Microphonic piezo?

[jacko]

I recently fitted a j-tone black to my bridge because it was cheap and I was just wanting to try out amplification for the first time.  My question is 'should the pickup be microphonic'?  

Seems if I so much as brush the pickups by accident I get a massive crack/thump.  My acoustic bass guitar is nowhere near as percussive. 

any thoughts anyone? Any recommendations for similar pickups that aren't so microphonic?

 

[petebassist]

I don't know about the J-Tone, but I have used a K&K Bass Max - this worked very well on my Stentor 1950 laminate back with carved top, I never had any issues like you've described. I think I got it from Thomann. You can also fit these into the bridge wing without too much alteration, so maybe you could borrow one to try out?

[Blartfactor10]

All Piezo wing pickups like the J Tone are pretty "microphonic" more so than a guitar type transducer. So yes, if you touch it or flick it with your finger you will get a thump or crack coming out of the speaker. The secret with this type of P/up is the fitting of it in the wing, too tight or slack and your instrument will feed back. Once the pickup is fitted correctly you shouldn't notice any clicks or thumps, if you do you get clicks when your not playing you could have a faulty Piezo.  The J Tone's are pretty unbreakable P/ups though and IMO are about the best for the price. 

[Beer of the Bass]

9 minutes ago, Blartfactor10 said:

All Piezo wing pickups like the J Tone are pretty "microphonic" more so than a guitar type transducer. So yes, if you touch it or flick it with your finger you will get a thump or crack coming out of the speaker. The secret with this type of P/up is the fitting of it in the wing, too tight or slack and your instrument will feed back. Once the pickup is fitted correctly you shouldn't notice any clicks or thumps, if you do you get clicks when your not playing you could have a faulty Piezo.  The J Tone's are pretty unbreakable P/ups though and IMO are about the best for the price. 

 

I'd agree about the microphonic aspect - these are vibration sensing pickups, after all.  But I did manage to break my J-Tone!  It worked fine for several years, and then started giving a crackly, distorted sound when I played more firmly.  After ruling out every other posible cause, I got curious and dissected the J-Tone, and found that it uses a thick ceramic disc type piezo element inside, which had cracked on mine.