Ricks Shop: CBG build, part 3 It's Electrifying! Adding a pick-up.

My licence plate guitar does produce sound but doesn't have much volume when played as an acoustic. The licence plate guitar wasn't meant to be acoustic and since I went with a through the body neck there isn't room for a magnetic pick-up without making major modifications. When I started this build I had planned to add a piezo pick up and had ordered a kit that included a volume control, 1/4" jack, 2 piezo pick ups and wire.

I laid out the holes for the jack and volume control so they would clear the blocks inside the body.

The piezo kit came with a wiring diagram that is easy to follow. I have a soldering iron and all the other stuff needed to put this kit together.

I glued the piezo to a wood block so I could mount it in different locations if needed.

I tried mounting it on the neck forward of the bridge.

The piezo works, tapping on the pick up can be heard through the amp. However it's not picking up the sound from the strings. I have a feeling the licence plate isn't transferring the string vibrations into the neck or body since it is only attached with four screws.

I tried removing the wood block from the piezo and attached the piezo to the licence plate instead of the neck, not much improvement. Then I added the second piezo and attached it to the licence plate also, still no joy. I have to crank the amp way up to hear anything. Then I got out my distortion pedal and hooked it up, that made all the difference. The piezos just needed a bit of a boost. I still need to do some tweaking as I'm getting a lot of noise transmitted through the body and neck. The piezo discs are more sensitive to the mechanical vibrations transmitted through the wood and metal by touching it than the vibrations of the strings. I have read of builders liking the piezo rods that are mounted in the bridge, I may have to try that in a future build. Before I do that I want to wind my own magnetic pick up.....

Then I got a little side tracked .....

Santa is bringing me a 9 volt amp kit for Christmas and I just need a speaker, since it isn't included in the kit. A trip to a pawn shop and I found a couple candidates to donate their parts, a computer speaker and a small Sony speaker.

At $1 each, even if they aren't what I need I'm not out much.

Once I got them home and looked a little closer I realized the Reveal speaker also has an amp in it.

It is a stereo amp with left and right inputs and an out put for the other missing speaker. It needs a 12 volt DC power supply. I had picked up a Universal power supply last week so I have that covered. I plugged it in and the power light came on, I could hear a bit of static when I turned the volume control.... a good sign!

I opened it up to do some detective work, with the power on and the volume cranked up I touched the input wires and could hear static when I touched the white wire. The white wire is the one I want to hook my 1/4" jack to. The red wire is the input for the other channel (the missing speaker)