Hi all, I am new at this, built my first guitar and I am trying to sort out some issues. The first one is that when I pluck one string I hear a ringing coming from the other strings. Seems they get excited and ring out when played acoustically. Right now I have a rod piezo on a block of cedar for the bridge, not ideal I guess, just first thing I had the right height. I am thinking of using some dense wood or even some brass as a bridge. I would also like to get some more sustain if I could and tame down the attack if I could.
The neck is a straight through and the soundboard is not touching it. I do like how loud it is but think the soundboard may be contributing to my string ringing problem. I would rather have it so I could play it acoustically but an option would be to glue the top to the neck and go electric, Speaking of, using the piezo I find the hum is reduced when I finger the strings even though the piezo and the strings are grounded. I still have to make a preamp for it, right now just going into a practice amp. Not sure if there is more I can do about it other than go to magnetic pickups.
Otherwise I am thrilled at how well it turned out.
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Do you have the strings riding directly on top of the rod piezo? If so, that may be part of your problem. Typically, folks put the rod underneath the bridge/saddle. Having a brass rod for the bridge, with the piezo underneath the wood would work better.
Using a brass rod for the bridge will help with the sustain.
Thank you all for your replies. Oilyfool, you give answers like I do on other forums. Lot of words covering all the angles. All good things to look at but last night I found that when I fret the strings that they do not ring but when they are open they do, looks like Cloockwork is the winner.
The picture was a quickie after I first strung it up. The action is low, zero fret nut (did it because I thought it would save me from nut related problems, live and learn). Found out that is not a good thing for slide (hey I am new at this :) ), actually thought this would be a good way to go and if I wanted to play slide I would insert a temporary nut at the 0 fret.
I replaced the wood bridge with a big threaded rod coupler this morning and it evened out the attack envelope (I make up these terms on the fly), the sound has more sustain, less initial attack, need to find some brass to use.
So I tried tuning the strings so they are not in tune with each other. No ringing. Hmmm... that brings up an interesting question. I wonder if there is such a thing as punk slide? So narrowing it down to the nut I am not sure what to do. You mentioned the break angle, here is a picture in both configurations I tried.
Speaking of, how high should I be shooting for the string height if I want some slide action and still be able to fret cords?
Actually I still have the problem with the bolt in place at the nut. And I guess it does not show well enough in this picture, I reduced the size in order to conserve space, there is no string contact on the fretboard above the zero nut. On the original you can see the shadow below the strings. Oh and yes, fretting is bad with this height but it is only a temporary measure till I work out my problems.
I do not have much experience with guitars, I am just learning to play, I have a L&G Tele I bought last year and a cheap acoustic. The Tele, well it is as good a guitar as I might want, the acoustic actually turned out not too bad once the string height was lowered. That said this three string is fun to play. Thinking of turning it into a four string though. Wish I would have placed the tuners a little farther up or down the headstock though. Through the magic of Photoshop I tried too different arrangements. Not sure what I will do yet.
Whew, all this information is making me feel like a slacker!! :-)
Part of me wants to suggest you just leave the ringing issue for the time being. I suppose it depends on just how bad the sympathetic ringing is. Is it that bad that you really need to resolve it? I realize that the problem is most likely magnified when you have it plugged into an amp as opposed to plucking the strings acoustically.
Maybe as a test, make a couple of really small bridge pieces, and slip them under the strings so that all three strings are not supported by the same bridge material. Then see if that reduces the problem at all. That might help identify if it is a lateral vibration that is causing the problem.
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