Cigar Box Guitar Headquarters - CBG HQ
Cut Piezo Test
I was soldering a lot of piezos today and decided to redo a test I did years ago. With a sharp pair of scissors I cut the disk into quarters.
As an unscientific test, I used duct tape to adhere them to the top of the Alley Cat. The results were the same as in my tests years ago - they both worked and the difference was very small, if any. (The Alley Cat sounded awesome!)
Volume and fidelity appeared to be the same. Bass response didn't fall. Box noises were the same. In my research and testing over many years it's my opinion that the difference in the size of the piezo lies mostly as an output device (buzzer, speaker, etc), not as an input device like we use them.
For any folks who work with piezos and didn't know, they can be cut down and still work. Some people do it to fit in a specific space, others do it to stretch their budget.
Comment
-
Comment by Randy S. Bretz on September 13, 2012 at 8:31am -
Yep i`ve been doing it for years...with my all bone bridges it`s the only way
-
Comment by Rick "rocket" Moore on February 17, 2011 at 11:56pm -
thanx for the info...
-
Comment by David Sutton on October 20, 2010 at 2:13pm -
Welllllll you see, I already stuck it to the Uke, but I did it all wrong. I hot-glued it to the top of the saddle-support. The guy at the guitar shop politely explained to me it goes under the actual saddle. So right now it's stuck in there and at home on my workbench. Maybe I'll post after I extricate it from there.
-
Comment by Ted Crocker on October 20, 2010 at 2:09pm -
Good question David, but one I'm not qualified to answer, I've never used one. Randy Bretz just used a rod piezo in his last build and I believe he cut it down to fit. He'd be able to help. Can you post a pic of it here?
-
Comment by David Sutton on October 20, 2010 at 1:59pm
-
Ah! very timely. I have a question: I have an under-bridge bar-shaped piezo and I want to put it in an old bari Uke I have. The bar has six faintly visible spots that I'm told are the "sensors" (it's made to go in a six string guitar). So now I'm wondering, can I just cut that bar to length so there are 4 spots remaining and position them under the uke's strings?
-
Comment by Nancy Barnes on October 20, 2010 at 1:07pm -
Interesting test... I've wondered about that.
-
Comment by Ted Crocker on October 20, 2010 at 12:48pm
-
Elmar, Old Lowe has used a few of my Tesla pickups and he mounts them on top of his Lowebros. With the doublestick tape still on he also screws them down with a screw in each corner and says it greatly increases the output.
I've been meaning to do some testing myself but it makes sense as a piezo as an input device is designed to be used under pressure. That explains why using a piezo under the bridge works better than attaching it to the box.
-
Comment by Randy S. Bretz on October 20, 2010 at 10:37am
-
Yep Ted your right on the money with being able to cut them to any size and they still work great. Sometimes I must cut them to fit in my bone bridges, and have had no problems with them.
-
Comment by Elmar Zeilhofer on October 20, 2010 at 10:29am -
Thanks for that experiment, Ted. A little bit off topic... I recently found out that the bass response is better after pre-tensioning that tiny little plates - I fixed a rubber band across the piezo and put a small distancer in between which presses in the middle of the piezo. I never went into details.. anybody who made similar experience?
-
Comment by Brian Parks on October 19, 2010 at 10:21pm -
I was soldering a piezo today and wondered if it mattered about it being a circle and a certain size. Thanks for answering!
© 2013 Created by Ted Crocker.
You need to be a member of Handmade Music Clubhouse to add comments!
Join Handmade Music Clubhouse