replacement under saddle piezo strip

midlifecrisis

have a vintage ve 500 and the electrics gone bad. worked out that the piezo strip one of the wires has detached, impossible to try and solder back on. A local shop has some fishman piezos for about £25 but looking on ebay i can see chinese ones available for £3-6 and being a lot more convenient for me too. Can anyone advise me, does the piezo p/up actually make that much difference or is it more to do with the preamp (which i believe is still working fine). as this is my knockabout geeetar im not to worried about optimum  sound but if its equal to what was originally installed id be more than happy.

ICBM

In my opinion there isn't that much difference in the piezo pickups themselves, at least if you're comparing like for like - eg a straight high-impedance piezo and not the lower-output ones that LR Baggs use, for example (which I think work on a slightly different principle).

A Fishman for £25 is a pretty good price though, so I'd maybe be inclined to get the real thing and *know* it will be good.

midlifecrisis

thanks, may do that then, another question, wiring the stereo jack, i know one is signal and one is ground and one disconnects the battery but dont know which is which, ie have a red wire, white wire and bare wire. which goes to tip, ring and base of socket?

ICBM

midlifecrisis said:

thanks, may do that then, another question, wiring the stereo jack, i know one is signal and one is ground and one disconnects the battery but dont know which is which, ie have a red wire, white wire and bare wire. which goes to tip, ring and base of socket?

The bare definitely goes to the sleeve/base but the others are impossible to tell from the colour coding - some makes use red for the signal and some for the power.

Measure the voltage from each of the other two to the bare - you should find 9V (or close) on one, that goes to the ring.

midlifecrisis

^^ thanks. best thing to test it before fixing it back in.

midlifecrisis

should it correspond that the tip connects the tip of the mini jack at the other end and the base connects to the base or does that vary?

ICBM

midlifecrisis said:

should it correspond that the tip connects the tip of the mini jack at the other end and the base connects to the base or does that vary?

Probably corresponds, but testing for the voltage is conclusive.

midlifecrisis

yes, measuring probe on the lug connected to the base and other probe on ring gives me  an 8.5 volt reading, when i plug a jack lead in i get 0 reading, is that correct?

ICBM

Yes. The plug barrel shunts the -9V connection to ground which is how it turns on the battery. The difference between 8.5V and 9V is because the positive connection is via the circuit, so there is a small voltage drop.

midlifecrisis

thanks all seems good then, just waiting for my new piezo strip to arrive.

midlifecrisis

piezo arrived, and installed and working .  bought off ebay from jellyfish audio, £5.50 inc postage cant be bad? ordered friday, arrived this morning.