Anyone Do Tests With Diy Piezos?

[billm90]

I would like to discuss what people have found using piezos.

under the line below is my history using them.

Does anyone have any input or done some testing on how these Piezos sound?

Thicker vs thinner

metal bridge vs wood bridge.

Would cheap strings really kill the sound?

does having them totally closed in epoxy kill tone vs my floating piezo test?

I already put in a full weekend on this, I will do more later but I am a bit burned out.

I also spent a bit of this time trying to make the nylon guitar midi capable... while it did work, it sounded like garbage. the tones were distorted.

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here is a bit of history of what I have done.

I have built a DIY piezo pickups in that past. It is on a junk guitar, which is an SG copy.

I took a wood bridge from a jazz guitar and filed the back of the bridge to an angle (maybe 45 degrees) and super glued rectangular piezos (I cut them from the circles) to each saddle top. The piezos hung off the back off the bridge, but were prefectly flush where the strings would cross over the top.

The strings run into a old metal string holder on something on a crappy acoustic of f hole guitar (it resonates when played). I am using nylon strings on this guitar.

Now each pick up is wired independently and I have 2 sets of 8 micro switches on it. this allows me to wire it up in stereo, and control which string is on the left or right side if I wish. I also set 2 long piezos into the wood bridge to use up all 8 micro switches. (they dont sound as good)

Oddly enough, this guitar actually sounds like a nylon guitar, it is ugly as can be... and was only intended as a test. Now it seems like I dont want to change a thing because it actually sounds fairly decent for a POS.

Anyhow, to keep this on topic. I built another guitar this weekend. it and a Les Paul copy, and uses the tuneomatic (stock) bridge and tail piece.

I tried wirring up the piezos in much the same order and it sounds like crap.

These are different piezos.

they are thicker. I picked up 500 of them off ebay (before I uesd a radio shack thinner type)

I also used metal epoxy this time and coated the entire thing. (did I kill off tone?)

the nylon strings are the lowest priced ones I could find for testing, the SG has mid level nylon strings. (the upper strings are black, le bellas, 6 bucks)

Do the nylon strings quiality really make a difference?

I already ripped the piezos off the bridge. I will build it again. and probably again.

[billm90]

maybe some ugly pics will get people going?

here is the original test guitar bridge that sounds good. I built it up maybe 7 years ago...

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d73...25108CbNWjJwza0

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d73...26108CbNWjJwza0

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d73...26108CbNWjJwza0

here are the micro dip switches I built for stereo guitar string panning

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d73...26108CbNWjJwza0

http://im1.shutterfly.com/procserv/47b7d73...26108CbNWjJwza0

[eljib]

dude, I just stumbled across this while doing a search for "stereo"

Not really what I was looking for at all, but I really dig it. Where did you get that ultra long switch? This is a super cool project...I just wish I had some input on homemade piezo's for you.

[Fraser]

This one time (at band camp...not) I butchered a little Piezo Buzzer, soldered a socket onto it and gaff taped it onto the body of the guitar.

I tried placing it in some different positions on the body, I think it ended up just behind the bridge.....

Gave quite a boxy, lo-fi sound, but I could EQ it out to a quite bearable sound...

with a preamp and a 3band eq I reckon you could get away with it......

[Mattia]

There are a few articles/discussions in the MIMF.com library (register for access) about making cheap piezo pickups and/or a preamp for said systems.

[billm90]

dude, I just stumbled across this while doing a search for "stereo"

Not really what I was looking for at all, but I really dig it. Where did you get that ultra long switch? This is a super cool project...I just wish I had some input on homemade piezo's for you.

Sorry, I thought this post was going to be forgotten.

I got the switch at radio shack

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.js...rentPage=search

it is actually 2 of them together. I glued them to popsicle sticks.

[billm90]

in response to all of this. I have been doing tests at home and the best sound I could get was with the piezo actually touching the string.

I later plan to try some other things like metal shields etc...

the best sounds came from non preamped guitar. I ran it straight into a processor.

with a preamp string noise was ridiculous.

If one was setting out to do this and must use a preamp, I would try and burry the piezos under something to kill off string noise.

I am going to play with this more. see if putting them in epoxy helps.