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Comment by Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear on April 22, 2016 at 9:46am

Never used or considered rod piezos before but they do seem like a viable offer. I'd considered a magnetic pickup but hidden under the lid this time for visual simplicity. I'll let you know what I decide and definitely post pics when it's done. I think I fancy another mag pickup but may struggle with space unless I use something like a flatpup. Not sure yet but thank you for showing me another option.

Comment by Janis Wilson Hughes on April 22, 2016 at 9:34am

Greg, it's way cool to hear about your ceramic build too. How did you attach the wood top?

I didn't really glaze this one at all. The inside is bare, and on the outside I used colored slips and layered engobe.

You know, with using the rod piezo in the bridge instead of the disc on the inside, I don't feel the ceramic body colored the tone as much. It was a serious pain to design in the bridge & try to account for shrinkage and all that, but it turned out to actually sound pretty sweet. The preamp is indispensable, though! If you like warm tone, you won't be happy without the preamp. I just put links in the previous comment with an el-cheapo one I'm using that makes all my piezo builds (ceramic or cbg, cheap Amazon piezos or nice cbgitty rod piezo bridges - all of em') sound soooooooooo much better. Plus, my Hot Rod Deluxe amp kicks ass. ;) 

Definitely let me know if you do another ceramic build. There are so many options and huge room for coolness with ceramic builds. It's kinda basic & faaaarrrr from perfect, but I'm just stoked this one works!

Comment by Janis Wilson Hughes on April 22, 2016 at 9:17am

Oh Dani & Bear, I'm excited for you! Hope you'll post pictures. I'm not a fancy builder either - I have very basic wood working skills. It doesn't matter! 

I'm gonna post a couple links to a rod piezo pickup that's super easy to install and a cheap preamp that is worth every penny times 10 for improving tone. These are US links, so IDK if they'll work for you across the pond. But anyway - here they are: 

The preamp cost $10 LINK  You can install right in your chugger, cbg, what have you, or you can build it into a little outboard box (for the outboard build you need to add an input jack: cut the wires off the piezo rod that comes with it, separate the braided metal wire from the internal white wire at the cut end, solder the metal braiding to the ground post on a jack & the white wire to the other post, use the 2.5mm plug end of that wire to plug into the preamp, plug your cbg into the jack you soldered & and use the preamp jack to plug from the preamp into your amp - really it's not complicated, but will improve piezo tone 1000 times).

This ukulele bridge with rod piezo pickup is less than $7 LINK  With this, you just need to drill a little hole inside the ridge of the rosewood bridge for the wire to go through from the piezo rod, drop the rod into into that ridge, plop the plastic on top of the rod (you can file/sand down the plastic if you want to make the strings sit lower), then sit this in place as your bridge for your strings. Let's see, this one doesn't come with a jack, so you need to get jack that can accept the 2.5mm plug from the rod. This will do. LINK

Tell me if any of that got muddled up. You may already use something like this. It's the basic setup I used in my chugger.

Comment by Greg Thompson on April 22, 2016 at 8:58am

Very nice design and clever use of fastener for the neck. It sounds awesome!
I really like your use of the pod as inspiration, too.

I tried a similar experiment, but I used a slump mold to create the body and used wood for the sound board. Built it like a traditional neck through CBG. I put a piezo in it. It was rather small and it sounded terrible when plugged in. I believe glazing the inside the small chamber made for too much sound bouncing around. Acoustically, it is kind of like a Uke. You have inspired me to give it another look...

Comment by Janis Wilson Hughes on April 22, 2016 at 8:58am

Thanks Turtlehead! :) 

Comment by turtlehead on April 22, 2016 at 8:49am

Very cool and sounds really good. 

Comment by Slow Blues Dani & Ol' Grey Bear on April 22, 2016 at 8:38am

Decided the neck I'd already taken and adapted from a budget guitar purchase is going to be used for a chugger now. Got it mostly situated in a thrift store box early this evening. Need to finish securing that neck in place, drop out one of the tuners and string it up. No pickups left ATM so it'll be  acoustic until I get one. All thanks to having seen your video. Of course, it's going to be not a patch on the good looks of your guitar and, knowing my lack of build skills, the sound probably won't come anywhere near either but I'm positive I'm going to love playing it. So thank you. You've inspired me to own another guitar lol.

Comment by Janis Wilson Hughes on April 22, 2016 at 8:22am

Jim I appreciate all your support and ideas. Feel free to be a bad influence by inspiring new builds any time! You making anything this weekend?

Comment by Janis Wilson Hughes on April 22, 2016 at 8:15am

Dani & Bear, thank you so much! I think chugger is a 2-string term - at least I'm using it that way. LOL!

I'm betting you could whip one up pretty quick and start chugging by the end of the weekend. Kinda shocking how fun 2 strings can be.

Comment by Jim Morris on April 22, 2016 at 5:04am

You're so right Janis - it never ends. One thing spawns many ideas and the seed pod is a fitting metaphor. I mentioned earlier to Dave Lynas (also a potter) that it's pretty cool to be bad influences on each other and to get and give ideas that go beyond what may have been originally suggested. 

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