The Electronic Workings of the Guitar and How to Disable the Piezo

[Junkie Joel]

Howdy,

I have a Dean Markley Icon guitar equipped with a Piezo pickup. This requires that I have a charged 9v battery in the guitar for it to work right. I want to disable the Piezo, because it sounds like crap, I never use it, and I'm sick of having to change the 9v battery just to play it.

I'm pretty handy with the soldering iron. So, all i really need to know is: What components does a normal electric guitar have? Mine has a little circuit board which i'm assume belongs soley to the piezo, but i'm not sure. Do regular electric guitars have circuit boards? (My motivation for asking this question is: If other normal electric guitars don't have circuit boards, then I could disable the piezo by simply removing the circuit board and connecting the two wires coming off it.)

Any info, whether helpful or not, will be appreciated.

[JC Lives]

I do not understand what you are trying to accomplish, but I can tell you this. The ciruit board you are refering to is the preamp for the pickup. The battery is used to pwer the preamp. By disconnecting the board, you will render your guitar useless for pluging into an amp. If you take out the battery, you will accomplish the same thing. I would not recommend making a major modification to your guitar such as this unless you intend on keeping it the rest of your life.

Maybe if you could be more specific what you are trying to accomplish, you may find someone here that can help.

[Tom Hicks]

If you don't want to use it,fine.Then leave it alone. Magnetic pickups are available that spring-clip into the soundhole.Or just mike it with a nice condensor.Piezos are hot to 100,000 Hz so thay always sound trebly and unnatural.I understand why you are unhappy with the sound.But electronically,it is a different beast then a humbucker,say.
regards
Tom

[Junkie Joel]

Could I just replace it with some nice humbucking pickups? I have two slots.

[c7sus]

Maybe it's the guitar itself that sounds like crap and the piezos just really make that crystal clear. Both my Martins have extremely high-quality piezos- I wouldn't use any other pickup on them.