alexoest

Looks very good. Glad to hear that you tried elm with success... I have a source of spalted elm, which I'll ask for a piece.

How's the strat version coming along? I'm checking the thread regularly for updates and would like to see the new guitar.

Nice progress! Good call with the rounded edge on the wenge top. I prefer the 4 mm radius. Hope the damage done by the faulty bit is repairable. /Alex

I bought some from amazon.co.uk. Had to buy a router that could take 1/4" shank bits, but that was cheaper than this one bit. I know, price and quality often go together, but these bits are too expensive to me. Here's a link to one of the cheap bits http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-282462-...ref=pd_cp_diy_3 /Alex

Not sure of the specs on PRS SE necks, but they're supposed to be wide and fat. Agile has some 1-3/4" wide necks but they're only 21.5mm at the first fret. Classic Vibe Squiers have C-profile necks, which are pretty thick. If you want a cheap guitar with a fat neck, you could just get an SX and put a Warmoth neck on it. That'd run you around $350, about the price of an Epiphone. I've looked at the PRS and Squier website, and it seems both are too thin compared to the Warmoth "wide/fat", so I'll probably buy a Warmoth neck to fit my Squier strat. Thanks for the advice.

I've been looking for a gutiar with a neck that suits my big hands, so I might as well ask... Does anyone know of a (cheaper) guitar make and model with a neck like Warmoth's wide/fat one (1-3/4" or 44.5mm nut width and 1" or 25,4 mm height at 1st fret)? I've looked at the specs of Epiphones, Squiers, etc and found none. Preferably a hardtail with 24 3/4" scale length, but If it has a thick and wide neck, I'm not picky. /Alex

Tone and volume knobs in the same style would look good too.

Is there a chance that we could see the locking nut and fasteners, you designed? /Alex

The Prechamp sounds like a good place to start, especially so since it is so well documented. Still, to get started without too many potential pitfalls, I'll buy a finished preamp and wait making one myself until I know more. BTW, the giant piezo element covering a whole guitar top might actually be possible with piezoelectric paint. Painting the inside of a hollowbody with piezo paint would be one way to do it. You can do that... I'll play around with the smaller piezo elements in the meantime ;-) /Alex

Pete, My idea with the string-sensing piezo was that mounting the piezo element on rubber or foam would minimize the vibrations of the body. I put two neodymium magnets on my acoustic-pickup and held them under two of the strings on an electric guitar. It worked and even sounded good, though it did have a tendency to pull at the strings, but I believe that can be solved by using a magnet of the appropriate strength. Referring to the guitar body's vibration as pollution was not meant in a negative way, BTW. One of the thing I look forward to with the piezos is to be able to pick up that vibration more efficiently than with a traditional pickup in a pickguard. Still, if you want only specific antinodes on the strings to be picked up, the rest _is_ sort of pollution. The preamp you describe with several separate op-amps sounds useful for my purpose - and indeed for anyone who wants to use several piezos in one guitar. I've had a look at various preamp schematics (and I'll get some parts for assembling one or two now that I am ordering the piezo elements anyway). Still, I am a novice at electronics, so modifying an existing design to be able to adjust several inputs is not something I will attempt. Not at the moment, anyway. But if you know of an existing design (assembled or as a schematic) like the one you describe, I'd be happy to know. Please disclose your the experiments you mention, including the secret placement of the piezo element, even if the results are less than amazing! And again: Thanks for the advice, which I am sure has saved me a lot of frustration. I'm convinced and I'll buy - or make - a preamp. I look forward to a lot of fun - There are so many options to be explored. I'll have to control my urge to do everything at once. /Alex

Both: Thanks for taking time to help. Erik, Thanks for offering to measure the pot, but I think I'll just buy a couple of trimpots and try them out. I'd be nice to know the resistance, but unless it can be easily done, I don't think it's worth the trouble. I've just found that Graphtech recommends a 5 Mega Ohm pot, so I'll try that. Couldn't find anything on the resonant frequency or other specs of the Ghost saddles, btw. I tried sticking my piezo-pickup on the headstock of my acoustic, but only the open strings sounded OK. The fretted ones were weak, especially when fretted high on the fingerboard. I'll try on an electric as it might be due to too much damping in the wood of my acoustic's neck. Pete, Re. tone and volume pots: how if I make a circuit of, say, four piezos, each one of which I want to be able to adjust for tone and volume to get them in balance. Wouldn't it be relevant to do that by means of trimpots and switches and then connect their common, balanced and adjusted output to the preamp? I do have an old fuzz pedal lying around. I'll give that a try. Didn't know they had a buffer. Sounds interesting with the element mounted in wood. I've heard that mounting it directly on the bridge can give quite a shrill tone. Btw, you once mentioned the idea of mounting magnets on piezos to pick up string vibrations. Did you ever follow up on that idea? Sounds like a great way to pick up the strings' vibrations (with antinodes and nth harmonics unpolluted by body and neck vibrations) with a cheap and compact pickup. /Alex

Thanks for the explanations and good points. I'll buy a selection of different piezos and give them a try. This is going to be fun... I bought a simple acoustic piezo pickup a couple of weeks ago and I am just amazed at what you can do with it... I've stuck it to a harmonica, an acoustic, an electric, a ukulele and a saw. The latter was not a big success, as it picked up a terrible noise from the bow, but I imagine it can be filtered away. Still, my main focus is to experiment with various placements and combinations of the piezos on the body and neck of an electric guitar. Btw, I am going to buy some pots for tone and volume control of the piezos. Initially, it will be a passive piezo-only configuration, so I don't have to take blending with traditional pickups into account. Suggestions for resistance values of the pots are very welcome - I've seached this forum and other sources, but only found information on suitable pot resistance for combining the piezos with traditional pickups. /Alex

I am about to order some piezo elements for experiments, i.e. mounting on various places on the body, adding magnets for directly picking up string vibrations, etc. I intend to use them with traditional guitar amplifiers, perhaps with buffer/preamp. When I look at what's available (e.g. at Digi-Key), it strikes me that the resonant frequency of the elements is way above the frequency of the strings (the piezos often range between 1 and 5 KHz, and the strings are between 80 and 330 Hz). I assume that the ideal choice would be a direct match in frequency. But since that is not available - at least not at a low price - would it be a good idea to choose the elements available with the lowest resonant frequency, even though they're still way higher than the frequency of the strings? Or are there other aspects (e.g. impedance or capacitance) of the piezo elements that should matter more in my choice? If so, what impedance or capacitance values should I go for? I want to order a selection of piezo elements of different size and characteristics. I expect the elements to vary in sound (that's part of the fun), but I'd rater avoid buying something completely useless. If anyone can give some advice helping me to choose wisely, I'd be grateful. /Alex

How depressing - for you, of course, but also for the rest of us following your project with fascination. It might be wishful thinking, but perhaps your next mold will be even better than the one that was ruined. At least it's my experience that often, when something in a project goes wrong and you have to start all over, there's a couple of things that you'd have liked to do differently anyway. Until then, I'll look forward to the bridge. Will you mount it in an existing guitar or wait until you have the ergonomic one ready? /Alex

Wow, that piece of diamond plate sure toughened it up even further :-)