I cannot tell you how thankful I am for you to have made this project and also made a wiring diagram for it, I've spent the past two months looking for diagrams and making sure an electric guitar and undersaddle would work, looking for diagrams and things, but to no avail. Finally, I found you and I have concrete evidence my idea actually works and I can move forward with my idea!
Abran, thanks for watching! I'm surprised by how often I use the mule. Working on a couple projects now, and the mule stepped in to shoulder the load while the other projects weren't at a point they could do it. It was a fun and cheap project. Hope you are well, take care!
This turned out really nice! That new fretboard wood is absolutely gorgeous. Much better than what it came with. As far as the wiring, I’m afraid I’d run into the same issue and would probably come to the same conclusion. I did a bit of research, as I’m sure you did as well, and found the Fender Acoustasonics have a massive PCB board inside, so they’re probably using some trickery to get it working, which would be impossible to replicate. The only way I can think to get the preamp working would be to get an active tele pickup. That said, maybe there’s someone out there who has a solution. Wiring is not my strong point… I buy wiring kits for a reason. 😅 It’s working the way you have it now, and that’s what matters. It’s all about experimenting and learning new things along the way.
Curator, thanks for watching! Oh yes, that fingerboard is great. It was a bit "gummy" to cut the fret slots, but it's been a great fingerboard ever since. It sits right next to the couch, so always within reach at the end of the day. Fender does use a pretty crazy Fishman (?) PCB preamp magic carpet inside their guitars. I had done a bunch of reading and had hoped (foolishly) that I could come up with something close, but everything was waaaay out of budget. At it turned out, it has good volume out of both the wound pickup and the piezo bridge ribbon. I had planned to go back and try to get a fancier solution working, but I've moved on to other projects. Maybe someday I'll circle back, maybe. Hope you enjoyed the project, it was fun and very educational for me. I tried a lot of ideas, most of them worked, I hid the others away for another day. Take care!
Pino, thanks for watching and glad you enjoyed the project! Take any ideas you see and make them better, as I often experiment, and that's what you see in the videos. So there is room for improvement. Good luck with your project, and greetings from Florida US!
In the cigar box guitar world piezos are common... there's a difference of opinion on which sounds better, the rod piezo under the bridge (or rather the rod piezo sits in a channel under the bridge position in the neck through under the the box lid in such a way that it maintains solid contact with the lid), or the disc piezos hot glued to the underside of the box lid in various positions. I favor the rod piezo... There has also been a trend to install an onboard preamp with 3 slide equilizer to help model the tone as opposed to just wiring it directly to a volume pot to a jack (or just a jack), I've done both and favor the preamp but the latter is okay (they're cigar boxes for crying out loud!) I really enjoy your channel!! Entertaining and informative!! Carry on!!
Hurdygurdyguy1, good to hear from you again and thanks for watching! Thanks for the CB info. I had looked into some video of such, and agree, there are as many opinions as options. I had originally though to glue the disc/wafer piezo(s) in place just behind the bridge, but then I tried the saddle piezo... I felt it sounded a lot better too. 2 of the preamps I tried did have onboard high/med/low adjustments by way of small screw pots. Not really adjustable with the guitar buttoned up. I'll be giving these another try in a later project (that I'm trying to talk myself out of). Good to hear you are enjoying the channel, always good to hear from you. Take care!
This channel seriously deserves to blow up at some point. Amazing projects, great & helpful narration and an overall top notch presentation. Great to see that gorgeous Tele finished and ready to join the side of the equally amazing SC. Can't wait to see what craziness your will conjure up next. :)
Harlequin, thanks for watching and the kind words! If I could put out more content, the channel would probably grow faster, but I work too slow and have too many unrelated things going on. Also, I'm not currently monetized on TH-cam, so that may impact the channels reach, idk. I have a few things coming back into view, the GGBO21 project to get back on track, another scratch build starting soon, some useful tool and template ideas... Thanks again for hanging with me. Happy Holidays to you!
Oh, wow, this guitar looks like a million dollars. I'm glad you finished it after all. As you know, I only have pick-up and guitar electronics project. I was pretty patient and have not yet started on my hard tail St., it gets Fender Yosemite Strat pick-ups and I change from two tone-controls to a master tone. The new tone pot will be a Mojo Tone P/P vintage taper. I will use the P/P for turning on the neck pick-up in all positions. My plan is to fill the hole in the pick-guard from removing one pot with a kill switch. I know what kind of switch I need, but I can't seem to find it in the stores around, I might have to order it online, I don't want to. I want to get started, but maybe there will be this hole in the pick-guard for some time before it gets filled. And please have a good time on Christmas, and have fun when watching some random ball getting dropped for the new year. I guess Americans have a reason why they do this. Till next time.
Achim, thanks for watching and the great message too! Sounds like you have a cool project to work on there. Run that pick-guard with a hole in it! It'll look like a hotrod, stripped of unessentials. I hope you have a great Christmas too. As for new years, I don't always make it til the ball drops, my eyelids usually stick shut before all that - not that I'm getting old or anything... I think the ball drop is just another excuse to cut loose, drink too much, dance on tables, blow stuff up, run from the law...hmm, just another day really. Take care my friend, until next time!
Great series of videos. I watched them all. I think the reason your magnetic pickup was low in comparison to the piezo was your grounding (brass plate) draining the circuit flow from one side to the other with the preamp installed (does that make sense?) The fender version does not have a grounding plate. They call the magnetic pickup 'noiseless' which is a fallacy. I have a tele acoustasonic and the magnetic pickup is certainly not noiseless.
Zibbe Zabba, thanks for taking the time to watch them all! I kinda get what you're saying. I wonder how fender is doing their grounding, but they have a lot of high-end tech going on in their acoustisonics. The whole active/passive combined wiring thing has me scratching my head. It's probably easier than my brain is making it, and I am no doubt misunderstanding all of it. I really enjoyed the project, even with the issues. All good. Thanks again, be safe and take care!
The problem is that you are mixing different impedances. Both piezoelectric and magnetic pickup are typically very high impedance whereas the output of the preamp is comparatively low, probably around 10k ohms so adding the preamp across the high impedance pickup is shunting a lot of the signal especially high frequencies. You would need another preamp for the magnetic if you wanted to go down the original path however I think the final solution sounds fine. Thanks for a great series of videos.
linthorn, thanks for watching! Yep, totally agree. In the end, it did work pretty well with the pre-amp stripped away. Someday I'll circle back and assemble a better (different) solution as you described. Hope all is well, be safe and take care!
I've really enjoyed this series. You've given me the confidence and enough intelligence to take on this project. Can't thank you enough and +1 for sharing the template
John, thanks for watching and I'm glad to hear you're taking a crack at the project. As for the template, you're welcome, but remember that they may need to be altered to fit your particular guitar. Seems like every Tele style guitar I run across is slightly different. I can't thank you enough for taking the time to hang with me during the project. Have fun, be safe, and take care!
This is one of my favorite channels. I appreciate how you learn from your mistakes and share those same mistakes so maybe we won't have to learn them the hard way.
Hans, thanks for watching! I really do hope others will get ideas and improve on whatever I'm up to. If I can show a potential problem, or maybe a work-around, I hope it will benefit someone. If nothing else, we can learn to laugh when things go south, and I've had a lot of projects go terribly wrong. As you said, "I share mistakes so maybe others won't have to learn them the hard way". Hope you are doing well, take care and Happy Holidays!
I can not say how much I'm still happy that I discovered your channel by accident. Looking forward to the next videos of the next or old project and wish Merry Christmas and a beautiful, happy, healthy new year. All the best from a rainy Germany.
A.P. many thanks, and I'm glad you found the channel too, always good to hear from you! I'll be getting back the the GGBO21 guitar build next, also have cell phone to repair ( I drove over it ), a portrait to paint, an new scratch build guitar to kick off in January....probably a lot of other things too. Merry Christmas, and a Happy and Healthy New Year to you and yours. Peace to you my friend, from rainy Florida US.
Your guitar playing is much better than mine, I think mine would improve if I would practice. But too many projects to work on for me. I like your honesty on the kit you received, I have been looking at those kits because I want to build a kit. I like the fact that you speak about what you are doing in the video in English, I know it's a terrible handicap but I only speak English so that works out for me. It seems most people review these by showing parts going together while music plays in the background, and the foreground, and all-over all of the ground, my idea of guitar building music very rarely agrees with anyone else's! So I subscribed to your channel and will watch some more of your stuff and thanks for the good video and not bad guitar playing.
Gunsmith4570, thank you for taking the time to watch! (45-70 Government?) I appreciate the nice words on my playing, I too need to find the time to practice, but like you I have too many projects. Sadly my time is so divided, getting any real headway on a project is becoming more difficult. That's life. I appreciate your perspective on the voice overs and music in the background. I'm trying to find a happy mix of the two, while suppressing router and saw noises too. A juggling act. Good luck with your projects and hope to hear from you again. Happy New Year - a bit late. Take care!
For a guy who just likes to tinker with things, that's a really nice guitar. However, one mic should be closer to the neck to get a bigger difference in the soundstage. Anyway, great looking guitar and I really want to build my own T-style now 🙂
Ola, good to hear from you again and thanks for watchin! Yep, I need better mic setup for recording...but then you'd be able to hear my poor playing... Hmm. Hope all is well, now go build that guitar!!!
It is every bit as good as the new Mexican built Acoustasonic Fender has put out. It is $1200.00 with a 3 position switch. The under saddle pickup and the electronic pick-up. The American has a 5 way for the wafer piezo , under saddle, and electronic pick-up. Great job. May try it myself.
Keith, thanks for watching and glad you like the outcome of the project too! It was a fun challenge, sadly the project got strung out a bit, but that seems to be my normal. I may revisit this in the future, add additional piezo pups, still a lot to learn. Be safe and take care!
It is far away from a Fender Acoustasonic, couse Fender builds a Fishman Modelleing Preamp in. And this preamp is the reason for the authentic acoustik sound. And Fishman dont sell this modelling preamp to private customers. There is a ringing sond on this famos build guitar from "the Next Projekt", and only removing this is a lot of experimental work. I am a experimental worker on guitars too. It is relativ easy to build a solid body electric guitar. But to build a e guitar that can sound real acoustic, is a big challange. I´m just trying a mini microphon in a seperate chamber made in the body. I wish you a lot of fun at building. And dont give up, if the first trys dont give a resoult, that make you realy happy.
Thanks for watching! It did turn out well, a really fun and challenging project. I learned a lot and now have new mysteries to solve. Such is life. Hope you are having a great holiday season. Take care.
Great video and great project series. I enjoyed every part of the series and the fact that you share how you figure out each problem as they come up. The guitar turned out beautiful. You can be proud of your work. Looks better than the Fender models. Looking forward to the next project.👍👍
Jim, thanks for watching and I'm really glad you enjoyed the project. The guitar did turn out pretty well. Honestly it sounds better in person than it does in this video. Thanks for the kind words. Wishing you a Happy and Health Holiday Season!
Bryan, thanks for watching the series! It did turn out pretty good, and has become my "couch" guitar. I like not having to be plugged in to hear my errors, and also enjoy the size of this guitar over a full acoustic. A great project. I may do something like this again when time permits. Happy Holidays, be safe and take care!
@@theNextProject I'm all about it - cool process and the neck turned out so good. My friend has a workshop collecting time dust instead of work dust . . . I have a kit and might try to do a semi hollow version of a T over the holidays and just leave the body hardware as is.
Great project, very inspiring and as always very entertaining to watch! If I ever will finish my actual (first) build from scratch, something like this will probably be my "the next project".
Manolo, thanks for watching! I'm glad to hear you're inspired and entertained, that is exactly why I'm doing this. I really hope others, like yourself, will get ideas and just jump in and start doing things, whatever the project, just jump in. Your first build is a big learning process, take your time, don't rush, learn from mistakes and errors, and above all, just have fun. When it's not fun, put it away for a day, then come back to it. Have fun, have fun, have fun! Happy Holidays, peace be with you! Take care!
Thanks for this great content. I am about to do a similar build and appreciate the detail, including the mistakes/learnings, for how you got this done!
Troy, thanks for watching! This was a fun and challenging project. Tried a lot of things new to me, borrowed ideas, then made them fit my process and tools. Take anything you see and improve on it, make it your own. Good luck with your project, have fun!
If you still want to have the acoustic preamp, what I would do is run two separate output jacks. One for the piezo and one for the magnetic. You see this setup often on "hybrid" guitars.
Been inspired by this build to try my own ,have finished the build now I will tackle the wiring. Thanks for putting this out there loved it. Take care love to you all from Ireland.
John, thanks for watching and glad to hear you are finding the project useful. There have been some very good suggestions in the comments for this vid, how to approaching the wiring for this project. At this point, I'll probably leave the preamp out, but I want to do more testing to learn how to properly include a preamp with piezo pickups along with a passive magnetic pup. So much for me to learn. Good luck with your project, and keep me posted as you wrap it up. Happy Holidays!
Brian, Happy Christmas to you, and good to hear from you! Thank you, it turned out pretty nice. I agree, electronics is a bugger for me as well. I almost understand some parts and not a thing on other parts. Have a great holiday season, take care!
Great modification of the Tele-kit guitar. Learned a lot from your experimentations along the way. Hopefully you'll find a use for your collection of pre-amps. One can only wonder what Fender is doing electronically inside their acoustic-sonic line to create so many different acoustic and electronic sound textures in their designs ? Can't wait for your Next Project.
Chris, thanks for watching! Fender has quite a bit of tech going on with their Fishman Acoustic-engine... fancy stuff for sure. It would be neat to have someone explain it all, but I may not understand anyway. This simple approach is good enough for now, but as you mentioned, I have a bag of preamps to play with. Actually thinking about an acoustic-mule testing guitar. Just for fun of course. Hope all is well for you and family. Happy and Healthy Holiday Season to you!
So glad you got it together. I have taken so much awY from this series. A mule guitar sure would be handy. As I could be waiting months for my pre-amp I'll take your workable option first and hope it works out for me, I am using a different bridge/piezzo set up though. A few thought in your final guitar, that head stock is beautiful, and I like the wood veneer on top of the mag pickup. Looking forward to the "next project"
Jurgen, great to hear from you and glad you're finding the videos useful. I'm sure there is a correct way to get the preamp working, some other viewers have offered ideas and options. I just need to do more research and testing. Honestly, the piezo I used seems to offer enough output without the preamp, so possibly the preamp isn't really needed - in this instance. Hope all is well for you. Have a happy and healthy holiday season!
@@theNextProject it's a funny world, the world of guitars. I get some that swear it won't work without the pre-amp, then there are people like yourself that have good results without. My preference is to not have to bother, but we'll see. Merry Christmas to you John. Stay safe and talk next year.
dugbert5, thanks for watching! A blender pot seems to be a popular suggestion, and maybe I'll find a way to add such a thing to this mix. Hope you are doing well, Happy Holidays!
Hemstitched, thanks for watching! Glad to hear the videos will be helpful. I completely understand how projects can sit, I have many of those. Good luck with everything and Happy Holidays!
Thanks for watching and glad you took the bait. Gotcha hooked! I hope people will watch these projects, get ideas and improve on them. Mod something, fix something, just have fun. The guitar did turn out pretty good, I'm happy with it, and may build another from scratch next time... Of course, I have a lot of plans that I'm not getting to. Thanks for joining in and watch for more projects coming soon. Be safe and take care!
@@theNextProject I build and mod. I also do repairs for my friends for free. I only charge for the cost of the parts. I rent now, so a workshop is out of the question. I hope to one day have a workshop again. Take care. By the way, you have yourself a new subscriber. Peace
Man I hear that. We seem to have similar practices and situations. I rent too, so my workspace has changed too often. I worked on a kitchen table and countertops for a while, and a patio area, then was lucky enough to have a small garage space. My most recent move again has a garage space - I'm lucky. I hate moving, boxing, unboxing... I think I tossed more stuff than I realized. I'm still looking for some small tools, materials... all the things that are needed. A new workshop will happen for you again, all in good time, hang in there. Thanks for watching, leaving comments (good chat), and for the sub too! Be safe and take care!
Thanks for watching, and sorry for the extreme delay in wrapping this up. "There is no point" to much of what I do, but that actually makes most of it fun. Hope you are doing well, Happy Holidays!
"make doors with an old Marshall amp"...Okay, now I'm really interested in what you have going on! Looking forward to seeing this. Be safe and Happy Holidays!
Great project, it turned out really beautiful looking and sounding too!!!! You did a very neat job with this kit. Thumbs up! All the episodes were very entertaining to watch. I am in the middle of a similar project and along the way I have ordered a lot of electronic components like you for experimentation that I might never end up using them in this particular project... So, I get your frustration! About the volume mismatch issue you encountered: You probably cannot combine a passive pickup with an active in the same circuit. You can use both passive (as you finally did) or you could use an active electric pickup (with built -in preamp) together with the active piezo. But that also means 50K value pots instead of 250K and of course two preamps to feed with batteries... So, the more simple, the better! Happy holidays, Stergios.
Ahhh! So that kinda makes sense. As you said, a lot to testing and frustration. Seems I never found a clear explanation, but rather a lot of opinions... Thanks for explaining that clearly a concisely, much appreciated! Hope your project is coming together well. Have a happy and healthy New Year! Thanks for watching too!
Hey Tom, good to hear from you and thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it, and now it's time to get back to the GGBO21 scratch build, and another scratch build, and a cell phone repair....never ending list, 🤣 Have a great and safe holiday season, peace to you and yours.
Liam, thanks for watching! Yes, the piezo actually sounds pretty good, actually it sounds better I'm person than in the video. My son commented on the overall sound of this guitar "wow, that's really loud" I was playing unplugged sitting on the couch. He though I was amped. All good. Be safe and take care!
Yep, this was another CA coated fingerboard. Episode 4 showed the process on this project. th-cam.com/video/JnTUHJukzMU/w-d-xo.html Also did the CA coating on this project: th-cam.com/video/3aySJUOqcaE/w-d-xo.html I'm not saying this is "the way" to do the process, but it should offer some perspective. Good luck with your project!
Congratulations! What a lot of work, but wow man you've basically nailed it. If anything the electronic stuff could still be tinkered with I suppose, but in terms of the guitar itself you've made a perfect replica of an Ultraexpensiveacoustasonic!
Keith, thanks for watching! Glad you like the way the project turned out. It was a lot of fun, rather challenging, and very educational for me. I agree, there is a lot of tinkering left to be done. While I don't mind the sounds that come out of it currently, there is room for more variety. I need to send myself back to school to learn how to properly build a more robust electronics/pickup system for this - someday perhaps. For now, I just enjoy attempting to play it and I'm on to working on many other projects too. Thanks again for watching, hope all is well in the Northwest Territory. Be safe and take care!
Hey Steve, thanks for watching! It did turn out pretty good, and as I watched the video, I realized the camera audio capture did no justice to the end product. I'm really surprised by how good it sounds acoustically for such a thin body. My son said "that thing is loud, I thought it was plugged in". Then where I had the camera, it was picking up as a much acoustic sound as it was sound from the amp. I should have moved the amp in front of the guitar for better audio capture. Ah, I have so much to learn. Like learning how to play the damn thing, lol. Maybe by the time I retire I'll be able to carry a tune. Merry Christmas and a Healthy New Year to you!
How did you attach the spruce bridge pup cutout to the top of the pickup? Covering the pole pieces might be muffling the output. Fantastic build, otherwise. I'd love to try building one of these.
Hellcat, thanks for watchin! The spruce cutout is attached with some thin, and sticky, double-sided tape. The wooden piece is about 0.060" thick, so just under 1/16". The top of the pickup is around 3/16" down from the strings. I get your concern about it being "muffled" and I thought that may be the issue too. As it turned out, the spruce and pickup distance seems well balanced to the saddle piezo pickup. I'd like to say that was all planned, but I typically don't follow my plans. This was a nice accident, we'll go with that. It was a really fun project, I learned a lot, and would likely change a few things next time. As it is, I use this guitar way more than I originally thought I would. I has enough acoustic volume, I just sit on the couch and play without being plugged in most of the time. Be safe and take care!
great!! exactly what I've been looking for for a long time, a test on the various preamps for piezo pickups, great but .... I can't find the vcs-3 on ebay ... Many thanks anywhere and have a good Christmas time
Andrea, thanks for watching. Here's a link to in of the preamps: www.ebay.com/itm/Active-Onboard-Guitar-Preamp-Blade-VSC-3-Replica-AnalogWorkshop-/273681790821?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0 Hope that helps start the search. Have a great Christmas!
¡Gracias por ver! Compré los 3 preamplificadores que probé en eBay. Todos vinieron de Europa y el tiempo de entrega fue muy lento. Puede haber mejores lugares para encontrar preamplificadores. Aquí hay 2 opciones de eBay: www.ebay.com/itm/Active-Onboard-Guitar-Preamp-Blade-VSC-3-Replica-AnalogWorkshop-/273681790821?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0 www.ebay.com/itm/Tiny-Active-Onboard-JFET-Piezo-Guitar-Preamp-6dB-Linear-Gain-Booster-/114551152600?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0 Thank you for watching! I purchased all 3 preamps I tested on ebay. All came from Europe and the delivery was very slow. There may be better places to find preamplifiers. Here are 2 eBay options: - See listing above -
One last question. And you may not be able to answer, but how would you remove the hum? Its one large cavity, in this case how would you shield anything? Would you run a ground wire to each pot and the switch, and put a shield around the switch? Any idea how Fender does it?
Hey Scott, I didn't shield any of this guitar, as it is basically an acoustic shell. The pickup itself could be shielded, shielded wire leads used, but I would expect there to be some potential for interference anyway. Not sure how Fender addresses this. I do have the bridge and strings grounded, which you've probably seen. Sorry I cant offer a solid solution.
Great job!! Can't wait to see another Harley Benton project... Maybe a JA kit with some cool feature? Finger crossed... Happy holidays from sunny Palermo (Italy)
Sandro, thanks for watching! I've been planning to order more kits, and a JA is on the list, but I have a few other things to wrap up first. I hope you are well and Happy Holidays to you, from Florida US. Be safe and take care!
Hello TNP, therefore the scheme that can be seen at 9:29 is not the final one. How would you draw the final scheme ? Is the 9 volt battery still part of the scheme to make the piezo work ? ... I ask it because about electronic I' m probably the GOAT ... and I don' t mean the Greatest Of All Time ... but the animal ... :):):) ... Thanks and thanks again for sharing your "jobart". Sauro
The final wiring diagram is at th-cam.com/video/ochslqp9nS0/w-d-xo.html . No 9v battery, no pre-amp... nothing exciting, very basic and yet it works. I've had a few viewers who have attempted to offer better wiring options, but I haven't had the time to revisit this project, other than sitting on the couch with it. I hope you are doing well, take care!
@@theNextProject Ops, I don' t know how I missed the last diagram ... anyway they' re good news for me. Simple is better, if it works. I come form offroad bikes world and especially in the past, in the carburetor and points era era, the motto was: "the less stuff there is, the less stuff can break". Thanks again. Sauro
This was a fantastic project to watch you work on! Can't wait for the Next Project! (Pun intended) It's fantastic to see you work creatively on this sort of thing, go all in, make mistakes, learn along the way! It has inspired me for some small projects at home as well, so thanks for sharing your projects!
TimoJ Music, thank you for watching! May I say "holy crap" you have a lot of great videos, and great guitar skills! Very, very nice stuff you have posted! Glad you're enjoying the projects and the way I go about things. I want to be honest, let everyone see things don't always go as planned. Sometimes there is no plan - only a vague goal, other times the plan evolves as the work progresses. It's a roll of the dice with me. Good to hear you are inspired to do some projects at home, that's all good stuff. Everything we do we learn a little bit, and pull from that knowledge another day on some other project. Kinda fun. 'the Next Project' is another one that has been set aside for half the year. My GGBO21 build-along project. Anyway, thank you again for taking the time to join me for these projects. I'll have more videos coming along soon-ish. Happy Holidays, and good luck with your project of any size. Take care!
@@theNextProject It's very humbling to hear you've watched some of my videos as well! May I say that I've never seen a content maker on TH-cam that takes the time to write such a kindhearted reply as yourself. Enjoy the holidays and I'll be watching along with your new projects! All the best!
Thank you! I try to catch all messages, and treat others the way I would like to be treated. YT messages has some issues, as I only get notification of original messages, not replies in a string of messages. In fact, I had attempted to reply to you latest message, and my reply seems to have disappeared. Could be "pilot error", which would be me. Glad to have you along and I'll get the next project underway soon. Take care!
Katie, thanks for watching! You should have no issue with your build, I got all the troubles out of the way for ya. You'll have smooth sailing. Hope all is well for you, Happy Holidays, take care!
Awesome build and great instructional video! 🤘🏼 I want to give it a go. Where would I find a preamp with volume/tone/blend or just volume/blend with selector switch? I have no idea where to start looking lol.
Endo, thanks for watching! I honestly don't have a good answer to your quest for a preamp with the features you seek. I had looked at a lot of different options, most with little or no "features" on Amazon and ebay. Also looked at preamps made for acoustic guitars, but I couldn't figure out where to mount such a device on this body style. As it turned out, I don't even have a preamp in the guitar. I'm running a standard tele-bridge and also a piezo-saddle, both into a typical switch. Simple seems to be working pretty well, but I don't have all the fancy capabilities of a true acoustasonic. Sorry I have not helpful info to share. Good luck with your search and project build. Take care!
Great project! I watched every part. Electronically i did several similar projects. I used a small PCB for blending the piezo and the magnetic PU together. It was about 10$ and works pretty good. I'm in Europe but i'm sure you find something similar in US...or China 😁
Elrondo, thanks for watching! A blender would be perfect! As it went, the preamp was just too much extra oomph. A blender may have properly balance all the extra power. Thanks for the idea! Hope all is well for you, Happy Holidays!
Thanks for watching and the compliment. Be safe and take care of yourself! Google translator Переводчик Google Perevodchik Google Спасибо за просмотр и комплимент. Будьте в безопасности и берегите себя! Spasibo za prosmotr i kompliment. Bud'te v bezopasnosti i beregite sebya!
Grazie per aver guardato il video! Non ho usato alcun preamplificatore integrato, ma se fossero cablati correttamente insieme al pickup magnetico, potrebbero funzionare in un modo più desiderato. Non sono riuscito a ottenere le opzioni del preamplificatore per creare il suono e il volume che speravo. Potrei lavorare di nuovo sul cablaggio per questa chitarra in futuro, ma per ora funziona molto bene così com'è. Stai al sicuro e prenditi cura di te! Thanks for watching the video! I didn't use any built-in preamps, but if they were wired correctly together with the magnetic pickup, they might work in a more desired way. I couldn't get the preamp options to create the sound and volume I was hoping for. I may work on the wiring for this guitar again in the future, but for now it works very well as it is. Stay safe and take care of yourself!
@@theNextProject tutto assolutamente chiaro. È la prima volta che la soluzione economica suona bene come quella più costosa. La mia paura era che il pickup del ponte sia più debole come suono rispetto a pickup dietro la buca. In quel caso pensavo che si potesse mettere un potenziomero per equalizzarli. Può essere un'idea? o basta allontanare il pickup dalla corde :). ho visto che esisrono pickup integrati col ponte a sella (sorse sulnano meglio non so). Ultima domanda: hai usato potenziomentri B250 oppure A500 grazie. sei un grande! Spero che la chitarra che sto costruendo assomigli alla tua!!!
Il piezo a sella e il pickup magnetico suonano molto vicini nel volume di uscita, il che è stata una sorpresa per me. Sono contento che potrebbe essere solo cablato e un preamplificatore non era necessario. Per quanto riguarda i potenziometri che ho usato, sono entrambi potenziometri da 250K CTS. Non ricordo se il potenziometro del volume è (A) audio o (B) lineare. Mi piace il lineare per il volume, ma potrei non averlo cablato in quel modo. Sono felice di sapere che hai un progetto di chitarra in corso. Prenditi il tuo tempo e divertiti, questa è la cosa più importante. Divertiti e impara lungo la strada. Tienimi aggiornato man mano che il tuo progetto avanza. Buona fortuna! - - - The saddle piezo and magnetic pickup sound very close in output volume, which was a surprise to me. I'm glad it could be just wired and a preamp wasn't needed. As for the potentiometers I used, they are both 250K CTS pots. I don't remember if the volume pot is (A) audio or (B) linear. I like linear for volume, but I may not have wired it that way. I am happy to know that you have a guitar project underway. Take your time and have fun, this is the most important thing. Have fun and learn along the way. Keep me updated as your project progresses. Good Luck!
David, thanks for watching! It was a fun project, lots of new things were stumbled upon. I still need to get back to the preamp issue and figure out other options, but for now the guitar works as-is. My current couch guitar. Hope all is well, take care!
Not a fan of these electro acoustic type guitars, find them a bit tinny, and thin sounding, a good project and well explained, you are a talented guy, enjoyed the process.
Billy, thanks for watching and glad you liked the project. It was a fun project, and I actually expected this cheap kit guitar to sound "tinny-er" than it does. Really surprised by it. The acoustic output is actually pretty nice for sitting on the couch. I can hear all my fingering and strumming mistakes, and not irritate my dog. He's not a fan of my playing. Hope all is well, take care!
That guitar sits next to the couch, constantly begging me to practice. I like it because it has just enough acoustic umph to let me know I don't know how to play, and it's not loud enough to let my neighbors know that I don't know how to play. It's a very clever guitar, hehe. I think there is a PDF in one of vid series episode descriptions... Yep, episode #6. PDF Template Download: www.dropbox.com/s/fcl8cjzxotl4su2/HB-TE-body-templates.pdf?dl=0 These plans probably won't fit every tele body, as some manufacturers mod the body shape a bit here and there. Take care my friend!
@@theNextProject you bet, thanks I'll check it out. Yeah, me thinks having a guitar that's not too noisy is a good thing. It's got balance. I have several guitar's but I'm still looking for that couch mate that won't poke my ribs and has some acoustic properties. I have a few pre amps I want to experiment with too. Oh, the psycho knob is great but for some reason the high E is not as loud as the rest. I'll have to wire one of the dummy pickups to the split coil and see if it brightens it up. Going up a string size did help. 5 levels of amp carnage and distortion like mad! Mgb 🎸 guitar's is cool
In the schematic I see you used a single ground connection. So you are sharing digital and analog ground which is a bad practice. I have read recommended wiring from Sustainiac, for example, in which they recommend to use different paths of ground and link them only in the stereo output jack using both singular ground tips. What I think is that you are introducing a constant current from the battery to the magnetic pickup that has the effect of contrasting the inducted current of strummed strings through the pickup. To prove it you can disconnect the preamp and keep only the battery in the circuit. Inverting polarity should result in an increase of volume, but do not connect the preamp or you probably gonna burn it.
Marco, thanks for watching and the insight as to the wiring. Very interesting and well explained, thank you! The piezo/preamp ground was wired to a stereo output jack. This killed power to save battery when the output cable was not inserted. The magnetic pup grounded to the control cavity, which in turn grounds to the center of the output jack. I'm not really sure how to get around that issue. As it went, removing the preamp seems to have helped the overall output balance. Not the right way, but until I get a better plan in place... I have no idea. I'll look up Sustainic as you mentioned. Hope I can find a better solution. Others have also mentioned adding a blender to the mix. I have a lot to learn, sadly I forget as quickly as I learn. Guess my brain is full. Happy holidays to you. Be safe and take care!
@@theNextProject don't worry as I have learned there's always something to study and improve as long as we are in good health, above all these days. Happy holidays to you too 🙂
Manfred, thanks for watching! Here are the 3 different onboard preamps that I purchased and tried out, all were purchased from ebay. Active Onboard Guitar Preamp Blade VSC-3 Replica - AnalogWorkshop www.ebay.com/itm/273681790821 Tiny Active Onboard JFET Piezo Guitar Preamp 6dB Linear Gain Booster: www.ebay.com/itm/115156906740 Blade VSC-3 embedding internal guitar preamp EQ PCB replica www.ebay.com/itm/114697773041 I have more experimenting to do with all of these. Maybe you can get them figured out and let me know what to do. Good luck with your project(s), be safe and take care!
William, obrigado por assistir! Eu gostaria de poder oferecer bons conselhos sobre como combinar corretamente o captador piezoelétrico e o captador magnético padrão. Neste momento, ambos estão conectados como se fossem captadores padrão. Acho que há um diagrama da fiação no vídeo. Boa sorte com seus projetos! -- Thanks for watching! I wish I could offer good advice on how to properly combine the piezo pickup and the standard magnetic pickup. At this point, both are connected as if they were standard pickups. I think there is a wiring diagram in the video. Good luck with your projects!
TheEngdan, thanks for watching. I'll see if I can capture some acoustic sound that reasonably represents this guitar.... note, my playing ability won't do the guitar any justice. Personally, I like this guitar acoustically. It's loud enough to hear every mistake i make (which is plenty), but really not enough to flood a room. Not a full bodies acoustic sound, nor volume.
@@theNextProject I'm thinking of doing this but I want to know how it sounds not plugged in I've always been curious about those Fender ones how they sound not plugged in if it still sounds like a electric guitar not plugged in i wont make one. I understand it isn't going to be as loud as a regular acoustic but hopefully it sounds like my ovation or close to it. But I have watched multiple people play these Fender ones and make ones like yours and nobody has played it unplugged so I can see how it sounds
Very nice work! But: Could you cut out the room sound when you play the guitar through the amp? If you record the line out of the Spark, you only hear the guitar - the room sound distorts the whole sound experience very much... ;-)
So true, the camera was largely picking up the acoustic sound of the guitar rather than the amp. I didn't even think about it at the time. Yep, I'm an amateur. Thanks for hanging in there and watching. Take care!
Thanks for watching! I has enough acoustic volume to play/practice without needing amplification. Not concert acoustic volume, but enough to hear the good and bad note while practicing. Hope all is well in Shanghai, be safe and take care!
I cannot tell you how thankful I am for you to have made this project and also made a wiring diagram for it, I've spent the past two months looking for diagrams and making sure an electric guitar and undersaddle would work, looking for diagrams and things, but to no avail. Finally, I found you and I have concrete evidence my idea actually works and I can move forward with my idea!
Thanks for watching!
Good luck with your project, take care
That "mule" is freaking genius!
Abran, thanks for watching!
I'm surprised by how often I use the mule. Working on a couple projects now, and the mule stepped in to shoulder the load while the other projects weren't at a point they could do it.
It was a fun and cheap project.
Hope you are well, take care!
This turned out really nice! That new fretboard wood is absolutely gorgeous. Much better than what it came with.
As far as the wiring, I’m afraid I’d run into the same issue and would probably come to the same conclusion. I did a bit of research, as I’m sure you did as well, and found the Fender Acoustasonics have a massive PCB board inside, so they’re probably using some trickery to get it working, which would be impossible to replicate. The only way I can think to get the preamp working would be to get an active tele pickup. That said, maybe there’s someone out there who has a solution. Wiring is not my strong point… I buy wiring kits for a reason. 😅
It’s working the way you have it now, and that’s what matters. It’s all about experimenting and learning new things along the way.
Curator, thanks for watching!
Oh yes, that fingerboard is great. It was a bit "gummy" to cut the fret slots, but it's been a great fingerboard ever since. It sits right next to the couch, so always within reach at the end of the day.
Fender does use a pretty crazy Fishman (?) PCB preamp magic carpet inside their guitars.
I had done a bunch of reading and had hoped (foolishly) that I could come up with something close, but everything was waaaay out of budget.
At it turned out, it has good volume out of both the wound pickup and the piezo bridge ribbon. I had planned to go back and try to get a fancier solution working, but I've moved on to other projects. Maybe someday I'll circle back, maybe.
Hope you enjoyed the project, it was fun and very educational for me. I tried a lot of ideas, most of them worked, I hid the others away for another day.
Take care!
Well Done great series of videos , Very good techniques . Will defiantly use a few of your techniques .Thank you from down under Australia
Pino, thanks for watching and glad you enjoyed the project!
Take any ideas you see and make them better, as I often experiment, and that's what you see in the videos. So there is room for improvement.
Good luck with your project, and greetings from Florida US!
In the cigar box guitar world piezos are common... there's a difference of opinion on which sounds better, the rod piezo under the bridge (or rather the rod piezo sits in a channel under the bridge position in the neck through under the the box lid in such a way that it maintains solid contact with the lid), or the disc piezos hot glued to the underside of the box lid in various positions. I favor the rod piezo...
There has also been a trend to install an onboard preamp with 3 slide equilizer to help model the tone as opposed to just wiring it directly to a volume pot to a jack (or just a jack), I've done both and favor the preamp but the latter is okay (they're cigar boxes for crying out loud!)
I really enjoy your channel!! Entertaining and informative!! Carry on!!
Hurdygurdyguy1, good to hear from you again and thanks for watching!
Thanks for the CB info. I had looked into some video of such, and agree, there are as many opinions as options. I had originally though to glue the disc/wafer piezo(s) in place just behind the bridge, but then I tried the saddle piezo... I felt it sounded a lot better too.
2 of the preamps I tried did have onboard high/med/low adjustments by way of small screw pots.
Not really adjustable with the guitar buttoned up. I'll be giving these another try in a later project (that I'm trying to talk myself out of).
Good to hear you are enjoying the channel, always good to hear from you.
Take care!
Awesome!
Thanks for watching, glad you liked the vid.
Take care!
This channel seriously deserves to blow up at some point. Amazing projects, great & helpful narration and an overall top notch presentation.
Great to see that gorgeous Tele finished and ready to join the side of the equally amazing SC.
Can't wait to see what craziness your will conjure up next. :)
Harlequin, thanks for watching and the kind words!
If I could put out more content, the channel would probably grow faster, but I work too slow and have too many unrelated things going on. Also, I'm not currently monetized on TH-cam, so that may impact the channels reach, idk.
I have a few things coming back into view, the GGBO21 project to get back on track, another scratch build starting soon, some useful tool and template ideas...
Thanks again for hanging with me.
Happy Holidays to you!
Oh, wow, this guitar looks like a million dollars.
I'm glad you finished it after all.
As you know, I only have pick-up and guitar electronics project.
I was pretty patient and have not yet started on my hard tail St., it gets Fender Yosemite Strat pick-ups and I change from two tone-controls to a master tone. The new tone pot will be a Mojo Tone P/P vintage taper. I will use the P/P for turning on the neck pick-up in all positions. My plan is to fill the hole in the pick-guard from removing one pot with a kill switch. I know what kind of switch I need, but I can't seem to find it in the stores around, I might have to order it online, I don't want to. I want to get started, but maybe there will be this hole in the pick-guard for some time before it gets filled.
And please have a good time on Christmas, and have fun when watching some random ball getting dropped for the new year. I guess Americans have a reason why they do this.
Till next time.
Achim, thanks for watching and the great message too!
Sounds like you have a cool project to work on there. Run that pick-guard with a hole in it! It'll look like a hotrod, stripped of unessentials.
I hope you have a great Christmas too. As for new years, I don't always make it til the ball drops, my eyelids usually stick shut before all that - not that I'm getting old or anything...
I think the ball drop is just another excuse to cut loose, drink too much, dance on tables, blow stuff up, run from the law...hmm, just another day really.
Take care my friend, until next time!
Great series of videos. I watched them all. I think the reason your magnetic pickup was low in comparison to the piezo was your grounding (brass plate) draining the circuit flow from one side to the other with the preamp installed (does that make sense?) The fender version does not have a grounding plate. They call the magnetic pickup 'noiseless' which is a fallacy. I have a tele acoustasonic and the magnetic pickup is certainly not noiseless.
Zibbe Zabba, thanks for taking the time to watch them all!
I kinda get what you're saying. I wonder how fender is doing their grounding, but they have a lot of high-end tech going on in their acoustisonics.
The whole active/passive combined wiring thing has me scratching my head. It's probably easier than my brain is making it, and I am no doubt misunderstanding all of it.
I really enjoyed the project, even with the issues. All good.
Thanks again, be safe and take care!
All that hard work really paid off.
Martin, thanks for watching!
Yep, it turned out pretty good. A really fun and challenging project for me.
Happy Holidays!
The problem is that you are mixing different impedances. Both piezoelectric and magnetic pickup are typically very high impedance whereas the output of the preamp is comparatively low, probably around 10k ohms so adding the preamp across the high impedance pickup is shunting a lot of the signal especially high frequencies. You would need another preamp for the magnetic if you wanted to go down the original path however I think the final solution sounds fine. Thanks for a great series of videos.
linthorn, thanks for watching!
Yep, totally agree.
In the end, it did work pretty well with the pre-amp stripped away.
Someday I'll circle back and assemble a better (different) solution as you described.
Hope all is well, be safe and take care!
I've really enjoyed this series. You've given me the confidence and enough intelligence to take on this project. Can't thank you enough and +1 for sharing the template
John, thanks for watching and I'm glad to hear you're taking a crack at the project.
As for the template, you're welcome, but remember that they may need to be altered to fit your particular guitar. Seems like every Tele style guitar I run across is slightly different.
I can't thank you enough for taking the time to hang with me during the project.
Have fun, be safe, and take care!
This was a fun build for sure. I loved every bit of it
Opidonorman, thanks for watching!
Glad you enjoyed the project, as you said "this was a fun build".
Hope you are doing well. Be safe and take care!
@@theNextProject Thanks
This is one of my favorite channels. I appreciate how you learn from your mistakes and share those same mistakes so maybe we won't have to learn them the hard way.
Hans, thanks for watching!
I really do hope others will get ideas and improve on whatever I'm up to. If I can show a potential problem, or maybe a work-around, I hope it will benefit someone.
If nothing else, we can learn to laugh when things go south, and I've had a lot of projects go terribly wrong.
As you said, "I share mistakes so maybe others won't have to learn them the hard way".
Hope you are doing well, take care and Happy Holidays!
I can not say how much I'm still happy that I discovered your channel by accident. Looking forward to the next videos of the next or old project and wish Merry Christmas and a beautiful, happy, healthy new year. All the best from a rainy Germany.
A.P. many thanks, and I'm glad you found the channel too, always good to hear from you!
I'll be getting back the the GGBO21 guitar build next, also have cell phone to repair ( I drove over it ), a portrait to paint, an new scratch build guitar to kick off in January....probably a lot of other things too.
Merry Christmas, and a Happy and Healthy New Year to you and yours.
Peace to you my friend, from rainy Florida US.
Your guitar playing is much better than mine, I think mine would improve if I would practice. But too many projects to work on for me. I like your honesty on the kit you received, I have been looking at those kits because I want to build a kit. I like the fact that you speak about what you are doing in the video in English, I know it's a terrible handicap but I only speak English so that works out for me. It seems most people review these by showing parts going together while music plays in the background, and the foreground, and all-over all of the ground, my idea of guitar building music very rarely agrees with anyone else's! So I subscribed to your channel and will watch some more of your stuff and thanks for the good video and not bad guitar playing.
Gunsmith4570, thank you for taking the time to watch! (45-70 Government?)
I appreciate the nice words on my playing, I too need to find the time to practice, but like you I have too many projects.
Sadly my time is so divided, getting any real headway on a project is becoming more difficult. That's life.
I appreciate your perspective on the voice overs and music in the background. I'm trying to find a happy mix of the two, while suppressing router and saw noises too. A juggling act.
Good luck with your projects and hope to hear from you again.
Happy New Year - a bit late.
Take care!
Wow, I love how it ends, great guitar, great show, the best guitar DIY on YT for sure!! :) Good luck with future videos :)
D C, thanks for watching and glad you've enjoyed the project.
I'll keep chipping away at the videos.
Take care!
For a guy who just likes to tinker with things, that's a really nice guitar. However, one mic should be closer to the neck to get a bigger difference in the soundstage. Anyway, great looking guitar and I really want to build my own T-style now 🙂
Ola, good to hear from you again and thanks for watchin!
Yep, I need better mic setup for recording...but then you'd be able to hear my poor playing... Hmm.
Hope all is well, now go build that guitar!!!
It is every bit as good as the new Mexican built Acoustasonic Fender has put out. It is $1200.00 with a 3 position switch. The under saddle pickup and the electronic pick-up. The American has a 5 way for the wafer piezo , under saddle, and electronic pick-up. Great job. May try it myself.
Keith, thanks for watching and glad you like the outcome of the project too!
It was a fun challenge, sadly the project got strung out a bit, but that seems to be my normal.
I may revisit this in the future, add additional piezo pups, still a lot to learn.
Be safe and take care!
It is far away from a Fender Acoustasonic, couse Fender builds a Fishman Modelleing Preamp in. And this preamp is the reason for the authentic acoustik sound. And Fishman dont sell this modelling preamp to private customers.
There is a ringing sond on this famos build guitar from "the Next Projekt", and only removing this is a lot of experimental work.
I am a experimental worker on guitars too. It is relativ easy to build a solid body electric guitar. But to build a e guitar that can sound real acoustic, is a big challange. I´m just trying a mini microphon in a seperate chamber made in the body.
I wish you a lot of fun at building. And dont give up, if the first trys dont give a resoult, that make you realy happy.
I am happy to see this finished.
It turned out well!
Thanks for watching!
It did turn out well, a really fun and challenging project. I learned a lot and now have new mysteries to solve. Such is life.
Hope you are having a great holiday season.
Take care.
Great video and great project series. I enjoyed every part of the series and the fact that you share how you figure out each problem as they come up. The guitar turned out beautiful. You can be proud of your work. Looks better than the Fender models. Looking forward to the next project.👍👍
Jim, thanks for watching and I'm really glad you enjoyed the project.
The guitar did turn out pretty well. Honestly it sounds better in person than it does in this video.
Thanks for the kind words.
Wishing you a Happy and Health Holiday Season!
what a ride - awesome results.
Bryan, thanks for watching the series!
It did turn out pretty good, and has become my "couch" guitar. I like not having to be plugged in to hear my errors, and also enjoy the size of this guitar over a full acoustic. A great project. I may do something like this again when time permits.
Happy Holidays, be safe and take care!
@@theNextProject I'm all about it - cool process and the neck turned out so good. My friend has a workshop collecting time dust instead of work dust . . . I have a kit and might try to do a semi hollow version of a T over the holidays and just leave the body hardware as is.
Great project, very inspiring and as always very entertaining to watch! If I ever will finish my actual (first) build from scratch, something like this will probably be my "the next project".
Manolo, thanks for watching!
I'm glad to hear you're inspired and entertained, that is exactly why I'm doing this. I really hope others, like yourself, will get ideas and just jump in and start doing things, whatever the project, just jump in.
Your first build is a big learning process, take your time, don't rush, learn from mistakes and errors, and above all, just have fun. When it's not fun, put it away for a day, then come back to it.
Have fun, have fun, have fun!
Happy Holidays, peace be with you!
Take care!
Thanks for this great content. I am about to do a similar build and appreciate the detail, including the mistakes/learnings, for how you got this done!
Troy, thanks for watching!
This was a fun and challenging project. Tried a lot of things new to me, borrowed ideas, then made them fit my process and tools.
Take anything you see and improve on it, make it your own.
Good luck with your project, have fun!
If you still want to have the acoustic preamp, what I would do is run two separate output jacks. One for the piezo and one for the magnetic. You see this setup often on "hybrid" guitars.
Dustin, thanks for watching and the suggestion too.
Take care!
Been inspired by this build to try my own ,have finished the build now I will tackle the wiring. Thanks for putting this out there loved it. Take care love to you all from Ireland.
John, thanks for watching and glad to hear you are finding the project useful.
There have been some very good suggestions in the comments for this vid, how to approaching the wiring for this project.
At this point, I'll probably leave the preamp out, but I want to do more testing to learn how to properly include a preamp with piezo pickups along with a passive magnetic pup. So much for me to learn.
Good luck with your project, and keep me posted as you wrap it up.
Happy Holidays!
Happy Christmas from Ireland. Finished and looking fantastic. Electronics is always a bit of a dark art I find, I'm happier woodworking.
Brian, Happy Christmas to you, and good to hear from you!
Thank you, it turned out pretty nice.
I agree, electronics is a bugger for me as well. I almost understand some parts and not a thing on other parts.
Have a great holiday season, take care!
Fantastic job! Very glad to see you finish this project.
Peter, thanks for watching and thank you!
I'm glad to have it wrapped up too, on to " the Next Project ".
Happy Holidays!
You have a fantastic holiday, too!
Great modification of the Tele-kit guitar. Learned a lot from your experimentations along the way. Hopefully you'll find a use for your collection of pre-amps. One can only wonder what Fender is doing electronically inside their acoustic-sonic line to create so many different acoustic and electronic sound textures in their designs ? Can't wait for your Next Project.
Chris, thanks for watching!
Fender has quite a bit of tech going on with their Fishman Acoustic-engine... fancy stuff for sure.
It would be neat to have someone explain it all, but I may not understand anyway.
This simple approach is good enough for now, but as you mentioned, I have a bag of preamps to play with. Actually thinking about an acoustic-mule testing guitar. Just for fun of course.
Hope all is well for you and family.
Happy and Healthy Holiday Season to you!
Great you've been able to complete this project, always a pleasure catching your vids. Merry Christmas!
RSCS, good to hear from you and thanks for watching!
Glad you enjoyed the project.
Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Superb outcome
Graham, many thanks!
I hope your projects are going well.
Have a great Holiday Season, take care!
Awesome project. Was looking for videos about HB kits. Subscribed for more. 👍
Nieko, thanks for watching and welcome!
I have another HB kit, but it's a few projects away at this time.
Take care!
So glad you got it together. I have taken so much awY from this series. A mule guitar sure would be handy. As I could be waiting months for my pre-amp I'll take your workable option first and hope it works out for me, I am using a different bridge/piezzo set up though. A few thought in your final guitar, that head stock is beautiful, and I like the wood veneer on top of the mag pickup. Looking forward to the "next project"
Jurgen, great to hear from you and glad you're finding the videos useful.
I'm sure there is a correct way to get the preamp working, some other viewers have offered ideas and options. I just need to do more research and testing.
Honestly, the piezo I used seems to offer enough output without the preamp, so possibly the preamp isn't really needed - in this instance.
Hope all is well for you.
Have a happy and healthy holiday season!
@@theNextProject it's a funny world, the world of guitars. I get some that swear it won't work without the pre-amp, then there are people like yourself that have good results without. My preference is to not have to bother, but we'll see. Merry Christmas to you John. Stay safe and talk next year.
Beautiful works,you are great ,and super man!
1954charlie, thanks for watching and the nice comment too.
Hope all is well for you, take care!
Very interesting. I wonder if you had used an active pickup and ran it through the onboard preamp. Next time try a blend pot in place of the switch.
dugbert5, thanks for watching!
A blender pot seems to be a popular suggestion, and maybe I'll find a way to add such a thing to this mix.
Hope you are doing well, Happy Holidays!
Thanks for making this video series. This will be very helpful in one of my builds that i have had sitting for months on end as well!!!
Hemstitched, thanks for watching!
Glad to hear the videos will be helpful.
I completely understand how projects can sit, I have many of those.
Good luck with everything and Happy Holidays!
You had me hooked from the first episode. It was great to learn along with you. That guitar is absolutely stunning. Very nice work. Peace
Thanks for watching and glad you took the bait. Gotcha hooked!
I hope people will watch these projects, get ideas and improve on them. Mod something, fix something, just have fun.
The guitar did turn out pretty good, I'm happy with it, and may build another from scratch next time... Of course, I have a lot of plans that I'm not getting to.
Thanks for joining in and watch for more projects coming soon.
Be safe and take care!
@@theNextProject I build and mod. I also do repairs for my friends for free. I only charge for the cost of the parts. I rent now, so a workshop is out of the question. I hope to one day have a workshop again. Take care. By the way, you have yourself a new subscriber. Peace
Man I hear that.
We seem to have similar practices and situations.
I rent too, so my workspace has changed too often.
I worked on a kitchen table and countertops for a while, and a patio area, then was lucky enough to have a small garage space. My most recent move again has a garage space - I'm lucky.
I hate moving, boxing, unboxing... I think I tossed more stuff than I realized. I'm still looking for some small tools, materials... all the things that are needed.
A new workshop will happen for you again, all in good time, hang in there.
Thanks for watching, leaving comments (good chat), and for the sub too!
Be safe and take care!
Congrats my friend. And a Merry Christmas to you. Until the next project 😊
Hey man, good to hear from you!
Hope all is well.
Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year to you. See you in the next project, take care!
Been looking forward to getting this one finished
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching, and sorry for the extreme delay in wrapping this up.
"There is no point" to much of what I do, but that actually makes most of it fun.
Hope you are doing well, Happy Holidays!
Really enjoyed watching this project! Thank you all the way from The Netherlands! Merry Christmas!
Jos, thanks for watching!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Florida US!
Take care
I'm still wanting to create things every time I see your videos. Keep going, take care !
Bob, we gotta get you a project to tear into. Something, anything!
Thanks for hanging with me on these projects.
Take care my friend!
@@theNextProject I'm trying to make doors with an old Marshall amp, some day I'm gonna finish it and send you the pictures !
"make doors with an old Marshall amp"...Okay, now I'm really interested in what you have going on!
Looking forward to seeing this.
Be safe and Happy Holidays!
Great project, it turned out really beautiful looking and sounding too!!!!
You did a very neat job with this kit. Thumbs up! All the episodes were very entertaining to watch.
I am in the middle of a similar project and along the way I have ordered a lot of electronic components like you for experimentation that I might never end up using them in this particular project... So, I get your frustration!
About the volume mismatch issue you encountered: You probably cannot combine a passive pickup with an active in the same circuit. You can use both passive (as you finally did) or you could use an active electric pickup (with built -in preamp) together with the active piezo. But that also means 50K value pots instead of 250K and of course two preamps to feed with batteries...
So, the more simple, the better!
Happy holidays,
Stergios.
Ahhh! So that kinda makes sense.
As you said, a lot to testing and frustration. Seems I never found a clear explanation, but rather a lot of opinions... Thanks for explaining that clearly a concisely, much appreciated!
Hope your project is coming together well.
Have a happy and healthy New Year!
Thanks for watching too!
Very cool looking guitar, great job!
Thanks for watching and glad you enjoyed the show.
Be safe and take care!
Great series, looking forward to the next one :)
Hey Tom, good to hear from you and thanks for watching!
Glad you enjoyed it, and now it's time to get back to the GGBO21 scratch build, and another scratch build, and a cell phone repair....never ending list, 🤣
Have a great and safe holiday season, peace to you and yours.
Pluasantly serprised how good the pieza puckup sounds🙂
Liam, thanks for watching!
Yes, the piezo actually sounds pretty good, actually it sounds better I'm person than in the video.
My son commented on the overall sound of this guitar "wow, that's really loud" I was playing unplugged sitting on the couch. He though I was amped.
All good.
Be safe and take care!
Turned out great! What was the process you used for finishing the fretboard with CA glue? Haven't found any videos that detail that process.
Yep, this was another CA coated fingerboard. Episode 4 showed the process on this project.
th-cam.com/video/JnTUHJukzMU/w-d-xo.html
Also did the CA coating on this project:
th-cam.com/video/3aySJUOqcaE/w-d-xo.html
I'm not saying this is "the way" to do the process, but it should offer some perspective.
Good luck with your project!
Congratulations! What a lot of work, but wow man you've basically nailed it. If anything the electronic stuff could still be tinkered with I suppose, but in terms of the guitar itself you've made a perfect replica of an Ultraexpensiveacoustasonic!
Keith, thanks for watching!
Glad you like the way the project turned out. It was a lot of fun, rather challenging, and very educational for me.
I agree, there is a lot of tinkering left to be done. While I don't mind the sounds that come out of it currently, there is room for more variety. I need to send myself back to school to learn how to properly build a more robust electronics/pickup system for this - someday perhaps.
For now, I just enjoy attempting to play it and I'm on to working on many other projects too.
Thanks again for watching, hope all is well in the Northwest Territory.
Be safe and take care!
Looks good sounds not bad at all. Have a good Christmas. Be well
Hey Steve, thanks for watching!
It did turn out pretty good, and as I watched the video, I realized the camera audio capture did no justice to the end product.
I'm really surprised by how good it sounds acoustically for such a thin body. My son said "that thing is loud, I thought it was plugged in".
Then where I had the camera, it was picking up as a much acoustic sound as it was sound from the amp. I should have moved the amp in front of the guitar for better audio capture.
Ah, I have so much to learn. Like learning how to play the damn thing, lol. Maybe by the time I retire I'll be able to carry a tune.
Merry Christmas and a Healthy New Year to you!
Cool project. I watched the whole series and enjoyed it. Subbed, of course.
Gee, thanks for watching, and watching, and watching. Glad you enjoyed the project. Thanks for hanging, take care!
How did you attach the spruce bridge pup cutout to the top of the pickup? Covering the pole pieces might be muffling the output. Fantastic build, otherwise. I'd love to try building one of these.
Hellcat, thanks for watchin!
The spruce cutout is attached with some thin, and sticky, double-sided tape. The wooden piece is about 0.060" thick, so just under 1/16". The top of the pickup is around 3/16" down from the strings.
I get your concern about it being "muffled" and I thought that may be the issue too. As it turned out, the spruce and pickup distance seems well balanced to the saddle piezo pickup.
I'd like to say that was all planned, but I typically don't follow my plans. This was a nice accident, we'll go with that.
It was a really fun project, I learned a lot, and would likely change a few things next time. As it is, I use this guitar way more than I originally thought I would. I has enough acoustic volume, I just sit on the couch and play without being plugged in most of the time.
Be safe and take care!
great!! exactly what I've been looking for for a long time, a test on the various preamps for piezo pickups, great but .... I can't find the vcs-3 on ebay ... Many thanks anywhere and have a good Christmas time
Andrea, thanks for watching. Here's a link to in of the preamps:
www.ebay.com/itm/Active-Onboard-Guitar-Preamp-Blade-VSC-3-Replica-AnalogWorkshop-/273681790821?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0
Hope that helps start the search.
Have a great Christmas!
@@theNextProject wow, many thanks guy, now I have the preamp in the basket, ebay.it didn't find it!!
Quedo muy bien con buen sonido donde puedo comprar el preamplifier que uso
¡Gracias por ver!
Compré los 3 preamplificadores que probé en eBay. Todos vinieron de Europa y el tiempo de entrega fue muy lento.
Puede haber mejores lugares para encontrar preamplificadores.
Aquí hay 2 opciones de eBay:
www.ebay.com/itm/Active-Onboard-Guitar-Preamp-Blade-VSC-3-Replica-AnalogWorkshop-/273681790821?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0
www.ebay.com/itm/Tiny-Active-Onboard-JFET-Piezo-Guitar-Preamp-6dB-Linear-Gain-Booster-/114551152600?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0
Thank you for watching!
I purchased all 3 preamps I tested on ebay. All came from Europe and the delivery was very slow.
There may be better places to find preamplifiers.
Here are 2 eBay options:
- See listing above -
One last question. And you may not be able to answer, but how would you remove the hum? Its one large cavity, in this case how would you shield anything? Would you run a ground wire to each pot and the switch, and put a shield around the switch? Any idea how Fender does it?
Hey Scott,
I didn't shield any of this guitar, as it is basically an acoustic shell. The pickup itself could be shielded, shielded wire leads used, but I would expect there to be some potential for interference anyway. Not sure how Fender addresses this.
I do have the bridge and strings grounded, which you've probably seen.
Sorry I cant offer a solid solution.
Great job!! Can't wait to see another Harley Benton project... Maybe a JA kit with some cool feature? Finger crossed... Happy holidays from sunny Palermo (Italy)
Sandro, thanks for watching!
I've been planning to order more kits, and a JA is on the list, but I have a few other things to wrap up first.
I hope you are well and Happy Holidays to you, from Florida US.
Be safe and take care!
Hello TNP, therefore the scheme that can be seen at 9:29 is not the final one. How would you draw the final scheme ? Is the 9 volt battery still part of the scheme to make the piezo work ? ... I ask it because about electronic I' m probably the GOAT ... and I don' t mean the Greatest Of All Time ... but the animal ... :):):) ... Thanks and thanks again for sharing your "jobart". Sauro
The final wiring diagram is at th-cam.com/video/ochslqp9nS0/w-d-xo.html . No 9v battery, no pre-amp... nothing exciting, very basic and yet it works. I've had a few viewers who have attempted to offer better wiring options, but I haven't had the time to revisit this project, other than sitting on the couch with it.
I hope you are doing well, take care!
@@theNextProject Ops, I don' t know how I missed the last diagram ... anyway they' re good news for me. Simple is better, if it works. I come form offroad bikes world and especially in the past, in the carburetor and points era era, the motto was: "the less stuff there is, the less stuff can break". Thanks again. Sauro
Great stuff buddy 👍✌😎
Hope you've had a Merry Christmas 👍✌😎
Mark, thank you very much.
Hope you had a Merry Christmas too.
Happy and Healthy New Year to you!
This was a fantastic project to watch you work on! Can't wait for the Next Project! (Pun intended)
It's fantastic to see you work creatively on this sort of thing, go all in, make mistakes, learn along the way! It has inspired me for some small projects at home as well, so thanks for sharing your projects!
TimoJ Music, thank you for watching!
May I say "holy crap" you have a lot of great videos, and great guitar skills!
Very, very nice stuff you have posted!
Glad you're enjoying the projects and the way I go about things.
I want to be honest, let everyone see things don't always go as planned. Sometimes there is no plan - only a vague goal, other times the plan evolves as the work progresses.
It's a roll of the dice with me.
Good to hear you are inspired to do some projects at home, that's all good stuff. Everything we do we learn a little bit, and pull from that knowledge another day on some other project. Kinda fun.
'the Next Project' is another one that has been set aside for half the year. My GGBO21 build-along project.
Anyway, thank you again for taking the time to join me for these projects.
I'll have more videos coming along soon-ish.
Happy Holidays, and good luck with your project of any size.
Take care!
@@theNextProject It's very humbling to hear you've watched some of my videos as well! May I say that I've never seen a content maker on TH-cam that takes the time to write such a kindhearted reply as yourself. Enjoy the holidays and I'll be watching along with your new projects! All the best!
Thank you!
I try to catch all messages, and treat others the way I would like to be treated.
YT messages has some issues, as I only get notification of original messages, not replies in a string of messages.
In fact, I had attempted to reply to you latest message, and my reply seems to have disappeared.
Could be "pilot error", which would be me.
Glad to have you along and I'll get the next project underway soon.
Take care!
Congrats on a beautiful build. I definitely want to do an Acoustasonic style build, but let's hope I don't have the trouble you did, lol.
Katie, thanks for watching!
You should have no issue with your build, I got all the troubles out of the way for ya. You'll have smooth sailing.
Hope all is well for you, Happy Holidays, take care!
@@theNextProject Same to you! :)
Awesome build and great instructional video! 🤘🏼 I want to give it a go. Where would I find a preamp with volume/tone/blend or just volume/blend with selector switch? I have no idea where to start looking lol.
Endo, thanks for watching!
I honestly don't have a good answer to your quest for a preamp with the features you seek.
I had looked at a lot of different options, most with little or no "features" on Amazon and ebay. Also looked at preamps made for acoustic guitars, but I couldn't figure out where to mount such a device on this body style.
As it turned out, I don't even have a preamp in the guitar. I'm running a standard tele-bridge and also a piezo-saddle, both into a typical switch.
Simple seems to be working pretty well, but I don't have all the fancy capabilities of a true acoustasonic.
Sorry I have not helpful info to share.
Good luck with your search and project build.
Take care!
@@theNextProject no worries, your build is super helpful. I'm down for the adventure lol. You take care as well.
Great project!
I watched every part.
Electronically i did several similar projects. I used a small PCB for blending the piezo and the magnetic PU together.
It was about 10$ and works pretty good. I'm in Europe but i'm sure you find something similar in US...or China 😁
Elrondo, thanks for watching!
A blender would be perfect!
As it went, the preamp was just too much extra oomph. A blender may have properly balance all the extra power. Thanks for the idea!
Hope all is well for you, Happy Holidays!
Молодец. 👍👏👏👏🙋♂️🎼🎶🎸🎩Master. 👌👏👏👏
Thanks for watching and the compliment.
Be safe and take care of yourself!
Google translator
Переводчик Google
Perevodchik Google
Спасибо за просмотр и комплимент.
Будьте в безопасности и берегите себя!
Spasibo za prosmotr i kompliment.
Bud'te v bezopasnosti i beregite sebya!
Sei stato perfetto nelle spiegazioni e in tutto. Quindi alla fine il suono migliore è quello dell'ultima configurazione? La più economica senza VSC-3?
Grazie per aver guardato il video!
Non ho usato alcun preamplificatore integrato, ma se fossero cablati correttamente insieme al pickup magnetico, potrebbero funzionare in un modo più desiderato.
Non sono riuscito a ottenere le opzioni del preamplificatore per creare il suono e il volume che speravo. Potrei lavorare di nuovo sul cablaggio per questa chitarra in futuro, ma per ora funziona molto bene così com'è.
Stai al sicuro e prenditi cura di te!
Thanks for watching the video!
I didn't use any built-in preamps, but if they were wired correctly together with the magnetic pickup, they might work in a more desired way.
I couldn't get the preamp options to create the sound and volume I was hoping for. I may work on the wiring for this guitar again in the future, but for now it works very well as it is.
Stay safe and take care of yourself!
@@theNextProject tutto assolutamente chiaro. È la prima volta che la soluzione economica suona bene come quella più costosa. La mia paura era che il pickup del ponte sia più debole come suono rispetto a pickup dietro la buca. In quel caso pensavo che si potesse mettere un potenziomero per equalizzarli. Può essere un'idea? o basta allontanare il pickup dalla corde :). ho visto che esisrono pickup integrati col ponte a sella (sorse sulnano meglio non so). Ultima domanda: hai usato potenziomentri B250 oppure A500 grazie. sei un grande! Spero che la chitarra che sto costruendo assomigli alla tua!!!
Il piezo a sella e il pickup magnetico suonano molto vicini nel volume di uscita, il che è stata una sorpresa per me.
Sono contento che potrebbe essere solo cablato e un preamplificatore non era necessario.
Per quanto riguarda i potenziometri che ho usato, sono entrambi potenziometri da 250K CTS.
Non ricordo se il potenziometro del volume è (A) audio o (B) lineare. Mi piace il lineare per il volume, ma potrei non averlo cablato in quel modo.
Sono felice di sapere che hai un progetto di chitarra in corso. Prenditi il tuo tempo e divertiti, questa è la cosa più importante. Divertiti e impara lungo la strada.
Tienimi aggiornato man mano che il tuo progetto avanza.
Buona fortuna!
- - -
The saddle piezo and magnetic pickup sound very close in output volume, which was a surprise to me.
I'm glad it could be just wired and a preamp wasn't needed.
As for the potentiometers I used, they are both 250K CTS pots.
I don't remember if the volume pot is (A) audio or (B) linear. I like linear for volume, but I may not have wired it that way.
I am happy to know that you have a guitar project underway. Take your time and have fun, this is the most important thing. Have fun and learn along the way.
Keep me updated as your project progresses.
Good Luck!
Thank you very much you helped me a lot.
You are welcome!
That's some serious stuff !! Bravo, that was very inspiring :)
David, thanks for watching!
It was a fun project, lots of new things were stumbled upon. I still need to get back to the preamp issue and figure out other options, but for now the guitar works as-is. My current couch guitar.
Hope all is well, take care!
Not a fan of these electro acoustic type guitars, find them a bit tinny, and thin sounding, a good project and well explained, you are a talented guy, enjoyed the process.
Billy, thanks for watching and glad you liked the project.
It was a fun project, and I actually expected this cheap kit guitar to sound "tinny-er" than it does.
Really surprised by it. The acoustic output is actually pretty nice for sitting on the couch. I can hear all my fingering and strumming mistakes, and not irritate my dog. He's not a fan of my playing.
Hope all is well, take care!
❤where's this guitar now? Can you share any plans?
That guitar sits next to the couch, constantly begging me to practice.
I like it because it has just enough acoustic umph to let me know I don't know how to play, and it's not loud enough to let my neighbors know that I don't know how to play.
It's a very clever guitar, hehe.
I think there is a PDF in one of vid series episode descriptions...
Yep, episode #6.
PDF Template Download:
www.dropbox.com/s/fcl8cjzxotl4su2/HB-TE-body-templates.pdf?dl=0
These plans probably won't fit every tele body, as some manufacturers mod the body shape a bit here and there.
Take care my friend!
@@theNextProject you bet, thanks I'll check it out. Yeah, me thinks having a guitar that's not too noisy is a good thing. It's got balance. I have several guitar's but I'm still looking for that couch mate that won't poke my ribs and has some acoustic properties. I have a few pre amps I want to experiment with too. Oh, the psycho knob is great but for some reason the high E is not as loud as the rest. I'll have to wire one of the dummy pickups to the split coil and see if it brightens it up. Going up a string size did help. 5 levels of amp carnage and distortion like mad! Mgb 🎸 guitar's is cool
In the schematic I see you used a single ground connection. So you are sharing digital and analog ground which is a bad practice. I have read recommended wiring from Sustainiac, for example, in which they recommend to use different paths of ground and link them only in the stereo output jack using both singular ground tips. What I think is that you are introducing a constant current from the battery to the magnetic pickup that has the effect of contrasting the inducted current of strummed strings through the pickup. To prove it you can disconnect the preamp and keep only the battery in the circuit. Inverting polarity should result in an increase of volume, but do not connect the preamp or you probably gonna burn it.
Marco, thanks for watching and the insight as to the wiring. Very interesting and well explained, thank you!
The piezo/preamp ground was wired to a stereo output jack. This killed power to save battery when the output cable was not inserted. The magnetic pup grounded to the control cavity, which in turn grounds to the center of the output jack. I'm not really sure how to get around that issue.
As it went, removing the preamp seems to have helped the overall output balance. Not the right way, but until I get a better plan in place... I have no idea.
I'll look up Sustainic as you mentioned. Hope I can find a better solution. Others have also mentioned adding a blender to the mix.
I have a lot to learn, sadly I forget as quickly as I learn. Guess my brain is full.
Happy holidays to you.
Be safe and take care!
@@theNextProject don't worry as I have learned there's always something to study and improve as long as we are in good health, above all these days. Happy holidays to you too 🙂
Cheers!
Please. Could you send me a link of the preamps you are using.
Manfred, thanks for watching!
Here are the 3 different onboard preamps that I purchased and tried out, all were purchased from ebay.
Active Onboard Guitar Preamp Blade VSC-3 Replica - AnalogWorkshop
www.ebay.com/itm/273681790821
Tiny Active Onboard JFET Piezo Guitar Preamp 6dB Linear Gain Booster:
www.ebay.com/itm/115156906740
Blade VSC-3 embedding internal guitar preamp EQ PCB replica
www.ebay.com/itm/114697773041
I have more experimenting to do with all of these. Maybe you can get them figured out and let me know what to do.
Good luck with your project(s), be safe and take care!
escrito no canal.
sou do Brasil .
tambem faço algums instrumentos.
queria saber fazer esse sistema eletrico ,piezo e magnético junto
William, obrigado por assistir!
Eu gostaria de poder oferecer bons conselhos sobre como combinar corretamente o captador piezoelétrico e o captador magnético padrão. Neste momento, ambos estão conectados como se fossem captadores padrão. Acho que há um diagrama da fiação no vídeo.
Boa sorte com seus projetos!
--
Thanks for watching!
I wish I could offer good advice on how to properly combine the piezo pickup and the standard magnetic pickup. At this point, both are connected as if they were standard pickups. I think there is a wiring diagram in the video.
Good luck with your projects!
I want to hear one of these things unplugged
TheEngdan, thanks for watching.
I'll see if I can capture some acoustic sound that reasonably represents this guitar.... note, my playing ability won't do the guitar any justice.
Personally, I like this guitar acoustically. It's loud enough to hear every mistake i make (which is plenty), but really not enough to flood a room. Not a full bodies acoustic sound, nor volume.
@@theNextProject I'm thinking of doing this but I want to know how it sounds not plugged in I've always been curious about those Fender ones how they sound not plugged in if it still sounds like a electric guitar not plugged in i wont make one. I understand it isn't going to be as loud as a regular acoustic but hopefully it sounds like my ovation or close to it. But I have watched multiple people play these Fender ones and make ones like yours and nobody has played it unplugged so I can see how it sounds
@@theNextProject thanks for the videos
“Piezo” on the phone 🤣
I try to be smarter than the tools I use, then I expose the reality.
I'm pretty sure I've learned nothing, and likely still pronounce that word wrong.
Very nice work! But:
Could you cut out the room sound when you play the guitar through the amp? If you record the line out of the Spark, you only hear the guitar - the room sound distorts the whole sound experience very much... ;-)
So true, the camera was largely picking up the acoustic sound of the guitar rather than the amp. I didn't even think about it at the time.
Yep, I'm an amateur.
Thanks for hanging in there and watching.
Take care!
Again another video making an acoustic guitar but doesn't show an example of playing it not plugged in
I'll see what I can do. Thanks for watching!
How does it sound unplugged?
Im in Shanghai BTW, since you asked. :)
Thanks for watching!
I has enough acoustic volume to play/practice without needing amplification.
Not concert acoustic volume, but enough to hear the good and bad note while practicing.
Hope all is well in Shanghai, be safe and take care!