Homemade Piezo

[Jozer99]

Opps, double post.

Edited January 30, 2007 by Jozer99

[Jozer99]

An interesting point, although Graphtech, ABM, ETS, Floyd Rose and several others might disagree. They all use one piezo element per string. There again, they pick up the vibrations of the strings themselves, not the induced vibrations from the bridge or body. i always fancied the idea of mounting a small transducer under the body end of the fingerboard on my fretless basses so I could adjust the amount of Mwahh that was mixed into the overall sound ..

Thanks for the comment and support Jozer.

Well, 6 Piezos is only better if you have the equipment to deal with it. The only guitar that I have seen that uses 6 piezos for something useful is the Line 6 Variax models. Roland and Gibson also have hex pickups, but these are low impedance magnetic pickups. For the piezo enabled Floyd Roses, and Graphtech saddles, although you have all six signals, chances are you are running them all to the same preamp which just mixes them in parallel then does the buffering, the same as my design. The only time I have seen a Graphtech used to its full extent was on some very excellent custom made Variax guitars (Teles with Variax guts, pretty awesome!).

I would also dispute the fact that each piezo in a 6 piezo saddle only picks up the one signal. Unlike a magnetic hex pickup, a piezo doesn't have a focused magnetic field on only one string. It will pick up any vibration. Since a piezo saddle is securely anchored to the guitar, if any string vibrates, then the piezo will pick it up. If they were to isolate each piezo, say with a piece of rubber, then the guitar would sound like crap, as there would be no transfer of string vibration to the body.

In fact, even in expensive Accoustic/Electric guitars with piezos, they usually only have one large, thin piezo underneath the bridge. Sometimes they also have a microphone which is mixed in with the piezo signal to get some of the lower frequencies (I would love to try this).

I have heard of people putting piezos underneath the neck on bolt on guitars. This seems like an easy way to install, but I have never tried it myself, and can't vouch for it. Let me know how it sounds! Piezos on a bass would be a great way to get more highs for slap and funk styles.

Edited January 30, 2007 by Jozer99

[bond163]

built one into my guitar a few days ago, simple jfet preamp, screwed the piezo element to the side of the guitar.

Sounds good, depending on what i plug into.

Does anyone one have any tonestack circuits I could put into my rack. Sometimes it needs a bit of bass added.

[Jozer99]

Things you can do to make the piezo sound better:

1. An equalizer, there are pedal EQs for under $40. Add lots of mids.

2. A teeny bit of delay - simulates the added reverberation of an actual acoustic guitar.

Edited January 30, 2007 by Jozer99

[Paul Marossy]

The only guitar that I have seen that uses 6 piezos for something useful is the Line 6 Variax models.

You forgot about the Parker Fly. One piezo element per string.

Got any info on this preamp circuit...that bit is always the tricky part and if you have something at works, please share.

This circuit works pretty well: http://www.diyguitarist.com/Guitars/PiezoBuffer.htm

[Jozer99]

The only guitar that I have seen that uses 6 piezos for something useful is the Line 6 Variax models.

You forgot about the Parker Fly. One piezo element per string.

Got any info on this preamp circuit...that bit is always the tricky part and if you have something at works, please share.

This circuit works pretty well: http://www.diyguitarist.com/Guitars/PiezoBuffer.htm

Plenty of guitars have 1 piezo per string. But none of them DO anything with that extra feature besides the Variax. The parker fly mixes all the signals together equally, just like it was one big piezo.

[Saber]

Plenty of guitars have 1 piezo per string. But none of them DO anything with that extra feature besides the Variax. The parker fly mixes all the signals together equally, just like it was one big piezo.

Well, I have an Ibanez RG1520GK and I assume the piezo separation is pretty good to be able to drive Roland guitar synth circuitry. And if I remember correctly, Ibanez had another RG model that used the same bridge just for its analog output so I assume the signal quality must have been at least half-decent.

[Jozer99]

Plenty of guitars have 1 piezo per string. But none of them DO anything with that extra feature besides the Variax. The parker fly mixes all the signals together equally, just like it was one big piezo.

Well, I have an Ibanez RG1520GK and I assume the piezo separation is pretty good to be able to drive Roland guitar synth circuitry. And if I remember correctly, Ibanez had another RG model that used the same bridge just for its analog output so I assume the signal quality must have been at least half-decent.

Roland Synths are definitely useful, just most guitars use magnetic pickups to drive it, not Piezos.

[billm90]

Sorry to bring back from the dead.

I dont agree that 6 piezos are useless

I actually think 2 on the bridge base is.... no flames intended

having built a 2 piezo for a bridge, and then adding 1 piezo per each saddle, where the string goes over the top of the piezo makes a whole world of difference. I have built this set up, so it has 8 piezos total, and I can turn each one off at will. I tested the 6 string pickups vs the 2 picking up bridge vibrations... the bridge vibrations sound horrible.

The 2 piezos to the bridge sounds weak and air-y... individual piezos on each string drive a far stronger signal and sound more articulated.

All this was tested WITHOUT a preamp.

I also have another use for each string pickup. I wired the guitar up in stereo and I have micro switches to conrol which strings are on what stereo pan side.

I can make string 1,3,5 on the left, 2,4,6 on the right.

or 1,2,3 Left and 4,5,6 right or any other combo you can think of.

I can do 1,2,3,4 Left and 3,4,5,6 right which puts 3 and 4 in the middle/or both sides sort of.

Who cares? I dont know. Maybe someone would find it cool. I did.

[billm90]

[bond163]

how did you build a piezo onto/into the saddle?

[billm90]

how did you build a piezo onto/into the saddle?

simple and crude.

I posted pics in some other threads... I cant get them to work right now.

see if you can find another thread I made witrh piezo in the title.

6 piezo buzzers from radio shack.

Cut them into strips about 1/4 wide. (dont let them touch eachother on the bridge)

I used an archtop jazz bridge since it is wood and mot metal (conduct electricity)

ground the back of the bridge to an angle.

soldered up a + and - lead on each of the 6 piezos. super glues the leads on (they fall off easy)

glues the piezos to the back of the bridge. the top of the piezo touches where the string goes over the top.

wire up the leads however, mine go stereo into 2 sets of micro dip switches, the micro dip switches have 8 dip switches. I use 6 of them to turn on or off each string. on each left or right output. this allows to put what ever string I want into a stereo frield. 123 Right 456 left.

Anyways.... back to in the bridge.

I have been trying to put some in a tune-o-matic. I have been having balance issues. I have done 3 versions on the tune-o-matic. then I tried making 2 wood clones of rought tune-o-matics to epoxy piezos to. both had balance issues. some strings were much quieter then others. it is frustrating when I dont know why. isi it conections, epoxy? I run tests, but nothing leads me in the right direction.

last night a new idea hit me when the ceramic piece broke off and it worked without the brass backing, I will try that out next.

[j j turp]

thanks very much. i built an acoustic bass (6 string) with 14.5mm spacing at the bridge saddle. there hasn't been anything on the market suitable for this bridge yet. i have been playing the instrument for about 13 years without finding a pickup system for it. it has a bridge that rests on a pad foot on the bass and treble sides, like an arch top. i put a simple piezo under the bass side and have heard great sounds, as a test. it is amazing to hear it through an amp after so long.

now i can make a tidy installation, maybe a pre-amp, but the level is good direct!

great work!

[billm90]

thanks very much. i built an acoustic bass (6 string) with 14.5mm spacing at the bridge saddle. there hasn't been anything on the market suitable for this bridge yet. i have been playing the instrument for about 13 years without finding a pickup system for it. it has a bridge that rests on a pad foot on the bass and treble sides, like an arch top. i put a simple piezo under the bass side and have heard great sounds, as a test. it is amazing to hear it through an amp after so long.

now i can make a tidy installation, maybe a pre-amp, but the level is good direct!

great work!

the more you play with it you will hear the tone change where ever you move it too.

I just built up a solid nylon guitar as a test bed.

I put 6 piezos in the bridge to pick up each string.

then I put an under saddle piezo (store bought)

then 2 piezos under the body, in front of the bridge

I put another 2 under the body, but slightly behind the bridge.

they are set up on switches... the guitar is actually full of wires. and I can see what each one does. it is amazing how different and some of the sounds are, some are even useless.... lol, it was a test, I just turn them off and dont have to listen to them.

I wired mine up with a pre amp, and a jack to run them passive. I did the passive incase the battery dies and I dont have one. Sounds much better with a pre amp. lots more volume too.

[j j turp]

"the more you play with it you will hear the tone change where ever you move it too."

that is true, when i put the piezo under the inside of the bridge's bass side foot pad, the sound went too treble and finger noise is out of control. there is also a lot of radio niose even with a shielded wire from the output jack. do the strings need earthing?

where are the most useful positions for the piezo?

"I wired mine up with a pre amp, and a jack to run them passive. I did the passive incase the battery dies and I dont have one. Sounds much better with a pre amp. lots more volume too.

[teddybear]

any recommended 3band preamp using gain and volume for piezo?

schematic?

tq

[Denis]

WOW!! What a great thread - Thanks

My only experience with Piezo's was building a cigar box guitar kit from Bill Jehle. With only a piezo - no preamp - it sounded great thru my Marshall playing the sort of dirty blues slide that I built it for.

Encouraged by that, I bought a couple of crystals from here. and tried one just taped to the soundboard of a steel string accoustic and it sounded pretty good.

The best result was from taping one to the bridge of a friend's accoustic bass - really rich tonal sound that we both loved.

Based on this thread, I'll get the bits and build one of the small preamps and see what difference thay make.

Thanks again

Denis