Installing my 'Homebrew' Piezo |
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Fretsville Reality Check |
After building the pickup and testing
it make sure it worked electrically, it was time to install it. Keep in mind that the
installation discussed here was done while the back of the instrument had not been sealed.
The procedure for installing it in a finished instrument would be a bit more difficult.Also keep in mind that little changes can result in big differences in the resulting sound. The variables include the actual physical placement of the pickup and the method of adhesion. Mine was installed on the underside of the top, near the bridge I originally used a tiny drop of hot glue and attached the pickup by pressing it firmly to the wood so as to leave as little glue as possible between the pickup and the wood surface. Later, after some experiments in moving the pickup to different locations, I learned that using a bit more hot glue and leaving a thicker glue joint gave me nearly as much volume as the thin glue joint, but resulted in a much better tone because it cut out some of the high-frequency output from the pickup. Your results may vary! I took the following installation steps: 1.) Measure to make sure your jack’s threaded tube is deep enough to accommodate the thickness of the wood. This is not usually a consideration in most acoustic instruments, but the sides of my Cigar Box Uke were just enough thicker than standard that I had to counter-bore the hole slightly to make it fit. A better solution might have been to buy a jack that was made to mount to a thicker surface. 2.) Locate and drill the hole for the jack. I placed masking tape on both sides of the hole to help prevent tear-out when drilling. A sharp wood bit, helps, too. Take your time. Use high speed and light pressure to drill and you shouldn’t have any problems. If this is new to you, practice drilling in some scrap wood first. 3.) Install the jack, taking care to avoid stressing your wire connections. Use the washers that come with the jack and snug the nut firmly. (But not so firmly you crush the wood!) 4.) Temporarily attach the pickup using tape or modeling clay. Then plug it in to an amp and try it out. Move the pickup to various locations under the soundboard until you find the "sweet spot." Meaning, of course, the location that sounds best. 5.) When you’re ready to "finalize" your installation, clean the pickup’s mounting side and the area where it will be mounted. I used 90% isopropyl alcohol for this purpose. Acetone would work, too. Apply a small amount of hot glue from the glue gun where you want to mount the pickup, then press the pickup firmly into the glue. Don’t dawdle — the glue sets very quickly. "Tack down" the audio cable to a spot along the side of the instrument using a drop of the hot glue and you’re done. I used the hot melt glue because I wanted to be able to remove the pickup easily. If you were working with a finished instrument, you might want to use double-sided tape or some other such option. |
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