Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on January 18, 2010 at 5:07am

Looking good!

Some people sandwich the piezo underneath the bridge instead of attaching it to the neck or box lid. That may cut down on the neck noise. I have some I will be trying shortly.

I think all piezos are going to be pretty much the same, but I may be wrong.

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Permalink Reply by Mungo Park on January 18, 2010 at 9:24am

Looking good, I have the neck and fret board cit to size. I found sink drain sieves at the dollar store, a buck a pair, I splurged and bought 2 pair. Any tips in spacing the fret board, how do you measure the distance in 10ths/100ths of a inch?
Cheers Ron.

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Permalink Reply by Nathan King on January 18, 2010 at 9:43am

Hey Tim,

You might wanna check out some of Artec's piezo/preamp combos on ebay. The active ones require a 9volt battery, which you have to take into consideration on your build (will it fit, how will you replace it when it dies, etc)... as well as space on the outside of the box for mounting the preamp.

But in my experience they really are a step up in sound. You still get a bit of handling noise, although not nearly as much as with the radio shmack buzzer. They are a mite more resistant to feedback, and having the ability to shape the tone from the guitar has it's benefits, too.

Of course, they are a good deal more expensive than the piezo buzzers, too. So you gotta ask yourself is it worth it (to you) to spend 30 bucks or so more?

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Permalink Reply by Ronnie Retherford on January 18, 2010 at 11:27am

If you know someone who owns a guitar, mark/copy the fret positions on a thin aluminum bar from Lowe's. http://www.lowes.com/pd_216060-37672-11285_0_?productId=3053647&...|1
I covered the bar with masking tape and put one end next to the nut. Tape it in place and mark carefully.
Nice work. That one is very nice. Love the headstock design.

Mungo Park said:

Looking good, I have the neck and fret board cit to size. I found sink drain sieves at the dollar store, a buck a pair, I splurged and bought 2 pair. Any tips in spacing the fret board, how do you measure the distance in 10ths/100ths of a inch?
Cheers Ron.

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Permalink Reply by Larry McInnes on January 18, 2010 at 11:33am

Nathan, are you talking about one that looks like this?

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Permalink Reply by Nathan King on January 18, 2010 at 1:07pm

Larry, that one probably wouldn't be the best for a CBG... just looking at it, I think it'd be too big, and I think it's designed to be mounted on regular acoustic guitars where the curve in the body is.

Check out ebay user "debstyme" and browse what they've got. Personally, I really like the AB2:

It's very small in terms of surface area, and it's kinda brownish in color (which looks good on some boxes).

Also check out the Artec AB1, ASE, and ME2. I've also used the ME2 before with success as well.

The thing with any of these is, ya gotta make sure they'll fit on your box. The AB2 is super small (62mm wide) and I think would fit most cigar boxes. The AB1 is two potentiometers, which could be adapted into your design. The other ones might be wider than your box. I've noticed that ebay seller doesn't list the dimensions on all the pages, so double check their dimensions. I believe you can find them at www.artecsound.com... although right now that page isn't loading, so I'm not 100% sure. If not, I know there is a page out there with dimensions, you can google around for it.

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Permalink Reply by jim on January 18, 2010 at 3:00pm

you could even consider mounting it in a small external box with a belt clip. then you could use it with any guit.

Nathan King said:

Larry, that one probably wouldn't be the best for a CBG... just looking at it, I think it'd be too big, and I think it's designed to be mounted on regular acoustic guitars where the curve in the body is.

Check out ebay user "debstyme" and browse what they've got. Personally, I really like the AB2:

It's very small in terms of surface area, and it's kinda brownish in color (which looks good on some boxes).

Also check out the Artec AB1, ASE, and ME2. I've also used the ME2 before with success as well.

The thing with any of these is, ya gotta make sure they'll fit on your box. The AB2 is super small (62mm wide) and I think would fit most cigar boxes. The AB1 is two potentiometers, which could be adapted into your design. The other ones might be wider than your box. I've noticed that ebay seller doesn't list the dimensions on all the pages, so double check their dimensions. I believe you can find them at www.artecsound.com... although right now that page isn't loading, so I'm not 100% sure. If not, I know there is a page out there with dimensions, you can google around for it.

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Permalink Reply by Tres Seaver on January 18, 2010 at 5:03pm

Inline for ease of viewing:

You can do that yourself in the future using the camera icon to upload the photo, rather than treating it as an attachment.

BTW, the build looks great!

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Permalink Reply by Tim Fleischer on January 19, 2010 at 4:01am

thanks for the guidance!

Tres Seaver said:

Inline for ease of viewing:

You can do that yourself in the future using the camera icon to upload the photo, rather than treating it as an attachment.

BTW, the build looks great!

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