billm90

Sorry to bring back from the dead. I dont agree that 6 piezos are useless I actually think 2 on the bridge base is.... no flames intended having built a 2 piezo for a bridge, and then adding 1 piezo per each saddle, where the string goes over the top of the piezo makes a whole world of difference. I have built this set up, so it has 8 piezos total, and I can turn each one off at will. I tested the 6 string pickups vs the 2 picking up bridge vibrations... the bridge vibrations sound horrible. The 2 piezos to the bridge sounds weak and air-y... individual piezos on each string drive a far stronger signal and sound more articulated. All this was tested WITHOUT a preamp. I also have another use for each string pickup. I wired the guitar up in stereo and I have micro switches to conrol which strings are on what stereo pan side. I can make string 1,3,5 on the left, 2,4,6 on the right. or 1,2,3 Left and 4,5,6 right or any other combo you can think of. I can do 1,2,3,4 Left and 3,4,5,6 right which puts 3 and 4 in the middle/or both sides sort of. Who cares? I dont know. Maybe someone would find it cool. I did.

I would like to discuss what people have found using piezos. under the line below is my history using them. Does anyone have any input or done some testing on how these Piezos sound? Thicker vs thinner metal bridge vs wood bridge. Would cheap strings really kill the sound? does having them totally closed in epoxy kill tone vs my floating piezo test? I already put in a full weekend on this, I will do more later but I am a bit burned out. I also spent a bit of this time trying to make the nylon guitar midi capable... while it did work, it sounded like garbage. the tones were distorted. ________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________ here is a bit of history of what I have done. I have built a DIY piezo pickups in that past. It is on a junk guitar, which is an SG copy. I took a wood bridge from a jazz guitar and filed the back of the bridge to an angle (maybe 45 degrees) and super glued rectangular piezos (I cut them from the circles) to each saddle top. The piezos hung off the back off the bridge, but were prefectly flush where the strings would cross over the top. The strings run into a old metal string holder on something on a crappy acoustic of f hole guitar (it resonates when played). I am using nylon strings on this guitar. Now each pick up is wired independently and I have 2 sets of 8 micro switches on it. this allows me to wire it up in stereo, and control which string is on the left or right side if I wish. I also set 2 long piezos into the wood bridge to use up all 8 micro switches. (they dont sound as good) Oddly enough, this guitar actually sounds like a nylon guitar, it is ugly as can be... and was only intended as a test. Now it seems like I dont want to change a thing because it actually sounds fairly decent for a POS. Anyhow, to keep this on topic. I built another guitar this weekend. it and a Les Paul copy, and uses the tuneomatic (stock) bridge and tail piece. I tried wirring up the piezos in much the same order and it sounds like crap. These are different piezos. they are thicker. I picked up 500 of them off ebay (before I uesd a radio shack thinner type) I also used metal epoxy this time and coated the entire thing. (did I kill off tone?) the nylon strings are the lowest priced ones I could find for testing, the SG has mid level nylon strings. (the upper strings are black, le bellas, 6 bucks) Do the nylon strings quiality really make a difference? I already ripped the piezos off the bridge. I will build it again. and probably again.

I have some guitars that are like this and sound really bad. Measure from the nut to the 12th fret. that is how far you need the center line of your bridge to be from the 12th fret (where the string make contact). this will allow you 1/2 of your intonation adjustment movement forward or backwards to fine tune. Hope that makes sense. otherwise, if it is really off, nothing will ever be in tune.

Yeah I would just cut those off. I think the guitar looks funny. I am used to seeing the dimebag dean and this peavey looks funny. I would just miter saw (the circular saw on an arm) the arms off in one cut, round the edges with files and sand it. Are you going to paint or stain the new finish? I have a guitar I want to kill as well. it is a stienberger copy. so ugly. I want to make it looks kind of like this. http://www.unplugged-cafe.org/images/0/0e/Michael_angelo.jpg Although it does not have a head stock I think I will make one because it feels off. I suppose I will do some stuff to it. But that is odd too. The rhoads roswell catches my eye too. I plan to make the whole top a plexi top scratch guard. I want to paint it silver or chrome, and make the edges of the plexi top like a light up binding by placing LED's under it. I also want to extend my neck to something like the guitar pick I posted... this is why I am leaning towards that crazy shape. easy access to the top fret, what is that like fret 32... I just want to know what it sounds like to play up there. Sorry didnt mean to hi-jack, just throwing out some of my ideas. Also, some stuff I have done on other garabage guitars, I put in some computer buzzer under the saddles to get an acoustic sound. I acually made one for eeach string and installed micro rocker swicthes (like inside a garage door opener code) to control left and right outputs. I can make any string go to a left or right stereo pan. This would need a preamp to match up to the electrics pickups, which I have been meaning to build out of a set of battery operated computer speakers. this way I can try out the treble and bass EQ as well. I also put some LEd's in a neck for fret markers. this is a real PITA project.

Are you still going to use this pickup. It really is no big deal to make something up for this.

Have you tried spraying them out with electronics cleaner? get in the pot and down the shaft.

I am just curious here. if you try to sing/talk into the pick up does it come out pretty clear? I would check phase, cause that can cause some pretty strange effects. I had a humbucker start sounding like the attack on an acustic from phase changes. As for the other stuff. candle wax on strings sounds like something a jazz player would do. shoving wax in the strings would kill sustain. but you know what, I will go home and try it out. I have used finger ease spray, there is also some applicater that allows you to brush it on. it is like a big roll of cloth you push in. all that crap made the finger board feel slippery. not my thing. To me it sounds like your pickup has gone into more like a mic's sound field. picking up ambient noise VS the guitar vibration.