Hi. New here. In a fit of apparent madness, I started building sort-of an electric cigar box guitar using the designed published in Make Magazine a few months ago. You can find it here: http://makezine.com/projects/make-37/license-plate-guitar/
It's my first guitar, so as you can imagine I've run into some troubleshooting problems. I've completed the build and soldering, but can't get sound to come through my amp. The electronics include a hand-wound pick-up, a potentiometer/dial, and a pot. Basically, when I string up the guitar and plug it into the amp, no sounds comes through regardless of how high I turn up the volume. When the dial on the guitar is turned all the way up and I tap the metal rods of the pick-up with a magnet, I can hear that sound through the amp though, so the wiring is (hopefully) correct?
I was hoping someone here could help me troubleshoot this. Am I missing something obvious (likely)?
I can dig up some pictures if that would be helpful.
Thank you.
Replies
Here is a nice link about making your own coil PUP that may help.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-A-Guitar-Pickup/step8/Finishin...
Hey everyone. Thank you for the great responses and suggestions. I finally got a chance to get back to work on this guitar, so I wanted to share a follow up.
I tried using some larger/stronger magnets (.47 in neogymium discs) on the bottoms of the posts and held the strings really really close to the pick-up when testing. I tried putting a metal screw across the top to bring the string closer (what I had on hand), but the pull of the magnets wasn't sufficient to hold it there.
On the pick-up with the heavier gauge wire (22), I managed to get a very faint sound with everything turned way, way up on the amp. On the pick-up with 42 gauge wire, I got a slightly stronger sound, but only when I literally touched the pick-up to the strings (I was holding it, so maybe not being mounted makes it weaker?).
So yay! Sound! Kinda.
I've got the magnets lined up and alternating which polarity is pointing up (i.e. + - + -). Is that going to cause problem? I tried getting all 4 polarities pointing in the same direction, but then the magnets just shove each other away, which obviously isn't going to work out.
Since I'm still not happy with the volume, I'm going to try re-winding the pick-up one more time with the finer gauge wire and a lot more of it. I was wondering which of the pick-up "frames" I've built (below) might be better. The biggest difference (I think) is how far apart the posts are. Any thoughts?
The poles of the magnets need to all be pointing the same way.
Dang. That means the magnets I have aren't going to work, unless the smaller ones will work with a more coiled pick-up.
I'm considering just purchasing the pick-up at this point. Probably this one, unless there are other options out there: http://www.cbgitty.com/cigar-box-guitar-parts/pre-wired-4-string-si...
Or you could get one of my ThinBucker surface mount pickups. They are only 1/4 inch thick. You screw them to the lid, and drill a small hole for the wires.
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/four-string-flatpup?context=user
You can get covers in brass, aluminum, copper, and others.
Amanda. You can do it with the little rare earth jobbies, I know how they wanna fight you on it. Stick a (bigger) magnet temporary on the other side of the screws, it'll charge the ions so those little buggers don't flip while the glue sets up.
Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I'll give it a third try and if that doesn't work, I'll track down a pre-made one.
Thanks for the alternative option Dan.
She already broached the possibility of buying a pickup herself, I merely offered another option that might make it easier to install.
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