Piezo Pickups - Reveal Your Secrets!

[crazymandolinist]

Pretty broad questions but...How are they made? Are there different "sounds" that people get by building them differently (ala strat vs tele pups). I ask because I'm thinking about building some violins and other types of instruments that would thrive if equipped with one.

[bonny]

This article will answer a lot of your questions: http://liutaiomottola.com/PrevPubs/Piezo/CoaxTransducer.htm

The sound difference isn't generally viewed the same way strat vs tele pickups are. Magnetic p.ups are an integral part of the sound of those instruments whereas a piezo on an an acoustic instrument is most often used to try to capture the true acoustic sound of that instrument. Something to keep in mind is that what works on one instrument can fail miserably on another and you won't know until you try something. Prepare yourself for a lot of screwing around to get something that works. For violin you should look at what david Gage is building. http://www.davidgage.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=31
It says viola but it also works on the violin. Worth a look to read what co-designer Ned Steinberger has to say.

[mandroid]

Electrical characteristics of piezoelectric materials seems to be resulting in a very high impedance ..
in the range of 10 mega ohms, and so need a matching buffering circuit in the preamp..

Piezos being a common way to get an electrical signal out of an acoustic mandolin ,
many long threads have been developed in the Equipment section to peruse..

[GTG]

Just to add to what Bonny said - fully electric instruments (solidbody electric guitars, e-mandos) have magnetic pickups (not piezo), which interact with electric-specific strings. Although I don't know the physics, as I understand it magnetic pickups sense the variations in the magnetic field of the strings. This is quite different than piezo pickups, which sense vibrations in the instrument (not the strings) and turn it into an electrical signal. Or something like that.

[martinedwards]

there are two ways to go about the piezo thing.

home brew & purchased.

home brew is easy and remarkably effective.

get a drum trigger piezo (about 50c) and sandwich it under the feet of the bridge.

http://www.ufodrums.com/images/P7310003_001.JPG

if you wanted to go flash, you could put one under each side and then use a blend pot......

purchased you can fit a piezo bridge from the likes of fishman......

http://www.jhs.co.uk/Fishman/M100MandolinPickup.jpg

or put a strip under a bone saddle like in an electro acoustic guitar

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/50-59/50/P1010015.jpg

as previously stated you'll need a preamp/buffer.

magnetic pick ups are all about the changing electric/magnetic field as the string vibrates.

I used half of a bass pup in my mandostrat,

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e328/gowanedwards/mandostrat/40600352.jpg

I'm in the planning stages of an electric Bouzouki.

it will have a piezo bridge AND magnetic pups....... I THINK I'll start with the bass pup idea (I have a box of them I got off eBay for pennies) and then later on maybe go for blade type guitar pickups.....

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/yhst-50206111187217_2067_1926072

[crazymandolinist]

GFS pups are great. Real cheap too compared to say..anybody else lol.

Thanks for the articles. I didn't think I'd get this much info on a Mandolin specific site but I figured I'd give it a shot. Thanks all. I'll popo the questions in other places too just to get more opinions. Thanks again.

[crazymandolinist]

Found a magnetic alternative to the low radius pickup conundrum: http://tedcrocker.com/becksfiddlepup

[bonny]

GFS pups are great. Real cheap too compared to say..anybody else lol.

Thanks for the articles. I didn't think I'd get this much info on a Mandolin specific site but I figured I'd give it a shot. Thanks all. I'll popo the questions in other places too just to get more opinions. Thanks again.

Try the Amps, Mics & Pickups in the Double bass section of the Talkbass Forum.
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=4
Lots of info there especially on preamps. Bass players huge gearheads when it comes to amplifying the acoustic.