Bridge Shapes over Piezo

[Brent Kasl]

I see many builds with long narrow bridges directly over the piezo pickup, what is difference between that shape  and a round bridge that would be  over a round piezo?

[Taffy Evans]

No offerings yet Brent? Oh well its me again.....I think the answer is quite short and simple, very little difference. I suppose you'd like to know why? The untechnical explanation as I see it is.......the piezo reads the vibration of the top, it does not know the shape of the bridge.

If you had a round small bridge sitting over the piezo and the piezo worked best up near the neck or back near the tailpiece, you see the problem.

The closer the piezo is to the bridge the more output to the amp, and that at times can be a bad thing, sound quality wise.

And lastly, a long bridge is designed that way for two reasons I imagine, one for more gluing area and two, to spread the downward pressure of the strings over a wider area.

As a matter of interest I have just plucked 5 different cbgs all with different size bridges but same size box and all were "ballpark" in there sound output. If you try a round bridge share the results could be interesting.

Cheers Taff

[Brent Kasl]

Thanks, I thought maybe the footprint matching the piezo disc would equate to better sound pickup from bridge

[Taffy Evans]

Hi Brent, yes you are right would be better, if the better you are looking for is volume. I would be looking for better/more pleasing tone, and moving the disc around as mention by others on here can help get that. 

 More Volume I can get from the volume knob.

The piezo discs designed for resonator guitars mount as you mentioned, right under the bridge.

Taff