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Post by georgeharter on May 8, 2011 22:48:22 GMT -5
 I have an idea of combining a simple piezo pup with single coil mag pups on one of my guitars. I thought of bonding the piezo element to the tone block and mixing the two signals out on the guitar before the signal was sent to the amp. There are so many piezo choices, I am looking for help to develop a reasonable (time , effort and MONEY) solution. One stopper I have nbeen told is that I need to have an amplified "active" pup arrangement because the piezoi needs pre=amped, but I would like to stay with my passive sgl coils. I would like to do this, but I am floundering.
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Post by JohnH on May 9, 2011 4:07:35 GMT -5
Hi George and welcome to GN2. The passive elements of piezos and passive magnetic pickups are so different in their electrical characteristics that they can't really be mixed without active circuits, though maybe you could have one or the other with a switch, or use seperate outputs. What I tried on my Strat is described here: Adding a Piezo pickupAlso. this mixer circuit may help, if you have a piezo with preamp: Active blender or volume modulecheers John |
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Post by georgeharter on May 11, 2011 15:31:32 GMT -5
 HI, ....and Thank You! My DSL was down for a while. Thanks for the input. It looks to be very useful. Still, I am lost at which is the best way to go with a piezo mixed in to the regular pup sound. Is a trem block install a good way to go? Any past work suggest the best style piezo-pup? Just too many choices and I can't find any other user guidelines. Very glad I found this place as I need to start doing a lot more of my own wiring! george
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Post by georgeharter on May 11, 2011 16:15:29 GMT -5
OYYY Didn't realize an amp would be a real Electronics project, but I am willing!!! But the board seems unavoidable. Since I want my trem to function I need the space in the cavity for springs. Is there a reason to avoid trem block mounting of the piezo chip? I see you went for a body mount. Combined with some other fantasies, it looks like I am back in kludge land and having to add a "Buck Rogers" whiz bang control box on to the guitar! Sliders and all. Maybe I should add in a homemade sustainer circuit too! OYYY Would I be in better shape to toss my passives and go active for all? george
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Post by JohnH on May 11, 2011 19:12:13 GMT -5
Mine is sandwiched between the trem block and the body, just because that seemed like the simplest place to place it, together with having a substantial amount of string vibration passing right through it. Putting it just on the trem block, while still allowing it to float/whammy will no doubt give a different result, and i would guess youd get quite a different tone when the trem is released and you have block to body contact. Its a matter for experimentation. I just started with the piezo only, and followed my nose, and my ears, until I’d wrestled a reasonable sound out of it .
If you like your passive pups, no need to change them if you can add a simple active buffer (one transistor in my case)
John
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Post by georgeharter on May 11, 2011 22:04:47 GMT -5
TY TY TY I will try it on the wood body and yes I'd like to keep my passives but am ignorant about a blocker. Cool! Will look "active blocker" up on the site. I have an old kramer bass and on it, I will try to piezo the aluminum headstock! Some one already turned that into an electrical nightmare so I might as well go active all the way on that one. Didn't get what cement you used to bond the piezo. Thanks Again, george
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Post by JohnH on May 12, 2011 15:28:24 GMT -5
Didn't get what cement you used to bond the piezo. george I used epoxy to build my stack with a coin and some plasitc disks, so its all nice and solid. That idea was specific to how I was doing it. Then I just had a dab of UHU rubber glue to locate it, since it gets clamped by the trem block. Ive heard of people just using 2 sided tape to fix just to a guitar body however. |
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I have an idea of combining a simple piezo pup with single coil mag pups on one of my guitars. I thought of bonding the piezo element to the tone block and mixing the two signals out on the guitar before the signal was sent to the amp. There are so many piezo choices, I am looking for help to develop a reasonable (time , effort and MONEY) solution. One stopper I have nbeen told is that I need to have an amplified "active" pup arrangement because the piezoi needs pre=amped, but I would like to stay with my passive sgl coils.
HI, ....and Thank You!