Piezo pickups

[dincz]

I don't believe for a moment that magnetic pickups were incorporated into the design of electric guitars and basses because they were the best solution. More likely they were used because the technology was already established and used in telephones, microphones and the like. Coil = inductance = non-flat frequency response i.e. they colour the sound.

They may already exist but I haven't come across any basses using piezo pickups and I know almost nothing about their characteristics anyway.

So:

1. How suitable/unsuitable would they be for a bass?

and more generally:

2. How much of instrument design is down to tradition rather than measurable/audible factors?

[AttitudeCastle]

Musicman basses (The Bongo only maybe) have a Piezo option, Some of the Yamaha TRBs do, and all Esh basses have Piezo in them

so i guess very suitable! i'm a fan of it at least,

though thats all i have to offer =/

[Mr. Foxen]

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=57703"]Bunch of info in this thread.[/url]

[dincz]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='969560' date='Sep 27 2010, 03:17 PM'][url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=57703"]Bunch of info in this thread.[/url][/quote]

There certainly is! I'll use the search function next time - I promise.

[BigRedX]

If you want to be really radical with your string-sensing technology get a [url="http://www.lightwave-systems.com/"]Lightwave Bass[/url].

[phil.i.stein]

i've posted this previously, good demo here.

[Dom in Dorset]

Piezo bridges can be bought from several outlets , CH guitars do a cheap one , I've got some but not tried them yet.
Acoustic basses use piezos, you can also buy these pick ups and pre-amps on ebay.
I built myself an acoustic fretless with one , it's my main bass now.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Most double bass pickups are based on piezos as well as the pickup in my ashborys. Also of course acoustic bass guitars and things like godin & rob allen basses which look acoustic, but are more like solid bodies.

I made a cheap & cheerful banjo pickup for Pete, o5b's guitarist using a lid from a colman's mustard jar, a cheapo piezo disk element from Maplins, double sided car-trim tape, a chunk of mousemat, a few inches of mic cable and an inline 1/4" jack. It also Sounded Pretty good mounted on my precision when I tried it out at home.

Here a live recording of it on it's first tryout - click the MP3 thingy: [url="http://www.o5b.co.uk/petes-banjo/"]http://www.o5b.co.uk/petes-banjo/[/url]

I was pretty chuffed that it sounded OK and didn't feedback - I don't think we even used a preamp - it went straight into the guitar amp if I recall correctly.

[dincz]

Thanks to all for the responses. Another thing that occurred to me is that magnetic pickups probably reduce the sustain of the strings as they're slightly damped by the magnetic field of the pickups. Or not?

[Chris2112]

[quote name='phil.i.stein' post='969759' date='Sep 27 2010, 05:46 PM']i've posted this previously, good demo here.

[/quote]

That is an incredible sounding bass, particularly at the beginning of the video!

[warwickhunt]

My Bolin has piezo and magnetic pups and they can be used to either add a bit of top end 'air' to a sound (can't think of a better definition for opening up the sound), or if used solo they have their own unique tone and shine when used as accompaniment to acoustic/electro-acoustic instruments.

[dlloyd]

[quote name='dincz' post='970380' date='Sep 28 2010, 09:35 AM']Thanks to all for the responses. Another thing that occurred to me is that magnetic pickups probably reduce the sustain of the strings as they're slightly damped by the magnetic field of the pickups. Or not?[/quote]

That's apparently correct, and is one of the selling points of the lightwave system...

[url="http://www.lightwave-systems.com/lightwavepickup/LightWavePickup.htm"]http://www.lightwave-systems.com/lightwave...tWavePickup.htm[/url]

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDeov9S5AEo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDeov9S5AEo[/url]

Edited September 29, 2010 by dlloyd

[Dom in Dorset]

[url="http://www.roballenguitars.com/mb2.html"]http://www.roballenguitars.com/mb2.html[/url]