Equipped my 370WB with a Piezo...you should too.

[Dom]

Yes, I just made my Ric sound like an acoustic for $2. I purchased several piezo buzzers for $2 each at the local radio shack & set to trying them out on several of my guitars. I can't believe in 18 years of playing guitar that I've never tried this, now I can't wait to add a piezo every electric guitar I own.

Take a piezo buzzer, pry open the plastic cover & remove the wafer-thin piezo transducer. I removed the bridge plate and put masking tape on the back side (facing the body) taking care to keep the ground wire functioning as usual. The tape will keep the piezo from grounding out on the bridge plate & will not be seen. Place the piezo transducer under the bridge plate & feed the wires into the bridge pickup rout & send the wires into the control cavity. Black wire is ground & the red wire went to the middle post on the blend knob (it had been previously set up as a coil fader) which now acts only as volume for the piezo. I never used ric-o-sound so just the piezo goes directly to that output jack. I have a master volume knob set up for the 2 humbuckers & the hi-gain at the bridge which go to the standard jack.

How's the sound? Well if you don't mess with your EQ it will sound like a dobro, however if you roll up the bass just a little & it sounds like a big acoustic, no lie. Piezo's are known for a tinny sound but have great bass response as well. I run mine to a boss compressor sustainer pedal which allows me to boost volume a bit & dial in a slightly darker tone & level that meshes well with the magnetic pickups. I run this and the magnetic pickup output (with a couple typical stompboxes in the magnetic pickup signal chain, wah, tube screamer, fuzz) to the same Orange AD30 amp. The result is a far more lush sound than I ever thought possible on a Ric. IMHO it should be standard issue.

As soon as I get a replacement tailpiece I'm going to put one on my 330-12 but I'm certain that it will sound great also. Drawbacks are handling & toggle switch noise but the more I play the more careful I am about avoiding it. I'm using a set of months old Ernie Ball 10's but a new set of 11's will certainly improve the tone.

[beatlefreak]

Interesting concept. When you get a chance, can you draw up a schematic of your wiring? A quick recording of the sound would be beneficial also.

[rickendelic]

+1
I'm wondering how a 12er would sound

[kennyhowes]

Interesting concept. When you get a chance, can you draw up a schematic of your wiring? A quick recording of the sound would be beneficial also.

+1!!!

[sashua]

Very interesting. Looks like a new project for Russ! Please do post details and pics or sound samples if possible!

[Dom]

Unless there is a simple way to post/host audio on here then I suppose it's about time for me to start a youtube account. I just kicked myself for not doing this 15 years ago when I bought my main & first Ric. I'm getting a very late 60's-mid 70's Zappa tone with this. It does have a lower output than the magnetic pickups & uless you only want dobro sound you will need some EQ massaging but not that much & the compressor sustainer pedal does great for this & getting the levels to match with the magnetic pickups.

For those who are curious about how your particular guitar will sound with a piezo head to radio shack & pick up a $2 passive piezo buzzer, remove it from the plastic casing and wire it directly to a 1/4 in jack which will just hang off the guitar. I did this & tried out diferent locations on a 330 & found that sandwiching the piezo under the bridge plate gave me the best responce. Then it was trial & error getting it to work & hard wiring it into my main Ric & figuring out that I needed to put tape under the bridge plate to avoid grounding out the piezo. I suppose one could ditch the Ric-o-sound & just wire it to that jack & use a pedal for volume.

I'm a guitar wiring novice, but through trial & error I got this to work very well on my "370"WB. That said I would not recomend this particular guitar's wiring to anyone. The wiring is not factory spec (master vol & tone 2 coil fades, push pull for mid pup, no ric-o-sound just two outs) and needs a sensible re-wire. The "reputable" shop I took it to convert from 2 hi-gains to 3 HB1's managed to kill two HB1's, one after they just fixed it, and even then managed to wire stuff backwards. The 5th knob had been set up as a coil fader for the bridge HB that died. Since I now have a hi-gain at the bridge (awesome, love it!) that knob was useless so I made that a volume just for the piezo again after some trial and error. I'm going to have to do some wiring inquiring with a better shop before I attempt this on either of the 330's since there is only one jack & I like a factory look.

[jps]

UIt does have a lower output than the magnetic pickups & uless you only want dobro sound you will need some EQ massaging

Piezo pickups require an extremely high input inpedance for proper frequency response, on the order of 3 Meg Ω or higher.

[Dom]

Piezo pickups require an extremely high input inpedance for proper frequency response, on the order of 3 Meg Ω or higher.

In a perfect world it would be nice to have a 9v battery powered preamp like on many acoustics. I like a passive guitar since I have enough 9v's to worry about in stompboxes. The piezo I put on my Dano bass (same as I used in the Ric) is slightly louder than the output of the lipsticks which was a real head scratcher.

[jps]

You just need a guitar amp with a high input impedance, not necessarily a battery powered internal preamp.

[Dom]

I've always prefered using a compressor/sustainer pedal with piezo equipped instruments that are fed into an amp rather than a PA (I never trust a house PA guy), this way I have EQ at arms length & can get a bit more of the instrument to ring out in any live mix rather than bieng all attack. This is extremely helpful when battling with heavy handed drumers, with electric ukes which are almost all attack and for any passive piezo instruments. For my current rig I have two separate signal paths for magnetic & piezo that combine at a volume pedal then head to a sampler which sends one out to the Orange AD30 which bieng a loud but simple beast, only has the one input.

[kennyhowes]

Is this the piezo unit?
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... ab=summary

[Dom]

Is this the piezo unit?
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... ab=summary

Yes, that is the same one. Good luck!

[jps]

Is this the piezo unit?
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... ab=summary

Are you going to remove the toasters on your 4005 and just go piezo?

[kennyhowes]

Are you going to remove the toasters on your 4005 and just go piezo?

mmmmmmmmmmmaybe

[Dom]

So, beta testing is done. I have had a $2 piezo buzzer under my bridge for almost two years now. I use it all the time. I have it wired to the blend knob for volume then out to the Ric-O-Sound output jack. It mixes with the pups very well & unlocks a very open sound. On it's own it sounds like a cross between an unplugged Rickenbacker and a biscuit bridge resonator guitar. Great slide tones. it isn't "quacky" like I expect a piezo to be. I have a comp/sustainer set so I can roll on the piezo or make it drop out & still compete with that hi gain at the bridge. Then again, the HB1's have to compete with that beast too. Changing my comp/sus's EQ, attack & sustain I can get it to sound like a flat top acoustic (tone at 10 o'clock) or even sound like a banjo (4 o'clock). I pitch shift it down for upright bass tones which sound huge when you roll on the neck pup with the tone down. One of my favorites has been to have an OD cranked on my pickups & mix that with the clean piezo then split that signal & drop one down an octave for articulate metal & heavy attack chords. Massive. I discovered that gem jamming alone with a drummer.

I use a pick less & less in general since doing this mod. It really has changed things. I usually play through an Orange AD 30 & 4x10's, it sounds great with a Fender Hot Rod and splitting the pickups & the piezo & running direct into Logic gives me all kinds of options for tone shaping. Direct through the PA works well if it has an EQ so you can dial it in just the way you need it, but I prefer running it through the tube amp mixed with the pickups anyhow.

Cons: as expected it is very sensitive to handling noises. I don't use flatwounds on this guitar but that would eliminate the finger noise. You hear the pup selector & it'll make you fix your loose bridge springs, if you haven't already.

Next step is to add this to my stock 330/6 which is usually tuned down either a whole step or to G & my 330/2 which is now wearing baritone strings & tuned down to Am. I think a stereo jack is key. I found a discrete & very thin volume & tone knob intended to fit under archtop pickguards at stew mac. It may be a perfect way to add & hide the piezo controls below the raised pickguard. There are other easily obtainable piezo elements that will probably work like ready made under saddle elements for acoustics but I feel the larger the surface area is the better, two or three may fit.

I've been meaning to post sound clips on here for some time...soon as I get my music rescued from my dead external drive I'll set them up.