Acoustic Guitar Pickup

Step 8 Installation: Step #6

The hard part of the installation is over. Now for the finishing touches. First, you must secure the loose wire that runs from the pickup to the jack so that it does not flop back-and-forth when someone you the guitar. Go in through the sound-hole and place generous pieces of masking tape to secure the wire. Next you may want to snug the nut on the jack to finalize its placement. Then tighten up the strings and plug it in! That's it. You just made your acoustic guitar into an acoustic/electric!

Comments

[bassmann]

does aneyone know if this works for acoustic bass ????

[sn3102]

Bassmann....You might want to consider the same parameters for your bass. Pickup placement is critical. Experiment and you will see the variety of tones you can get.

[Scrubsfan1234]

you may need to find out the frequency of bass notes, then get a piezo that picks up the lower frequencies.

[sn3102]

Another comment I have is about the piezo pickups. Placement of the element is critical the sound you want to create. Neck placement gives you a thinner sound, body placement more bass. I do not know what the frequency response of a buzzer is but it must be limited. I would try pickup placement with the amp controls set flat and get the best sound you can get. Then there will be room for tone adjustment later.

[sn3102]

In the process of drilling a hole in the bottom of the guitar body, be careful. I think that goes without saying. When you go to tighten the hex nut holding the washer be careful not to tighten it down too hard. In this action you are tightening down a flat washer and a flat hex nut onto a curved surface. Tightening down the hex nut with too much torque will crack the wood.

[bdiddy22]

instead of doing all this "wire pulling" stuff, try a 1/4" wooden dowel rod. insert it into the hole you just drilled and towards the soundhole. then just "plug" the jack onto the dowel rod and pull it through. i used to work as a guitar tech and this was the easiest way to pull the jack to the drilled hole.

[marcoaandrade]

Yeah! I have just finished mine! It was really a 25min task. I live in Brazil and do have an acoustic guitar that I use to play my Pink Floyd chords and church during the weekend. Incredible how it sounds clear and noiseless. The most interesting point is that I used an old "press me and listen" plush toys from my daughters to get to this piezo buzzer! Congratulations for the tip and thank you as well. No doubt I could save a good amount of Dollars using this amazing instructable!

[nantupagla]

Great project. Works pretty good. I didn't even think that it would work. But it does.

[LeviMan_2001]

I bought myself one of these, and I've got it all wired up, when i tap it it makes tapping noises but when i hold it on my guitar it wont work! kinda frustrating i wanted a acoustic sound from an electric I'm building (but no it doesn't make sound on an acoustic either). guess i might just have to go magnetic.

[LeviMan_2001]

looks like i just found my problem, i had a bad potentiometer! well now i guess we'll just have to have it peizo/magnetic! cool.

[SpeakupforRonPaul]

There is another way to make an acoustic electric without any permanent mods, but it is much more expensive ($100 or less). You need to collect a Feedback Buster rubber soundhole plug, a cable jack, and a Fender pickup. Exacto knife cut the rubber plug for the pickup (mount with screws like electric guitar) the jack (near edge of soundhole) and wire together. Insert in between string changes, you have a badass electric blues guitar, no volume knob though, but you can take out the mod.

[SpeakupforRonPaul]

I would say this is definitely for tinkerer types willing to permanently modify a used guitar. You can buy inexpensive and very playable acoustics at music123.com in USA (50-5000$). They have acoustic electric entry level guitars at $199. I think the idea of making your own a/e guitar can give you a unique sound though, and may be entertainment value by itself.

[Ace0fspadez52]

nice instructable those little piezos are useful for lots of things. i've done a lot of experimenting with them myself, and like to call them "contact mics." the only problem is that they put out a pretty weak signal on their own, and usually need some extra amplification. i would try using a boost pedal, or an overdrive or distortion with the gain turned down. also, i reccomend covering the top of the piezo (where the soldered connections are) with epoxy. the piezo is very fragile and the wire could pull a good chunk off of it. you'll also get more durability out of the element. thanks for the tips on boosting frequencies and using medium density foam; i'll have to try that out.

[Ace0fspadez52]

try tapping the pickup with your finger or something with the amp turned up. if you don't hear anything, you likely have a short somewhere. check your connections and make sure you don't have anything crossed, and that you don't have solder bridging the brass and the piezo on the pickup.

[Bizy46]

I've done this and it doesnt work at all. I pluged it in may amp and i didn't hear nothing. I used mono audio cable for microphones and still nothing. Can somebody please give me some more information about how should i do it right?

[Aureliano]

Yeah, I've also done this. But you should know that only one part of the amplifiers will be able to work with this piezo buzzer as a microphone. One might need a preamp.

[unterhausen]

I used a strap button jack. It's a lot more work, but you can undo it a lot easier. They are also quite a bit more expensive.

[lennyb]

nice job well thought out and appropriate cautions a little advice for large handed people{like me} to thread the jack and wire through the body. insert a piece of waste wire{or string} into the hole from the outside and and then tie it very loosly to the jack .{use a knot that will almost pull out of the jack hole} with wire a loose kink will do then when the jack pops out of the hole a slight tug will pull out the leader and your there with no need to remove the strings of dislocate any fingers.