2009 at 2:48pm

Check out my latest pics. I fabricated one out of an aluminum pot lid I got for 69 cents at thrift store. Drilled a bunch of rather ugly holes in it....

Works well.

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