#1 resource for Cigar Box Guitars, Free Plans, How-To, Parts & More!

*()@%&$! Piezo

I'm trying not to get frustrated fooling with piezos and their placement on my git.

I've built one cbg (well, two...the first was a home built box disaster) and played for months with bad sound.

About a week ago, I posted about proper placement, etc. and got GOOD advice, I just cannot get the piezo to sound good. What's more is the tweaking takes away from actually playing the thing. Right now I'm addicted to playing.

Now, I understand cbg's are imperfect by nature and building/ playing an imperfect instrument is what draws me to this craft. I don't want perfect sound, I'll settle for decent. I also don't expect champagne sound on a PBR budget. When I actually learn to play fairly good and can get a decent sound I'll proceed further down to rabbit hole to building more and experimenting.

So now, I need help in determining which type of pickup is a natural progression from the disk piezo? I would like a simple setup basically: plug and play. I have rudimentary knowledge of electronics and can solder, if need be. I just need some assistance in choosing a pickup that sounds decent and doesn't break the bank.

Thanks in advance,

Chance

1 member likes this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Thomas "Duck" Petry on October 18, 2016 at 2:58am

Chance, piezos can be frustrating, but also can work well if you are willing to experiment until you have the results you are looking for. My best results have come from Sealing the piezo into the back side of the bridge in a block of wood. I use a fostner bit to make a pocket about 1/8" deep and set it in place with clear silicone smoothed over the piezo. After it sets up just set it on the box and the string pressure holds it in place.If you would rather go with a magnetic pickup, the P-90 pickups sound great to me and are easy to install.

Permalink Reply by Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear on October 18, 2016 at 3:45am

I too love the p90 sound. I'm still yet to use one in a build, preferring the cheaper options until my building is at a sufficient level to be worth spending p90 money on. The problem with cheap pickups I've been using is some of them are more akin to cheap microphones than decent pickups. You get what you pay for with so many things so p90 gets my vote.

Permalink Reply by Chance on October 24, 2016 at 12:35am

I re-designed the bridge this last week and after some tweaking my faith has been restored in the piezo. There is still some noise on the neck, but I expect this to be a normal occurrence. However, my next build will have magnetic pickups of some sort, perhaps a P90 as recommended.

One question: Should the strings be grounded? If so, how?

Chance

RSS

Welcome to
Cigar Box Nation

Sign Up
or Sign In

Or sign in with: