Can you run TWO wiring rigs into ONE output jack? EDITED

[AWSchmit]

*
*A clearer question has been posted in the last post. please skip ahead to that. Thanks a lot.


This evening I decided to add a two piezo element wiring harness to the guts of my Cigarster (cigar box guitar with a kinda of tele set up) This is what I did. I simply left the old wiring harness as it was, but added two piezo pickups to it by wiring them in series with the ground running into a two way slider switch then into the jack, and the hot running into the jack on the other terminal right overtop my old joints. Shouldn't this work?

..I just opened back up my box and realized that the ground from the piezo is connecting to the old rigs hot and vise versa with the peize hot. Does this explain why when I tryed out my wiring rig, that when I have the new switch on "ON" the regular pickups still work but it's a lot more buzzy then normal(although in the ON I still can't here my piezo's), and when the switch is on "OFF" there is no sound at all?

[AWSchmit]

I just flipped my wires. I still get the same thing. on ON all I get is a lot of noise and pickup operation, and in the OFF I get nothing. I must be shorting out my whole circuit somehow... Any suggestions?

[AWSchmit]

I just spoke to a guy locally who does house wiring, and he told me that he thinks I should run the hot to the switch and not the ground. If I do that, will it fix the problem and work the way I want it to or no?

[akezys]

I'm not exactly sure what you are talking about - diagram? Photos?

[AWSchmit]

The first picture is of how I had the guitar wired originally. the second picture was taken after I removed the old wiring harness to add the piezos. I ran the black wiring into the siwtch you can see to the left, in that pic. and than ran a wire from that to the ground side of my output jack. Than I ran the white wire into the hot of my output. Mine you, I did this wiring after I put back in the old wiring harness.




Do these pictures make it any clearer?

[AWSchmit]

My guitar is still in parts...

[bop]

I know you can toggle switch between setups and play one set at a time. Interrupt right after the pickups.

[AWSchmit]

Yeah, I figured that was possible, but is it also possible to run them both at the same time with out problems?

[rickenmetal]

I'm not sure, but I know some piezos have a really weak output so you might need a pre-amp, although it doesn't apply to all piezos.

[AWSchmit]

Alright forget all the stuff above this...

Say, you have a three way pickup selector, and you have two pickups that this selector controls. Can you add an additional pickup and run the ground of this pickup to the ground of the 3-way switch and then run the hot wire of this additional pickup to a on/off switch then run that into the hot output of the original 3-way switch? Wouldn't this essentially make all the switch work in conduction?

... I tried this and when the additional two way switch is in the off possession the first two pickups work fine. but when the additional switch is in the on possession it kills all activity. So lets say that the additional pickup is broke and wouldn't ever work anyway. If the additional switch is in ON or OFF, shouldn't the original two pickups and switch still work normally?

Thank you.

[the older brother]

Sounds like there is something strange with your wiring (or parts in it). I think the way you describe it would work just fine, but it's easier to tell if you post a drawing/diagram/schematic of your wiring.

[AWSchmit]

I drew it as if you are looking through the front the guitar. so it the pot looks backwards or if the pickups look lefty. It's just how I drew it.



I hope I didn't leave anything out. if something looks fishy let me know. Thanks

[AWSchmit]

Just looking at the drawing, should the hot and ground go to a terminal each on the 2-way and then one hot come from it to the 3-way?

[kalipigeon]

Try hooking some alligator clips up to each piezo element so you can wire directly to a jack. The ones i've messed with are incredibly fragile and you may just have one that is not making full contact when on. Since your "on" position has a series connection, if they fail, so does the whole sound.

Also, every mixed pickup system I've ever seen has a mixing, buffered preamp inline. I know with piezo tweeters you need to account for some odd electrical properties when pairing them with woofers, maybe you've got some high vs low impedance issues going on. Piezos aren't my forte, but this looks like a cool circuit.

[AWSchmit]

I originally had the peizos hooked right to the jack, but I thought that may have been part of the problem, that's when I moved them to the pickup selector. but with the same results.

I was hoping to avoid using a preamp. I may have too though. But while I was testing these disks I found that these are about 80% as load as the pickups that I have in the guitar already. So I just figured that messing with the volume could offset it. Though that will only work if I run the wires back to the output jack, because right now they are behind the volume knob. Anyway. You may be right. The disks themeless may have been damaged, I'll unhook the two leads and hook them up to a jack to test them. if they don't work in that instance then I know that they just need replaced all together.

Now that I think about it. I had to removed the original leads and attach the ones that are there now, and after I did that I never checked them. so they could have been bad from the get-go.