Originally Posted By: eddie1261
Originally Posted By: RJ 1911
The Graph Tech preamp below will both buffer the piezo, and mix in the humbuckers and their controls. No modification necessary to the existing circuitry, just move the existing signal at the output jack to the preamp instead.


I don't want it to mix in the humbuckers. I want to be able to leave the piezo off when I want to and blend it in to whatever humbucker combination I have set t any given time. Thus I want to wire the output of the piezo's volume pot straight to the output jack. Then, if I should choose to in the right situation (if there ever is one) I cold play just the piezo. This is the fun of thinking and speculating!! What to do? HOW to do? What will the result be?

This is how any field's nerds end up with a stack of napkins with never finished ideas! I've got probably a dozen songs worth of lyrics sitting in files on m computer. 4 or 5 wood projects, including how I'd build out a Nissan high top van for a travel vehicle. The bed that folds up so I can have a desk there during wake hours, the kind of cabinet hardware I need to keep drawers closed during travel, the solar power system, etc... And the odd thing is that I am by no means a draftsman, so they are sketches that mean nothing to anybody but me.

Here's a great example of how I tinker. I have a 2x12 closed back speaker cabinet. I saw somewhere a speaker cab that had one closed back 12" and one open back 12". I went and measured that back panel of that cabinet, pulled the back off to see how thick it was (1/2"), bought a piece of wood, cut out a port on the back of that wood behind one of the 12s, admired it for a few minutes, and never put it on the cabinet. I planned, I measured, I executed, but that was completion enough for me. All that remains on it is for me to pull the existing back off, lay it on the new one, mark where to drill the screw holes with an awl, and put it on. But in my mind, I am done just for having built it. That piece is sitting in my basement somewhere in a pile of wood.

I must have a dozen stories just like that.

Nobody ever accused me of being wound too tight. LOL!



The Graph Tech preamp will operate like that, but it does require that the preamp always be powered on, even if you're not using the piezo pickup.

Is that what you want to avoid?

If I understand, you want to add a piezo pickup and preamp, and then passively mix it into to existing humbucker circuitry?

I also design things that I never build. I have parts collected for several projects that are still sitting in storage boxes. The challenge is in working it all out, and often the only goal.

-