Soldering 2 humbucker, 2 Piezo, 2 potis and one switch

[Greg]

Hello CigarBoxNation People,

this is my first discussion on CigarBoxNation.. thank you for this community being so great and Hello :)

My name is Greg and I'm a passionate musician from Germany. I read a lot of articles on this page, starting to build my first Cigar Box Guitar.

So far, so good.. right now I got the neck prepared so the next step would be to cut the holes for the Humbucker and get a plan about how to solder them together.

The problem actually is, I found some plans but not the exact combination, that I need.. so that's why I'm not sure about it. I would really appreciate if you could tell me how to solder it, and it would be superb if you also could tell me why (so that I know why I'm doin' it). :)

Enclosed I give you some pictures of the components I use and a little graphic, so we can get throug this.

So, the different parts are:

I would like to work with only one Output at all (this were pre-solder parts). The 3 way switch should be for the humbuckers only [or do you got another opinion on this? At all it's a cigar box, everything is possible ;) ]

The both Piezos should be connected to the output of the Humbucker and i would like to control them over the Poti 3 (Volume) and Poti 4 (Tone).

So that I can use the Humbucker with the 3 way switch and if I like, in addition, I can put some volume for the both Piezos.

Thank you in advance folks.

At last a picture of the neck I'm talking 'bout:

Cheers Greg 

[Greg]

Hi Wayfinder,

thanks for the quick reply. The wires are presoldered, so I tried to combine the excisting shape with the logic of your grafic, can u please check it?

. Sorry for the bad quality, I tried my best in a short time  :D 

Thanks Mate.

Greg

[David L.]

Hi Greg,
page 9 of this pdf shows the wiring for the humbuckers 1vol 1 tone and the type of 3way you have.

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

You can add the piezo circuit like your diagram, but you will find the two different sets of passive controls will act on the whole circuit and not just the bit it is wired to. To get around this if you add a diode (type 1N5819 they cost pennies to buy) one for each circuit just splice and solder one into each of the two positive wires going to the jack socket and they act like a one way valve so each signal can be controlled via the volume knob for that circuit. It means you can add as much or as little of magnetic and piezo signal to the overall sound.

Regards,
David L

[David L.]

PS diodes have to be soldered the correct way around with the shaded striped end connecting to the wire going to the jack socket and the non shaded end connecting to the positive wire coming from the volume pot.

[Greg]

Here we go, I updated this post, and deleted the wrong ones.

Hi David L.,

thank u! That grafic helps me out! At all, i just put all the cables for the grounding together, I think that is legit, or? Can i just solder them onto my metal bridge?

I found this on a german website, is that the right one:

Schottky-Diod - rectifier, STMicroelectronics 1N5819 DO-41 40 V

As I understood, it should be like this rn, when I want to control each signal seperately:

Thank you.

Regards, 

Greg

[David L.]

You have the diode positions correct:0)

[Greg]

hehe :D at least something xD

Have u seend the updated version, the other one was very irritating.

[David L.]

Hi Greg,
Sorry about the delay in replying (wifi playing up),

As you bought the pots prewired firstly I would connect the humbuckers to the 3 way and see if the controls work without any modification.

Also plug the piezo prewired circuit into an amp and check that works.

If both check out okay (passive tone controls don't do much to a piezo tone so if it doesn't appear to work that is normal)I would just chop off the piezo Jack, add the two diodes as in the diagram and solder the two cut piezo circuit wires to the humbucker Jack. The wiring may be a bit different to the diagrams shown, but if it already works leave it as it is and save yourself the hassle of a complete rewiring job. If it doesn't work I did notice your diagram doesn't show where the capacitor is connected on the tone pot.

The diode seems to be the right one (you can pick up 50 of these diodes off eBay for around one pound so if you plan to wire up any other guitar projects it is worth buying a bag off eBay now).

Where an earth point is shown, all these need wiring to the common ground point. The back of a volume pot tends to be used as it can cope with the heat. If it is a big circuit I tend to use a strip of electronic copper strip project board.I am not sure how well a bridge would take several solder points. Because you are using humbuckers and piezo pickups theoretically the strings don't need grounding (to help reduce hum), but it might be easier to add it now than have to add it once the guitar is finished.

Regards,
David L.

[Greg]

Hi David,

i'll check the prewired stuff. At all the last picture I made shows the scenario, using the prewired parts and connecting the humbucker output with the piezo (using rectifires) to one output incl. connecting the humbuckers to the 3 way switch. This seems to be okay, thanks for this information.

The Capacitor is on the ton pot (A500K) - connected from the left point (as seen in the picture) to the back of the pot. I forgot to put it on the diagram.

If I understood it right.. it should be enough to ground to the back of the volume poti and use it as a common ground point, right? So the jack also uses the back of the volume poti for grounding?

And in addition I could avoid humming connecting from the common ground point of the volume pot, to my bridge or a screw? Is that right?

One of the last questions :) Can something happen when connecting hot and ground together? As I understood it, the signal goes from the pickup to the amplifier, so it should be not dangerous.. otherwise I heard about guitars giving electric shocks. Can I just plug them into an amp and try to manipulate the signal of the humbucker with an magnetic tool?

Regards,
Greg

[darryl kernaghan]

I won't interfere with David's info, but the last questions, no, you aren't in danger of shock from the pups etc, only from the amp if that has a problem, 2 you can test the humbuckers by plugging them in and just tapping them with a stick or tool handle, you should hear a noise, or better, just put a string. or even steel wire on a bit or wood, tighten it with a bridge /nut at each end, and pluck that near the pick up

[Greg]

Thanks a lot Wayfinder and Darryl.

Now I can start up experimenting with my pickups and now I know how to solder them together. Great.

Regards Greg

[Greg]

Hi People,

another question that came around searching the web for "humbucker and piezo one jack".

At all, is there no problem connecting the 2 humbuckers together with the piezo in one jack? Do i need a preamp or something that mixes both signals? It seems to be a little bit more complicated when i searched on the internet. 

Cheers Greg

[David L.]

Piezo discs work well without a preamp. I suspect the humbuckers will be a bit louder if you compared both on full volume and in this case the problem would be the humbuckers drowning out the piezo sound. However if you add the diodes as discussed previously it means you can mix (via the humbucker volume and the piezo volume) whatever ratio of humbucker V piezo you want.
A preamp is useful because it lets you boost parts of the signal and cut other parts to get the sound you want. You still get a good sound without.
Back in 2009 somebody asked the difference between piezo and magnetic pickup sound so I did this video. It was done with sound via a camera mic so you need to turn the volume up high to hear (unless the layout is changed you do it via a volume control at the bottom of the video window - my iPad is unable to view as it was made in Windows). Hopefully it will give you an idea of the difference a preamp makes.
http://www.cigarboxnation.com/video/comparing-cbg-pickups
When I add a preamp I use diodes as the passive mixer and send the whole signal through the preamp.
People often over think guitar circuits and those who talk like the world will end if you mix the two without a preamp often haven't tried it :0)