DIY piezo mod in 1, 2, 3, easy steps!!! All you need are a few...

[shotgunn]

days and thousands of $$$$ in tools. By 1, 2, 3 I really meant 1, 20, 140...

Here is the recording. I started out using the piezos only. Then you'll hear a delay come in. That is Mag's + Piezos. I used the Taylor 314ce - Eaerthworks QTC30 IR that I downloaded from here. I'll post it here again...

This is a (part) of a song I wrote for my wife... When we used to be in love. Now she wants a divorce.



Enjoy!!!

So I've been a member here for over a year now. I used to think, "Who the hell has time to have 1500+ posts on a forum?" Well now, look at me... I'm proud that it is THIS forum and no other. Anyway, I think it is about time I let you guys in on what I do. Unfortunately this is not my 'full time' gig, but for the last 3 years I have made it my priority to help other guitarists achieve their sonic goals. Primarily my focus has been on installing piezos in bridges that are not widely accepted enough (Ibanez Lo-Pro, Edge, Edge Pro, and pretty much ANY Ibanez bridge) for the major piezo manufactures to make their own piezo saddles. So rewind to early 2009...

I envisioned a way to drill (I now know the proper term is actually mill) the saddles to allow one of the popular piezo transducers to fit in it. I'll spare you all the details, but I ended up dropping about $2000 into a CNC milling machine and the necessary tooling to machine saddles to accept piezos.

Without further adieu I give you the EBMM JP Piezo Mod, by shotgunn. FWIW I did actually use EBMM Fishman loaded saddles. Simply because they exist and are available. Here is my picstory... Get ready it's a LOOOONG one...

Strings and bridge removed...

Plotting location for piezo volume... I had to move it slightly closer to the tone control than I wanted simply due to the size of the Control-X's PCB...

Starting the first hole. Blue painters tape works WONDERS in preventing the brittle finish from chipping like crazy...

Clean as a whistle...

Plotting the location for the Mags-Mix-Piezo toggle...

 

[shotgunn]

This was sort of tricky. I needed a minimum 1" hole to fit the switch in the rear, and a 29/64" hole to fit the barrel through. So I used my smallest diameter bit that would be long enough to drill through the entire body. This gave me the center location on the rear of the guitar. Tricky, I don't think so!!!

More painters tape, and a 1" Forstner bit...

Very scary getting the depth right, but I prevailed as always...

Now for the through hole...

Liiiiiiiike a glove!!!

 

[shotgunn]

Now for the Mags-Mix-Piezo control wire. This will make a grown man cry. Not me thought, but it was pretty terrifying!!!

This bit wasn't long enough, well 'safe' enough. The flutes were too long and I feared they would harm the body.

It's a good thing I have THIS laying around. 24" 1/4" diameter with only 3" of flute length.

Some old Auralex foam and painters tape should do the trick...

Yeah buddy!!! Fricking perfect!!!

 

[yek]

Good story!
Can't wait to see how it ends!

 

[gittarzann]

Awesome man!


Any machine/tool pics?

 

[shotgunn]

L-l-l-l-l-lovely!!!

Battery box...

I like to remove most of the material with a Forstner bit before routing...

Behold the Festool OF-1400...

Superior dust collection when connected to...

 

[shotgunn]

Router, sort of in action. Never use a router with one hand while taking pics... I didn't and you shouldn't either!!!

1 1/4" deep = PERFECTO!!!

Back to my loooooong bit...

Tape in place to line up and drill pilot holes. I drill just through the finish. Not all the way into the wood. These screws are small and I like to have a lot of wood for them to 'bite' into.

Perfect!!! Anyone else seeing a pattern here?!?

 

[shotgunn]

Before I disassembled the guitar I made sure it was perfectly intonated. This tape will allow me to reinstall them later and be pretty close to where they need to be...

I was going to drill holes based on the location of each saddle, but decided to 'split the difference...

Center punch so the bit doesn't wander...

First attempt at drilling...

Not going so well... I completely forgot this is the EBMM John Petrucci model. Therefor this means the metal used is Anamantium which is indestructable. This is essential since Petrucci plays 4,000,000 notes per second and his strings reach the temperature of the SUN!!!

Let's try some fresh Titanium bits... Oh yeah, It was time for dinner too!

 

[shotgunn]

Perhaps the drill press will help...

Nope. You know the funny thing is... I knew NONE of this would work. I tried it all anyway though...

I had to try Cobalt though, even though I knew it too would not work... and it didn't...

I REALLY wanted to avoid having to use my CNC. If I had, it would have been done MUCH quicker. That was all for the first night... Actually I did some wiring after I realized I wouldn't be able to drill through the base plate.

Weather stripping to help adjust pickup height...

It was then that I decided to give my CNC machine a shot. I knew it could do it as I have done it before. I was being regretfully stubborn without reason. Then I realized why I didn't want to use my CNC. I DID want to use, it was out of commission due to the computer crapping out on me. This was when I went to sleep. Well actually I played my guitar until 2am...

Next morning I decided to trry putting some new (old) RAM in the computer.

 

[shotgunn]

Show nuff... My RAM crapped out on me. (pardon the vulgar expression, but that RAM pissed me off!!!) F U old RAM!!!

Now I'm golden!!!

Chucked up the base plate...

Started milling...

 

[shotgunn]

Milling complete... Perfect as usual...

The bottom shot...

Chamfer the edges to soften them a bit. It didn't do much, but it did something...

Seeeeeeeee...

Laying out the PCB for the piezo wires...

 

[shotgunn]

Almost a BIG oops, but I caught it in time... I almost drilled the hole and put the screw right where the string needs to go through.

I drilled another hole as the originals wouldn't line up the way I hoped. No biggie. This is made of brass. Very soft, and VERY easy to machine.

Now where did I put that tap holder...

Here is it is...

1-64 tap in handle, ready to tap my new threads...

 

[shotgunn]

Screws installed...

Good ground connection. This is essential as these are ONE wire piezos that rely on the saddles themselves to do the conducting to ground...

Saddles installed...

Always presolder tight areas. It makes sodlering small wires a breeze...

90 seconds later...

 

[shotgunn]

Now to solder the 'summed piezo' wire. This carries all 6 strings piezo signal into the cavity and then into the preamp...

Just for good measure...

For some reason L.R. Baggs likes to use NON insulated shielded wire. I don't like this because the braided shield is exposed and if this contacts the hot of my piezos or magnetics NO SOUND!!! I normally don't use this, but I didn't want to drill a bigger hole to fit what I normally use.

And some tape in the trem cavity...

All closed up...

 

[shotgunn]

This output jack was a MAJOR PITA!!! I didn't even take pics because of this PITA. Basically the jack wouldn't fit in the hole. (That's what she said!!!) So I sanded the edges of the jack to round them over. This alone wasn't enough. I had to file 4 corners into the round opening in the guitar. It's still kind of tight (that's what HE said) but I like it that way (that's what me said!!!)

I can't find my spare pickguard material. This is all I need to finish this beast up... So close... I'm stringing her up. Even though I have new pickups shipping tomorrow. I couldn't wait to do all this...

Strung up...

New knobs... The one on the right is a bit closer to the middle than I would have liked. This was necessary due to the shape and size of the L.R. Baggs Control-X preamp.

 

[shotgunn]

I actually need to swap out 3 of the piezo saddles. When I mix the piezos with the magnetics 3 of the strings are out of phase with the mags. I hate having such keen ear. EBMM uses two polarities for their piezos. This reduces palm rumble. Their preamp (they could not sell to me) deals with this electronically. Since I am using the L.R. Baggs preamp half of my strings are out of phase with the magnetics. THIS IS ONLY APPARENT WHEN USING THE MAGS AND PIEZOS SIMULTANEOUSLY.

If you listen closely to the link above you'll hear (feel) the 'thin-ness' of those 3 strings.

Now I am off to mod my JEM77VBK!!! This will be MUCH easier!!!

 

[UnsungHeroGuitars]

Utterly brilliant stuff fella!

Brave too!

 

[larryseyer]

Absolutely love it!

 

[NeoSound]

Excellent work! I wish one of my Ibanez edge' had that mod.

 

[shotgunn]

The original Edge? I can do that no problem. What type of finish is the bridge? GraphTech (who's saddles I generally prefer, although I am REALLY digging these Fishmans!!!) makes OFR replacement saddles with piezos built in. The OFR and original Edge pretty much identical except for the arm holder. They should fit no problem. PM if you are interested.

Excellent work! I wish one of my Ibanez edge' had that mod.