homemade pick-up help...

[Boose]

I am attempting to build a pick-up for my Norman acoustic guitar. On someonelse's idea, I am taking a condensor mic for a PC ( same mic that is in a tuner) and attaching it to a 1/4 jack. I don't seem to get any sound- surprise!!!! DO I need to run a pre-amp? A friend of mine used an old mic from his kids stero, and just soldered it to the jack and presto, it sounds awesome, no pre amp.

Thanks for any imput

[Brian]

Cool Idea, wish I had an answer for you but it really depends on the mic construction itself I believe.

[Reaper]

Condesors need a pre-amp with phantom power, dynamics do not (I think). I know that the condensor I own requires phantom power, but I can't see feeding 48 volts into a computer mic.

BTW: PCs generally have pre-amps built into the soundcard that you plug the mic into.

[ryeisnotcool2]

You can use a tweeter from a cheap set of stereo speakers, the ones that are just a flat disk they work fairly good, i used one in an old ovation i had, just place it around the top of the guitar till you get the sound you want then glue it on the inside! walla! instant electric for no more than 6$ just look around for and old crapy little stereo.

[Saber]

Reaper is right in that condensers require some type of dc power supply or battery. You can also make a simple contact pickup by getting one of those small piezo buzzers (I think Radio Shack has them) and remove the disc inside it and stick it to your guitar like ryeisnotcool2 mentioned. If the disc is big enough, you can even cut it in two pieces, solder wires to them and have 2 pickups.

[Saber]

Like I said, Radio Shack has them:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?cata...ct%5Fid=273-073

[Ace]

1500-3000 Hz? Well, in case you want it to sound like you're playing over the phone that's okay I guess...

so long

ace

[Saber]

1500-3000 Hz? Well, in case you want it to sound like you're playing over the phone that's okay I guess...

so long

ace

That's only its frequency response as a buzzer. You get a wider, useable frequency response if you use the internal element as a pickup. I've done it myself (on a Norman B20 in fact). I even found a review about it at Harmony-Central:

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data...nsducer-01.html

As stated by some of the reviewers, you have to experiment with placement to get the right response.

[Ace]

I see, thanks for clearing that up

so long

ace

[otgordin]

i found these instructions for the pickup at harmony central. Here. Rock on.

-Vadim

[Boose]

Thanks for the replies. I have switched mics and am not sure where to hook up the postive and negative wires to a 1/4" stap-jack. Does anyone know where I can find a schematic for a 1/4" Strap-Jack?

Thanks..... still pursisting

[pour bleeding me]

wow i never knew about this...im might buy an acoustic soon and now i can search more broadly if this works well....because now im looking for only acoustic-electric..but its pricyer...does this way really work?

[Devon Headen]

What exactly is a piezo element?

[Saber]

What exactly is a piezo element?

The piezo-electric principle is that a crystal will generate a voltage if pressure is applied to it. Vibrating it will produce an electrical signal equivalent to the vibration's frequency. The inverse is also true so that applying a voltage signal to the crystal will make it vibrate, and that's how some tweeters (and beepers or buzzers) are made. This is what the actual element usually looks like:

http://www.musiklab.dk/stringamp/techdiy.html

[Ace]

Yep, I couldn't have said it better. It's ceramic so what we're talking here is a quartz crystal. The voltage generation comes from changes in the molecular structure of the crystal, causing the electrons that are affixed to the atoms in the "grid" structure to go out of their position, thereby generating an electrical field difference which is commonly known as voltage. if you have a cigarette lighter that doesn't have a fire stone it has a piezo element, when you push it hard enough the voltage is enough to give a little spark, which is used to light up the gas.

(from the book of impressive but rather useless knowledge, author Andreas M. Schroeder...)

so long

ace

[syxxstring]

Ive used electret condensors experimentaly for a while. Do a google search for electret mics and you'll find tons of info. I have an article from a newsgroup saved somewhere, i think i emailed it to brian long ago.

[ansil]

you can actually make yoru won piezo pickup otu of a radioshack buzzer its the rather large one that is 3.99 it has a flat piezo in it a littel bigger than a half a dollar . you can gut this down into a suitable little piezo electric pickup to install under the bridge.. (sings chili peppers song.. la la la la) but you would still need a little preamplification to get the job done in style.. but you can do so with a single FET preamp. and a resistor and cap or two. basically the whole deal including the buzzer itself will cost you around 9.99USD

[otgordin]

Wasn't there a thread a while ago where a guy epoxied a pair of radioshack piezos to the sustain block of a strat trem? I have been looking for it, but found nothing. As far as info on building the actual pickup there are a ton of build reports out there. here is one really good one.

Making a piezo pickup

-Vadim