CBG wiring & electronics.

Multi effect pedals usually have one good effect bunched with a couple that are so-so, but a so-so effect can be better than no effect.

Back in the day, DOD made a multi-effect pedal that was awesome. Called a Multiplay. It had their American Metal Distortion and their Delay combined. If you ever find one, grab it and you'll be very happy you did. Mine got stolen, been looking for another one ever since.

CBGitty is now selling an onboard distortion/overdrive effect and those usually work good. You'll need to have a place in your git for a 9volt battery though.

Stewmac sells a "BlackIce" effect that replaces your tone cap in your guitar(or you can wire it to a switch with your existing cap) that does a distortion/overdrive effect without a battery for 20 bucks. It worked good in my guitar, they recommend 250k tone pot, but mine worked good with a 500k pot.

Thanks Wayfinder and Paul too. I'm very well suited to the diy instrument building in that I'm always cash strapped so wherever and whenever possible I have to do things cost effectively. Cheap but quality is my aim. As important as it is to save money that also means avoiding false economies. No poiny buying something cheap to only be disatisfied and have to buy something else to replace cheap and useless. Research is a massive allie so with having looked for a while and ascertained what will give me the sound that I particularly want I'm going to buy the Zoom G3. If the two weeks comes around and I have enough to pay for it that is. I'll let you know what it's like and aim to do a video of it. Thanks again for all the help. It's hugely appreciated. 

Not sure what a guitar modeler is but I hope you find one. I'm interested in a multi effects pedal for the effects, naturally, but also for a first experience of a looper. Never used one before. The Zoom G3 only offefs a 40-second looper but it will give me some experience of using one. The drum sounds are good too but I'm not over fussed with it. I did see that either the mooer ge100 or the NUX mg 100 gives 180 seconds, I can't remember which one right now, but the effects seemed geared towards rock and heavy rock rather than blues. I'm happy with the G3 and will make do with the 40-second looper for now too. I'll have a look in to the effects pedal you mentioned now. Always willing to look at other options. Thanks. 

The line 6 Pod is fantastic, but a bit costly.

And Way, you might like the Line 6 guitars.

You're one of these folks with good ears Wayfinder. I can tell the sound difference between an acoustic and an electric guitar but all electric guitars sound the same to me. Different pickups are all same sound too. Sure I can hear hum in single coils sometimes but I can't tell this one sounds like a strat or that one sounds like a sg. I'm definitely not saying there is no difference, just that I must be half deaf haha.

Well, I have another reason to thank you. After looking at the digitech rp55 (saw a couple of rp50 units on ebay uk too) I've decided to get either one of those or the zoom g1on and a separate Boss RC1 looper. More time for my loops and more options to save loops. I'm probably going to need a preamp for the acoustic guitar if I buy a rp55 but they're only around £30. I'll still let you know how I get on with the pedals. I'm looking forward to playing with them. Thanks again for all the help and advice. Really appreciate it. Cheers pal. :)

I don't pretend to understand half of why what you say really is as you say but I don't doubt the truth of it. I'm not able, so far, to tell the difference by ear but I know the sounds I like. I've only really used piezos in my builds and I have discovered after buying an electric cbg that there is life beyond piezos. Not saying piezos are bad at all. I've yet to successfully pot a disc and have it sound decent though. The ones with piezo that I've bought sound great. I tried a build with a humbucker but had no end of issues when I messed with it to fix the volume knob that wasn't working because the pot was twisting with the knob. I can't even get the humbucker to work now. All in all to say I believe you that sometimes we're just following a crowd, paying for a brand, buying it because we are told it's better. No harm in trying something different though. There are unexpected pleasant surprises in doing so sometimes. It's a balance. 

Hi Bear, here's a couple of pictures of how I build my piezo pickups.  I use a piece of 1/4" oak or poplar leftover from the boards I buy for my fingerboards (don't fret my builds) and make a 1/8" pocket with a forstner bit on the back side. I stick the piezos in place with clear silicone sealer and after it sets up fill the pocket with clear silicone. Put a hole through the top of the box to run the wires through and just let the strings hold it in place. I generally file s groove in the top side to keep the bridge bolt on place, but if you would rather mount a single piezo on the inside of the box under the bridge area you can make it the same way or pot a single piezo into a bottle cap, fill the bottle cap to the top and stick it to the inside of the box with the silicone. or double back tape if you want to be able to move it around to try different locations.  Experiment, it's fun and the piezos are cheap to play with. 

Thanks for explaining Wayfinder. I was meaning potting as in getting the silicone amount right to avoid hearing everything including the hand moving up and down the neck. Also placement for best results. I just struggle with all of it. I enjoy all the building stuff though so it's all good.

Hey Thomas. That's a cool set up there. I saw some piezo discs on eBay that are encased in maple and have a sticky side for attaching. He had a video track showing how they sound too. Even had the jack socket attached. Bonus. £10 and a nice guy too. Your method looks amazing though and total genius. I'm going to give that a try next time I use a piezo. Thanks for sharing it. Very generous and helpful.

Great pictures duck.

Need to try this sometime. Maybe my next build. Planning on a 26-27 inch 4 stringer (waiting on my T profile bar) but I can drive forwards just now and create a nice bridge just like this. Are your pez's connected in parallel or series?

Thanks to all for the comments on my build.  I've been really happy with the double piezo set ups, though I must admit I tried a P-90 and really love the sound it gives.  When I do the block mount with the piezos and pot them in with the clear silicone I use a putty knife and put a thin layer across the whole back side of the oak and let it dry so when it's set in place on the box it prevents it from sliding without gluing it to the box, simple and works well.

Here's a picture of the P-90 build. I really like how it came out.

Fomhorach - You'll want to wire the piezo's in parallel. They are high impedance pickups, so wiring them in series makes it worse.

I really like Duck's method for piezos and it seems like the more I know, the more questions I have. I am thinking about making a resonator using hand made box and a stainless steel dog bowl like this one

I'm thinking about using a biscuit bridge with the piezos in the base as Duck described. If I put a thin layer of silicone on the base of the bridge, will that interfere with the resonating that I hope the bowl will give me? That  leads me on to wonder where the sound comes from. If I make the the top of the box thicker than I'd expect to find on an standard cigar box, will that cut the acoustic sound, or is the sound going to be produced by the bowl to such an extent that the bowl produces overcome the wood thickness?

The soldering thing can be tricky, Both the wire and pot need to be clean and the protective coating removed from the area to be soldered on the pot. Sandpaper works fine.

The are on the pot does need to be heated for the solder to stick good enough, so I always use the side instead of the back so as not to damage the pot. Your soldered joint shouldn't have a balled up mess look to it( a cold solder joint), it should have a even flow puddle look to it. Always tug at the wire after it cools to make sure it's done.

Dennis U - I think most people attach their piezo to the resonator(inside of the bowl) with silicone or double sided tape rather than attached to wood and then attached to the bowl. You'll get less resonator influence with the wood block method. Just depends on what tone your after.

If want to use the wood block method, then the block will need a flat area to attach to or you'll need to make the block curved to fit the bowl. Silicone may not hold for long, I would use a couple drops of superglue so you can remove it later if you need to.

I used a couple of layers of foam filled double sided tape, right onto the inside side wall.

Any wiring diagrams for the C B Gitty item 50-077-01 pickup selector with volume, tone, and 3 way switch? 

Goggle Telecaster wiring schematic for whatever pickups you have.

I just ordered the Psycho Box, will I have any trouble putting it together. Any tricky wiring I need to know about or does it come pre-wired. Thanks

Been away so long I hardly knew the place......

Recently I built a four stringer on commission for an old buddy of mine.  Finished it off, TESTED IT on my 1/2 watt battery-powered amp and it seemed fine so I sent it off.  When he got it, he plugged it in to his pro amp and whenever he turned the tone control up it, it buzzed and hummed like a bitch!

I used two single coil pickups with a pre-wired Telecaster control plate (three-way switch, volume and tone controls), I grounded the strings/bridge with copper foil, then to the control plate.  What's causing the hum?

Hum Bugs?

It could be a lot of things including his amp, his amp's power supply, guitar cord, effect pedals, wiring in his house or lighting in his house.

Something could've been knocked loose in shipping. Did you shield the inside of the box? Also if you use shielded wire or wrap the ground wire around the signal wires from pickup/piezo to the switch/pot and to the jack, you'll have a git that is practically hum free.

Some pickup's are so microphonic that putting them in a open box will result in squealing like a banshee. I've had to make a box tight around the pickup on a couple of occasions. On one build, I wrapped the sides and bottom of a pickup with fabric covered foam(shoulder pad from wife's old blouse), worked like a charm.

Does anyone know what pot value works best for a piezo in a bass?

Thanks David. Haha

?  I have a 'altoids' amp (9v battery, lm386 chip, speaker) works fine for speaker when hooked to my phone.  Trying to wire up my first single coil pup electric.  i tink wiring is good.  but no sound from amp.  Can a altoid type 9 volt amp work on a electric guitar?  starting to think not enough juice to power it.  i get no sound out of speaker.  

The amp is plenty enough power for a guitar. Guitar's with passive electronics work on milliamps, so a 9volt aamp is plenty of power.

 Could be that the wires for the guitar hook up are reversed, something could be defective in that part of the amp circuit or the pickup could be defective.

Have you checked the pickup with a multimeter? Can you use the phone hook up with some kind of conversion plug adapter? Battery good and power getting to the amp circuit? any burn looking or smell to any components?

Thanks paul.  battery is good...amp is loud when i use it to play music with my phone.  i have checked over and over my wiring with several diagrams.  I now think the pup coil may be bad.  Its new, but who know.  I think I may try the multimeter thing (but don't know how) and may even just hook up a piezo i have instead of the coil to check that the wiring on the tone/vol knobs is ok.  Thanks again for your comment.  

Red probe to positive on pickup, Black probe to ground, switch the selector to 20K ohm resistance. You should get a reading between 3K-8K? One thing to think about, cellphone jacks are stereo, output jacks on passive guitars are mono, that may be the problem, check your wiring again? Good luck

BrianQ is right.  Learning to check continuity with the ohm meter is a big part of this gig if you build amps or amplified guitars.  I’ve had to learn it, it is easy once you try.  Best of success

People seem to need a resource for diagrams these days?

More useful information:

Im building a simple CB amplifier.  Sorry, im learning as i go.  Speaker is 5 watt, 8 ohm, so say a 2 or 3 watt amp.  I used an old MXR eq unit thinking it mite have its own amp but it doesnt.  It will AC only, NO battery!  It doesnt work at the moment because there is no amplifier circuit in it.  Does cbgitty have a simple 2 watt amp circuit for an AC only amp?  I cant seem to find one and would rather not buy something that wont do the job.  Thank you!

When you say AC, you mean plugged in without a battery right? Low volt amps/effects run on DC? I think this is what you’re looking for? https://www.cbgitty.com/cigar-box-guitars-more/amplifiers-accessori...

Yes, plugged in.  I'd like to avoid using a battery if that's feasible.  If not, then I'll change it around to 9VDC with an AC adapter.

You can have an amp that plugs in to a 9V adapter OR runs off a battery. It's the standard way that most pedals work.

I did it on an LM386 amp and it works fine. It means I can take it on my travels with no need for the AV bow and save weight. I have an output socket as well as an internal speaker and was amazed at the quality and volume out of a 2x12 cabinet.

You can just cut the battery snap off  & solder the wires to a DC jack, prolly take ya a whole minute or so? 

If you get a hum from the a.c. adapter you may have to put a filter inline.

That only happens if you’re using an older un-regulated power supply, all modern wall warts that are meant for musical use, are regulated & have those anti- reverse polarity/noise filtering stages in them? I like the Danelectro & Boss adapters, they’re clean, regulated & affordable? $20 or less?

Tried several wal-warts from online sources. Most produced a lot of hum on a pedal. The Boss warts are meant for use with a pedal and are very, very quiet. The Roland Boss PSA-120S AC Adaptor Power Supply w/ LED 500 mA works really well and is less than $15. It is all I use now.

Yep, that’s the one I was talking about? Good to have a few of us who’ve tried what’s out there? I have one called the Dan Electrode, it’s adjustable from 4-9volts, you can get some kool voltage sag effects with distortion boxes? 

Pre 1984 Lawrence pickup(79-80’) “The Silencer” acoustic humbucking pickup, predates Flatpup style pickups by 30+ years? Bill Lawrence was on to something good!!!

Bill Lawrence was the man. Very smart guy.

When I made my Strat-O-Rez guitar with aluminum skillet for the resonator, I was surprised that there was no 60 cycle hum from the 2 single coil pickups I installed. They are large singles that are highly microphonic and now they're quit as a mouse when it comes to unwanted noise. Couldn't figure out why. Then I read a write up by Mr. Lawrence that said aluminum played tricks with magnetic pickup's eddy currents and could completely stop 60 cycle hum, then I knew why. Now all my guitars get aluminum tape shielding inside the box/cavities and I use extra tape for the ones with single coil pickups because it's cheaper than buying noiseless pickups.

I have used the surface mount flat pup (wickedbucker) it’s about $30.  Now there is the Gittybucker for $13.  Has anyone tried the Gittybucker?  If so what has your experience been?

Hi Tim, 

There is a demo included in the pickup listing if you scroll down (by Shane Speal) .

https://www.cbgitty.com/guitar-instrument-parts/cigar-box-guitar-pa...

This bit of the website gets less attention than the main forum so it might be worth posting there so more people see your question.

https://cigarboxnation.com/forum/categories/building-secrets-tips-a...

Regards,

David L. 

Single pickup...no volume or tone control....using wound strings...bridge grounded to jack...but no sound...metal gas can body...I hear noise when I tap on po!e pieces but nothing from strings

Hey Darryl, all I can think of is either a bad solder joint, or maybe you're using acoustic strings? Most acoustic strings are bronze wound and not magnetic. Make sure you're using steel wound strings (electric guitar strings) I suppose a dead pickup is also a possibility.