Piezo Wiring

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Piezo Wiring

This is kinda long but bear with me.
When I was building my second electric guitar, I went to buy a tunamatic bridge. When I got home and took the bridge out of its box, I realised I had a piezo equiped schaller (gtm-p) rather than the ordinary one I had paid for - due to the drum guy being the only person in the shop and not knowing what he was selling me. Well, at the time I didnt have a clue about what I was or what to do with it, and didn't think I'd have any need for an acoustic sound from my electric guitar.

So I stupidly cut the little jack socket off and wired it as a third electric pickup. Well, now I want the acoustic sound, but I still have no idea what to do with it.

The guitar is wired like this: 2 humbuckers each wired to their own on/off switch, phase reverse, series/parallel, coil tap, coil selector each hb has a volume pot, together with a master tone. Then there is the on/off for the bridge, which also has a volume pot.

What I was wondering was if I could simply connect a battery between the bridge and its volume pot, or would I need a preamp or something? Would the battery be enough to get the acoustic sound?

Any help you could give would be greatly recieved.

Anthony

Ricks Answer to - Piezo Wiring

Amthony,

It really depends on the type pickup you have. There two types of acoustic pickups. Some are designed to need a DC power source and will not work without a battery. The other type will work fine just off the line signal AC voltage comingmfrommthe amp connecion. This type works the same way as your other pickups. You should be able to switch in the acoustic pickup or out and you may need a volume pot for controling it.

I'm not sure which style you have. The drumer like you said just didn't know about these things. First try to wire the acoustic pickup separately with the other electric pickups not connected with it. See what happens wired alone. This will tell you what we need to know first. If it does work then you may want to install a sub-miniature toggle switch to keep it separated from the electric coil pickups.

Rick Andrews
Andrews Guitar

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