Piezo pickups

[sylvan]

Can anyone point me in the right direction. I am trying to restore (get working) a nylon solid body from the eighties (Washburn). The pickup is broken. It is a piezo with the wire leaving the pickup in the center NOT on an end. If I can find another pickup I can easily (I hope) wire it in the guitar and make the instrument useful again? Any ideas? Thanks!

[Mark Pollock]

Get a replacement and drill a new hole for it? They are really cheap. finding the original style sounds really difficult.

[sylvan]

It is a solid body and there is no way to drill a new hole for another pickup.

[nathan clark]

Onviously a replacement part would be ideal, but failing that, sounds as though you may have to modify the guitar to accept a modern piezo. Can you drill a new hole through the bridge, remove the bridge and chisel/route a narrow chanel from the new hole in the body to the old wiring cavity/hole, then reglue the bridge?

[sylvan]

That is certainly a possibility but the guitar is not worth that amount of work. 

[Tim Mace]

in that case go to Radio Shack and buy a $4.00 piezo buzzer part#273-0073.....take it out of the plastic cover snip blk & red to 1" ,solder a good !/8 "-3/16" cable to blk & red, custom to your desire, to female or male...mount w/1"scotch double sided foam tape...I encase the piezo in epoxy on the back only...others may not like this idea but it works for me!!!! You should run this to a preamp/EQ for best results.....it ain't rocket science just a little outdated!!!

 

[Paul Verticchio]

Could you post a picture of the bridge & saddle for us, Sylvan?  I may have a suggestion or two for an alternative, but I'll have to see the bridge design to determine if it's applicable in this case. Or, if you can supply the model #, I can look through online Washburn catalogs for the info.

Also, the method Tim describes is, as he says, outdated, but it's a pretty standard "Hail Mary" procedure. 

Given the fact that the instrument was never intended to be a stand-alone acoustic, some creative routing of the saddle slot may be a workable solution to return the instrument to a useable stage instrument...exactly what it was designed to be.

Thanks, Sylvan :-)

[sylvan]

Paul 

The instrument is at a local music store. I will retrieve it tomorrow and take some photos. Thanks for the help!

[Paul Verticchio]

Cool.  I think you'll be able to get it back into usable condition.

Have a great day, Sylvan.:)

[Cal Maier]

Hi Sylvan,

I may have the unit you are looking for. This one is a BB centre lead pick up from the 80's.

If this will work let me know. It worked when it came out of the guitar it was in and still seems to be OK. If you are interested I will wire it up and double check it.

Cheers,

Cal

ps. I'm in BC, Canada..

[sylvan]

Cal -

It sure looks like it would work. I am in Boston. What do you want for the pickup? Thanks so much!

[sylvan]

Here are some photographs of the pickup and bridge assembly.

[Cal Maier]

Sylvan,

The pick up I have is 2 13/16" long and will fit in a 3/32" saddle slot, so you would have to make a couple of filler strips to keep it in the 1/4" slot on the Washburn, but I'm sure it would work OK.

Let me double check to make sure that it works and I'll get back to you.

Cal