Acoustic Guitar Diy Piezo Pickups

Intro: Acoustic Guitar Diy Piezo Pickups

In this Instructable i will show you how to take an acoustic guitar and add one or more piezos to it so you can hook it up to an amplifier. 

STEP 1: Items Needed

-1 or more piezos (you can find them at radioshack but you need to get the piezo out of the plastic case.)
-Tape (I used masking tape but you can use any tape)
-Guitar Cable Spliced on one end
-Acoustic Guitar
-Amplifier 

STEP 2: Twist the Wires Together.

Twist the wires from the peizos to the wires from the guitar cable (polarity is not important).

STEP 3: Apply Tape to Wires

 Tape the wires together making sure that the two groups dont touch. If the two groups of wires touch you wont get any sound (If you want to check to make sure wires are not touching plug the guitar cable into an amp and tap the piezo if all is good you will hear a thump from the amp).

STEP 4: Tape the Piezos to the Guitar

Tape the piezos to the guitar's top.
Now you can have a little fun experimenting with the piezos positions. Different placement will give different tones.

STEP 5: Secure the Wires to the Body

Now just tape the wires down onto the guitar body to ensure the piezos don't get pulled off while playing.

STEP 6: Make Some Music

Just plug the cable into the amp and make some music :)

Comments

[arpruss]

Is there any danger of blowing the mic input on the laptop with a piezo element?

[pilac96]

Which combination of cable you used? Male-male or female-male

[jordomaller]

there. are two wires coming out of my aux cable and the copper non coated wire. which ones do I connect to?

[Steve Dallman]

Actually, polarity should be followed as out of phase piezos will cause strange cancellations. I've found the best place for the piezos is on the bridge plate, on each side of the plate. Inside the guitar is good.

Tack type poster putty, the blue or yellow kind, works good to attach these.

[labernache]

Good point about using something other than drafting tape on the nice finish of your acoustic guitar.
You don't want the finish to come off with the tape!
Another substance that works quite well is Beeswax. It is also a bit more acoustically transparent than putty and is more inert to chemical interaction with most finishes.

[rbneville]

Ah thanks for the comment. I didn't think about wave interference while using multiple piezo's. If your using only a single piezo it doesn't matter.

[sconner1]

It's always good to keep everything in phase. Especially if recording or playing gigs with monitors.

[RetroTechno]

Who knows…"strange cancellations" might be interesting if using several pickups. Since this setup is easy to rewire, it might be worth playing around with it.

[sconner1]

allelectronics.com usually has piezo elements for cheap and not in a plasic case.
I don't work for them, I just get parts from them sometimes.
I've made piezo contact mics the same way. hook the piezo to a 1/4" plug with shielded cable and plug into an active direct box.
Great to suppliment a piano mic on the soundboard to add some twinkle to your mix.

[tlzaz]

I used a undersaddle pickup. I routed a groove in a strip of oak just deep enough for the top of the pickup to be slightly higher than the wood(I drilled a hole in the groove for the wire to pass through). and glued and clamped a flat piece of oak of the same size to the bottom piece. giving the pickup the compression it needs to work. and then I just wired it to a jack and glued the wooden "pickup" inside the guitar onto the soundboard directly under where the saddle rides. Works alone or with a pre amp. Actually sounds darn good.

[sdallman]

The brass disk attached to the piezo provides a ground plane and is best used for connecting the ground to. The hot should go to the piezo material. This is the common and accepted practice.

[zazenergy]

Fun and easy!

[rbneville]

Thanks, Glad you liked it :)