Altoids Tin Guitar

Step 8 Wiring up the piezo

Break the piezo from it's case. Be careful not to damage the piezo in the process.

Once it is freed, wire it to the 1/8 jack. Follow the diagram that came with your 1/8 jack to find out which is positive and which is negative.

Before I glued it to the case, I drilled a very small (1/16) hole in the lid. Center the piezo on the hole in the lid and hot glue it down.

Comments

[kryptofacist]

Does it have to be a piezo, or will a small speaker also work? Do you use a piezo because the guitar is very high in pitch?

[mentalman]

The piezo is what what picks up the vibration in the box. it acts likt the pick-ups on a electric guitar But way cheaper. 8 buck o's at radio shack.
i built a two string I had to buy the piezo and the strings Everything else was in the house already.the fun is making it too. Then get a piece of pipe for your finger and play it like a slide and you'll love it. Serarch Diddley bow. and find out they are 1000's of years old.
Just DO it and enjoy making your own music.

[heyitscorty7]

So can you put hot glue on the piezo?

[fatchumba667]

read the instructable and youll see, the last 2 lines

[ninjaoffigs]

So can I find one at radio shack?

[fatchumba667]

yeah most likely, also window alarms have them. i live in australia and i went to dick smith and picked one up for $15 with 2 piezos in it

[Ddv20]

Can you put in more than 3 strings?

[404_Error]

Im working on one right now that has 4, so yes.

[amber05.]

how piezo works as a microphone?

[dailodai78]

usually a piezo works as a buzzer for output. all it does is vibrates. if you do it in reverse by soldering the wires to an audio jack / speaker,  the piezo amplifies the vibrations you make after plucking the strings. Depending on where you pluck the string, each vibration will make a note. Try reading some information on guitar tuners. I hear they auto tune by measuring the vibration of the string being plucked.

[panzuman]

hey i bought a piezo and it has some sortof circuit board does that matter?

[toil_and_spin]

What is a piezo pickup? I've checked google and don't know how to get/find one.

[cdousley]

get the big buzzer at radio shack

[kipfan23]

does the piezo go inside of the tin?

[jlxaa.5]

This is the best thing everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its a pain in the butt but it can play a good song you should get it!!!!!!!

[Jonny Appleseed]

where exactly did you drill the hole in the lid?

[jillg]

i dont think it matters but when i do this im gonna put the hole kinda in the middle of the strings