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This is easily one of the most well put together tutorials I have ever seen on the internet. Perfect amount of detail. Helpful links that work and Great pics. Well done. I can do this and will. Thanx so much for your time and effort put into this.
Jon - the mounting tape is double stick adhesive - 3M I think and any office supply store has it. Staples or similar. Its usually used for sticking posters up I think. Its got really good adhesive and pretty dense foam. It works well to buffer the inexpensive piezo's
Installing a 1/4 inch jack is pretty easy but requires two forstner style bits for most of my builds. Thicker cigarbox bodies need to be bored half way thru (more or less) with a bit that will allow the jack body to recess into the box. Then finish with a bit that just is large enough for the threaded part. Set that nut down TIGHT with some needle nose pliers if you are going to glue the box lid on - can't tighten it later. I usually tighten it tight then just before gluing snug it again. Recessing the jack makes a nice clean installation. I usually don't put volume control or on/off switches on mine. Plug it in = on Turn the knobs on the amp = control. Simple.
Hey -Jim - glad that worked so well for you !!
Thanks for posting this detail Bill! I was just finishing up on my first build and thought I'd have to wait to add wiring. I was looking for simple on this first one. With your detail I jumped over to Radio Shack, bought the parts, and had my CBG wired up and playing within half an hour!
Reply to Dan David - Yes peizo's need to be wired in parallel. They are very high resistance and wiring in series adds more resistance and parallel does the opposite in effect. Plus if one fails in parallel the other will carry the day. I have wondered about using a string of four or more on a harp stringboard - will try it one of these day. I did wire two in series once as an experiment. It works as a pickup but requires much more volume control on the amp to get the same sound. It just doesn't seem "right" somehow. But it did more or less work. Parallel is THE way to go.
Reply to Hank S - I simply lay down two parallel strips of 1inch wide tape on the neck - as it goes thru the box. I put my piezo's as nearly under the bridge as I can. Then peel the tape release liner off leaving a sticky surface. Place the piezo or piezo's on the sticky and then cover with another pair of parallel strips. All this is done in a bit of a recess in the neck so that they can not touch the back of the soundboard. I bandsaw out the whole top of the neck inside the box so that there is almost a quarter inch of clearance. I then reinforce the back of the neck with a strip about 3/4 inch square to compensate for the removed material.
I haven't built much of anything lately, I am working on four different designs - and a bit of a marketing strategy. I am actually waiting to see how the election turns out. If we are facing four more years of the same I will NOT build anymore than for my own fun. If we get a chance to go back to prosperity with R/R I plan to rebuild my shop and have some fun building piles of new things. You are right about needing pictures and if/when I build I will post new pics to supplement this. Thanks Bill
could/will you show pictures of how you mount the piezo element in the guitar with the foam tape? thanks. what about using super glue to do the same thing? thanks again.
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