Strat/Dano up and running

[angelodp]

I have this guitar up and running and wanted to share the outcome. Thanks to Chris and all that helped me out. I also want to acknowledge Deaf Eddies, switching plan, which I used in the end. This body was a gift and it is said to be Buzz Feiten build. I received it in fairly good condition, but had to mod it a bit. I wanted a drop in type strat arrangement so I created the cavities for that. It also had some threaded inserts with hex bolts that I decide to use on a Dano intonating bridge. I had the Chinese dano neck, and next got a hold of a P90, Standard Middle Strat pickup and a Silver Lace for the neck. I wanted some series connections with master volume and master tone. I found a Deaf Eddie layout that looked like it would work for me and after a bit of back and forth I got a green light on a layout with out the push pull pot, but just the DPDT. Turns out the intonation distance was incorrect so I had to flip the saddles on the dano bridge and put in some spacers in the string ferrule keeper so that the strings would hit the saddles in a clean spot ( not the twisted section). I also had to raise the bridge due to incompatibility with the body, bridge and neck. I created a hardwood sustain block for the spacer w/ grounding elements. I also modded a small single wire connector so the the grounding wire to the bridge could easily be disconnected.

I have been getting the set up just right and it plays very well an the tone of the LACE at the Neck is excellent, the P90 terrific at the bridge, and all the other combos are just great, including the various series and parallel series connections. Well there it is. I will be fussing a bit with some cosmetic stuff, but it s great guitar and very fun to play.

[D2o]

Nice job, Ange

You know, if you squint your eyes just right, that grounding element on the bridge looks like a piezo pickup ... just imagining the possibilities.

Hey, seeing as you have a Lace Silver, can you do a favour for Bob over in this thread?

If possible, he was hoping someone might be able to give him a nostril scan resistance reading on that same pickup.

D2o

[ChrisK]

It's nice to see Dat Strano^TM finished.

..can you do a favor for Bob...

Yeah, 'cuz he might need to resurrect a zombie....

[newey]

Nice! +1 to Ange for a cool build!

And I'm glad we have a Dano guy in our midst.

[angelodp]

D2o, please elaborate if you will on what the possibilities are regarding a piezo pickup, as I have no knowledge on this type of pickup??

Ange

[ChrisK]

.....that grounding element on the bridge looks like a piezo pickup ... just imagining the possibilities

Now you do realize that you've been set up (or drugged)?

You have no choice but to learn aboot piezos now...oh, shiny!

Search a'board, young Grasshopper.

Adding a Piezo pickup

(You already know that you abandoned all hope when you first entered here...)

[newey]

Ange-

ChrisK has linked you to JH's brilliant thread on making a piezo pickup from a cheap piezo transducer. However, you first need to know what one is.

"piezo" is short for "piezoelectric". Unlike a magnetic pickup which depends on magnetic induction to produce a current (and thus requires steel strings), a piezo pickup operates based on vibration applied to a crystal, which then generate a signal in response to the vibrations, either of the guitar body or of the bridge. Piezo pickups can be used for virtually any musical instrument, including nylon string guitars.

Piezo devices have been around for a long time. Crystal radio sets operated that way, as did the early crystal microphones. The push-button igniter in a gas BBQ grill uses a piezo generator to produce the spark, as do better-quality butane cigarette lighters (the ones advertised as "electronic"). There are probably several such devices around your house.

Back when I began playing, if you wanted to amplify your acoustic guitar, you used a mag pickup in the soundhole. Nowadays, virtually every acoustic amplification system uses a piezo pickup. All those acoustic-electrics you see nowadays, with the little onboard preamps with sliders for vol and tone? All piezo setups.

You don't have to have JH's circuit-making skills to experiment with one, either. Several manufacturers make retrofit piezo elements for Strat bridges, often designed into each saddle. Or, you can cobble the piezo and the preamp from an acoustic-electric, or buy the pieces off of Ebay.

However, a piezo doesn't have much output and therefore requires a preamp, meaning a 9V battery, and space to house all of it. Meaning that, once you filled in the trem rout with that block of wood, you pretty much nixed any possibility of putting one in this particular guitar, unless you want to undo your handiwork. I'd save such experimentation for your next build.

While JohnH's design has the nifty blend control to mix the mag and piezo outputs, a piezo pickup is also often run to a separate output, allowing stereo connection to 2 amps, or mixed into a single signal externally to the guitar, using a "Y" stompbox or some such arrangement.