Help with Markley/Roland combo

[Tim2723]

A friend on another site is trying to use a new Dean Markley Artist pickup (the one with the attached 1/4" cable, looks like a wooden disk, you know the one) and a Roland Micro Cube. No preamp yet. There's no sound at all, but the pickup thumps when you tap it, so there's a signal.

Any suggestions as to the problem? I know a preamp would improve things, but I use this pickup all the time on my two-point without one and get a solid signal.

This is on a bowed psaltery. Not a mandolin, I know, but there's plenty of energy from the soundboard to get at least some kind of sound out of the amp.

Before even trying it she tried to scrape the adhesive off the pickup, so maybe she damaged it somehow??

Thoughts, ideas? Thanks guys.

[mandroid]

Piezos I've seen, raw, had the wafer bonded to a piece of brass, and so the brass
side of the piece would be the bottom most likely.

a solder lead in middle of the wafer and the other to the backing disc,

is all there was to it, other than making it more durable by epoxying
the cable end down, .. so continuity test between tip and sleeve on the plug should be a complete circuit. for test on cable shorts

[ would be a piezo speaker if the signal was sent to it]


the Impedance mismatch of what a piezo offers, and an amp that assumes you are going to use an electric guitar, has been pretty thoroughly gone thru herein these posts

If just low level, the Piezo to line level Pre amp would fix that . fishbaggsman etc,

My hands on Roland Ownership is only the AC 60, in their instrument channel,
they did add a piezo/magnetic button to switch between the 2.

[catmandu2]

Doesn't make sense. If the contact is firmly attached to the soundboard (if it is even slightly loose with any gap at all--which can result with inadequate adhesive material--there will be zero output), there would be some output. Seems like there is a defect somewhere. The contact element may have become damaged where it attaches to the cable--a common occurrence in rough or improper handling of the rather sensitive element/wire connection; it's possible that a (comparitively) robust tapping of the pup reconnects the circuit enough to transmit a signal. Diagnose by attaching the pup--making sure the entire surface of the contact is making contact with the top--then playing with the wire while strumming.

Those things are quite sensitive--I've used them on guitars, banjos, mandos of all types, and hammered dulcimer. I'm sure it would be equally effective on psaltry.

[Tim2723]

Thanks guys.