Fitting piezo to my acoustic

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 8:58 am

I've just ordered one of these:

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For Â£8.99 ($11 at T-Mart?) it seemed worth the gamble to upgrade my Tanglewood TW28-SN acoustic.
Not my actual guitar

The part number EQ-7545R seems to pop up under the Belcat ID too for loads more money.
Anything I should be aware of? Any horror stories?

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Fri Nov 18, 2011 5:18 pm

besides the obvious "be very careful when you are cuting into the guitar" I don't think so. Let us know how it goes. Been thinking about picking up an old yamaha or takamine 12 string and doing the same thing to it since the 12 strings you can buy with pickups already in them are either crappy (dean/Ibanez) or really pricey (guild/taylor, etc). You can pick up an old lawsuit error takamine for a couple hundred around here pretty easy and pop in a pup and go. I just don;t like soundhole ones becuase they tend to either not be adjustable or not adjust easliy.

Will · Post by **Will** » Sat Nov 19, 2011 4:20 am

Take your time when cutting down the saddle to compensate for the piezo height. Make sure you get the bottom perfectly flat.

Also check that the slot the saddle sits in is flat and smooth - otherwise you can have volume balance issues.

Make paper or card templates for everything. Use layers of painters tape all around anywhere you're drilling/cutting. It'll help keep the finish from chipping and any tools from making scratch marks. Use fresh, sharp bits and saws, go slowly, and let the tool do the work. You should never have to force a power tool. If using a hand saw, cut a bit inside the line and follow up with files or sandpaper to clean up the cutting lines.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 11:44 am

Will wrote:Take your time when cutting down the saddle to compensate for the piezo height. Make sure you get the bottom perfectly flat.

Also check that the slot the saddle sits in is flat and smooth - otherwise you can have volume balance issues.

Make paper or card templates for everything. Use layers of painters tape all around anywhere you're drilling/cutting. It'll help keep the finish from chipping and any tools from making scratch marks. Use fresh, sharp bits and saws, go slowly, and let the tool do the work. You should never have to force a power tool. If using a hand saw, cut a bit inside the line and follow up with files or sandpaper to clean up the cutting lines.

Thanks.
So far the preamp has turned up in a package by itself

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Thu Dec 01, 2011 1:52 pm

So pictures and description have been posted to the seller. They initially said they'd send everything that was missing forgetting the piezo element. When that was pointed out they said they'd send another complete package but it could take 8 days.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:17 pm

Complete new kit has now turned up! This means I have a spare preamp and can select between the two for low noise or something.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Fri Apr 06, 2012 8:52 pm

Well, I have no routing facilities so I tried to plane the slot by hand but it's hard to get it flat. I've got the piezo pickup in and it was very loud on the the top two strings, so I tweaked the slot a bit more; it helped, but the D string is a still little low output. Preamp is installed in the side - used masking tape as recommended by Will while cutting it the hole. I ground down the saddle using wet-and-dry on a granite worktop. I still need to decide how to do the output - stick the provided jack in the side, the end strut (which side of the strap button?), or get one of those combined strap-button-and-jack-socket things.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:35 am

othomas kindly offered me an end button jack, so it looks like I'll be going down that route.