DIY piezo pickup

[thedrizzle]

I just got a 72 thinline reissue and I am in love. This guitar sounds as good as it looks. I have a few issues that I am in the process of remedying: I have new 500k pots on order from the local shop, and one is a push/pull to give me the future option of getting at that single-coil sound.

Today my buddy John comes home from work at the guitar store all psyched because he just heard some guy's les paul with a fancy piezo bridge installed in it. It was the first time anyone had ever explained the concept to him, and he in turn told me. I had read some vague explanations of what a piezoelectric pickup does, but only understood the digital implications with high-end guitars. I had no idea they could be used to achieve "acoustic-ish" analog tones.

This had me intrigued. My new guitar has a semi-hollo design and resonates quite well, so well in fact i have to refrain from strumming it after my wife goes to bed. What kind of sounds could a piezo elicit from my guitar?

I spent all day coveting the new LR Baggs X-Bridge, which luckily for me comes in a non-trem version, almost identical to the stock hardtail on my guitar. This is good because I love the look of this guitar and would sooner die than entertain ideas of cosmetic modification.

As I continued to read up on piezoelectrics, I stumbled across a bizarre thread of reviews on Harmony Central: hundreds of people were rating the "RadioShack Piezoelectric Buzzer". This was made even stranger by the fact that I had been in RadioShack earlier today and seen one of those little buzzers and wondered what the heck they did. It seemed that they had some kind of piezo thingy in them you could remove and wire into your guitar to act as a passive acoustic pickup.

HOLY CRAP! says I.

I google image search this buzzer and find a picture. and here's where the story gets ridiculous:

I see the little piezo thingy and recognize it instantly:
The year was 1994, I was 12 years old and I wanted to learn the guitar so bad I could taste it. But my parents wouldnt buy me a guitar, so i decided to make my own. I made a little frame out of scrap wood, stretched four pieces of wire across it, and then proceeded to strum. It sounded awful, and was barely audible. Then I got the idea that like big boy guitars i'd seen, mine needed something to send out the music. I took apart my mom's kitchen timer and removed the little metal disc that acted as a speaker. I wedged it in between the neck and body of my little bastard banjo creation and then soldered it to a stripped headphone line (why my parents gave me a soldering iron at ten i'll never know, but i'm eternally in their debt) I plugged the headphone jack into my little tape recorder and strummed gaily for several minutes and lo and behold! My guitar worked! It was able to record sounds! I lacked any kind of frets or tuning pegs and as a result the guitar was never able to make any interesting sounds so i took it apart and put the metal disc in my cigar box of electronic things i thought were cool.

As soon as i saw that little metal disc i bolted for the basement. My wife calls me a "pack rat", I prefer the term "archivist". You never know when you might inadvertantly invent something in your childhood that as an adult you would be able make applicable.

I'm sorry for the long post, but the story was funny to me and I ran off at the mouth. The point is as follows: Has anyone here tried installing a piezo pickup of any kind in their telecaster of any kind? what were the results? where would you suggest placement? How did you handle the impedance problems? How did you control switching/blending?

[thedrizzle]

I forgot to add- this part's the real puzzler - how could i acheive such a thing without adding any extra switches, holes or knobs? I've played around with the idea of push/pulls, but theres just too much going on when switching from magnetics to any kind of a piezo system. As far as I'm thinking at the moment, the best idea i've got is is to replace my standard 3-way switch with a four-way to switch to switch to the piezo, and then run it to a stero jack, so that my stock tele will be running through the tip like always, and the piezo will have a seperate signal coming through the ring. Instead of installing a volume/ tone controls in the guitar, i'd have to run the piezo into some kind of high impedence external EQ box, which i'd end up doing anyway, even the $200 piezos require it.

[teletin]

Originally Posted by thedrizzle

Has anyone here tried installing a piezo pickup of any kind in their telecaster of any kind? what were the results? where would you suggest placement? How did you handle the impedance problems? How did you control switching/blending?

I have a Fishman Powerbridge VT in a '69 RI thinline I recently purchased 2nd hand. It was hooked up in the wrong way, currently working on correcting that (add a powerchip etc).

So far the actual effect is minimal but that may be due to the wrong wiring. Mixing it with the normal pups is great but IMHO does not make up for the trouble of installing it (yet).

Impedance problem can be solved in two ways:
1. get a stereojack and split the pup output and the piezo output.
2. get a powerchip which eleminates all matching problems and gives the possibility to mix both signals (pup/piezo) on the guitar. Than you will also need a stereojack to accomodate for the 9VDC power needed by the powerchip.

To fit the Powerbridge you'll need extra routing for the circuitboard under the bridge.

[teletin]

Originally Posted by thedrizzle

As far as I'm thinking at the moment, the best idea i've got is is to replace my standard 3-way switch with a four-way to switch to switch to the piezo,

PS: Don't just combine the pup/piezo signals on a switch, it won't work properly (that's what they had done to my guitar). The powerbridge needs a hefty 5 MEG pot if used without a powerchip and that's something your regular pups won't like.