CBG wiring & electronics.

just stick the piezo disc between 2 pieces of leather , glue up around the edges of the leather. That should be enough to tame the harshness

Simple Piezo with jack or volume/jack CLICK HERE

Piezo with Volume/Jack wiring diagram

Thanks Ted, much appreciated! Will

How did you install rod piezos at both the bridge AND the neck? Don't the piezo rods need something pressing down on them (ie, string tension) to work?

cool idea! ...as for the hum, that sounds like a grounding or shielding issue. can you test it without the 3-way.. trouble shoot from there?

you got a pic matt scott?

is the pup cut into the top? sitting on top? underneath?

if it's under the top it's effectively shielded from the strings i would have thought.

i did see a cake tin banjo with a lipstick pickup set partly into the top, it could pickup vibrations from the strings or the top depending on orientation.

Here is my quandary. I have a like new solid state fender combo amp that has a loud hum with no response to guitar. What are the first three most probable causes? Response is the same anywhere, any building.Same with or without cable plugged in. Hint, not a loose jack, volume and knobs do not effect hum. Speaker cone moves slightly forward and stays when powered.

Pretty basic question here from an electronics noob - I want to add a volume control, so what is the difference in using a 250K, 500K, 1M Ohm pot? Which one should I use for a simple CBG with a piezo rod?

Wow, that was quick! Thanks for the info!

Little help here guys...

Im about to wire a new build but Im not 100% on the wiring design Iv come up with. The git has 3 humbuckers (one with triple shot surround), one on / off switch per pup (3 total) and one master volume pot - no tone, nothing else, as everything will be adjusted at the amp.

So, will this work, and will it allow any combination of pickups to be used at any one time?

yes roosterman, that will work to give you any combo of your pickups, but all in series.  it isn't the 'normal' way guitars with multiple humbuckers are wired, ie. parallel. the loading of the pickups on the input will be greater than in parallel, so tonally different.  no rules, use your ears.

FWIW, i built a 3 humbucker guitar recently and used a strat switch for 5 different wirings, then added 2 coil taps on a switch for total 7 combos - gives heaps of options.  mine are in parallel.

I'm wiring 2 pups through a 3 way switch. that means I'm trying to attach 3 earths(2in..1out) to the same lug. As all the wires are coaxial, its a lot of wire thickness to put on one lug.Would I be better joining them off the switch? or is there a better way to do it?

Splice the wires together before the attach point, then attach the single wire.

Thanks

I'm building my first cbg and could sure use some help.  I'm using an old brass clock face as a resonator cone (see photo).  I've made a biscuit bridge and I want to use a disc piezo.  Is it possible to screw the disc to the bottom of the biscuit? Could you recommend a source for a disc piezo that works best for a "resophonic" cbg?  Thanks!

that is so cool, Scott !

Thanks Tom!

Hey James, did you go with the biscuit bridge on your clock face reso? The shape of you resonator would make a great spider reso. I think you'd get better sound with a spider bridge. The spider would span the clock face and rest in the groove. A bolt from the center of the spider to the hole in the clock to put it in tension. The bolt holds the bridge on spider as well. Just thinkin.... Dave

I accidentally deleted this picture yesterday. Hehe!  Re-posting it. :)

That's a pretty build Scott. From the size of the objects around it in the picture it looks fairly small. What is the scale length and how big is the tin you used?

Hi Tom,thanks for your interest, the scale length from top to bottom is 17&half inches long and the tin is 3&3/4 long by 2&7/8 wide. Here is an updated picture. 

This is my very first instrument that I've ever built. I built this acoustic travel ukulele before the tin diddley bow. 

I am wiring a magnetic pickup with 3 wires, red, white, and a unsheated ground wire.  I am attaching it to the pot which has 3 connectors, then from the pot to the jack.  Of the 3 wires on the pickup which wire should the hot wire be?  The white or the red? 

Hi,

Different pickup makers use different colour codes - though most on a 3 wire pickup would opt for red as hot (white and unsheathed wire need to be wired to ground)

http://www.1728.org/wirecolors7.gif

may help , may not but if you snoop around i am sure you will find a few similar charts that i have found useful from time to time . have fun !

I appreciate the responses.  I am getting some buzzing from the two grounds connected to each other (white and unsheathed wires) I will try grounding each independantly from each other and see what comes out of it.  Thanks will let you all know the outcome.

keep in mind , the red COULD be a ground ... just sayin ...

Hi Naiton, I wonder if I could ask you for some advice. I have a grounding buzz on a piezo pickup. It has volume control and the buzz stops when I touch the jack input. It is not currently wired to the bridge or tailpiece. Would that help? I always seem to have grounding issues. Please Help! ~Papa Simone

If the jack has 3 lugs it is a stereo jack so if you push a jack plug into it the lug connecting to the tip of the plug is hot, either of the other two can be used as ground.  This has the a pick up with the hot inner wire and a braided ground on the outside - just wire the ground from the pickup to the back of the volume pot.

Hi Marcus, here are a couple of good sources for wiring information.

http://www.artecsound.com/wiring/wiring_book01.pdf

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

Hope they help you find what you want.

Here's another great source for wiring information. Ted is a wealth of information and his site is a great one too.

http://handmademusicclubhouse.com/main/search/search?q=wiring+diagrams

Don't think it will mess up the pup. Just follow the directions and it should work out fine.

Yes, follow the diagram that David L posted and it should work fine.

I want to start wiring muy own electronics, questions, what guage wire do I need to use and what type of soulder and iron? Please advise.

I've been using cat 5 wire.  It is pre-twisted and with 4 pairs of wire it will go a long way.  If you are using two pick ups or piezos you still have two pair left over.

All this is good stuff, thanks