Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Brandon Rodgers on February 13, 2011 at 11:18am

Left one thing out. What would happen if I left the volume pot out and just did the two piezos and the tone pot? Would I need a capacitor? Do I need to ground it? Would it work at all?

Permalink Reply by Roadkill a.k.a. John Maw on February 13, 2011 at 12:31pm

Hi Brandon. I read elsewhere on this site that tone pots don't work well with piezos, but that volume pots do. I hope that others with more experience will be able to give you more authoritative info.

Permalink Reply by Skeesix on February 13, 2011 at 7:15pm

Due to the high impedance of the piezo, the tone pot won't have much, if any, effect on the sound. If you left out the volume pot, you might as well just wire the piezos straight to the jack.

Wiring the two piezos in parallel, instead of series, will help lower the impedance, thus lowering the harsh screechy sound of the piezo.

The one from Radio Shack everyone uses is called a Piezo Element: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062402 Catalog #: 273-073

It works better if you break it out of the plastic case, then cover it with some kind of damping material. There are probably a thousand posts on how people mount and damp their piezos.