biro Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Assume I am a heathen and I want to put a piezo bridge on a my Jazz Bass. Where do I even start? I remember that, a decade ago or so, it was quite easy to find spare piezo bridges. At the moment, it seems you can only go Graphtech, which I am sure are great, but a bit impractical in terms of accessibility. Is there anything in EU / UK, cheap and cheerful preferred? 4 and 5 string options would be great. (BTW, I have discovered that individual, monorail style ones might be an idea for my Ibanez basses since they are available from the manufacturer, but I don't need piezo on those.) Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kodiakblair Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 8 minutes ago, biro said: Where do I even start? Couple of weeks back I sacked my 4 lipstick P-bass idea for a 51 slab body piezo build. Both had been kicking around my head for years so I'd been grabbing potential bits as/when I saw them 🙂 Those 4 & 5 string bridges you mentioned are still being made, WSC offshoot 'Partsland' distribute them. Trouble is they are bloody expensive now. B&Ch over in Czech Rep have then for €116 or €130 for 5 string 🙁 USA eBay seller "Guitar Madness" have 2 versions for a more sensible £68 and £78 but there's £17 delivery, search for "Chrome Bass Piezo Bridge Made in Korea". I was lucky enough to buy the 4 string version from BassChat's ads section so it might be an idea to run a 'wanted' ad. Will be keeping my fingers crossed you get sorted as it'll be nice having somebody to bounce experiences off. I've the bridge hooked up to a Shadow preamp ATM but it's not working out too well, roll on Monday when the Artec MT-2 gets delivered. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Paging @Andyjr1515 and @Jabba_the_gut... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geek99 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 Talk to John east - you need to balance the outputs. He has a product for this 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 I'm a bit out of date ref today's offerings relating to piezo bridges but, generally, for the piezos themselves I would generally start with Graphtec - their products are generally well made and they have a decent range of most related stuff. Oh - and ordering from them is generally pretty painless. But, personally, I would only use them for the piezo hardware itself - I would generally look elsewhere for pre-amps/etc. Are you planning to continue with magnetic pickups too? If so, you will need a blending pre-amp to cope with the huge difference in impedance and output of piezo vs magnetic. For this, I would generally go John East but. as @kodiakblair says, Artec do have some stuff that is great band-for-the-buck. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 7 minutes ago, Geek99 said: Talk to John east - you need to balance the outputs. He has a product for this Great minds alike 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba_the_gut Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 (edited) There used to be a piezo 4 string bass bridge with piezo you could get if eBay for about £40. Maybe someone on here has one in a drawer somewhere….a bit like these. https://www.bachmusik.com/en/guitar-hardware/bridges/bass-bridge/bass-bridge-with-piezo-pu https://shoppartsland.com/hpz4-bk/ I’ve made a few basses with piezo bridges and used John East preamps. I’ve tended to use Shadow pickups which I think work nicely. John East does a pre amp that works as a mixer set between a mag pickup and piezo. Nice and compact too. I think Graphtec also do a preamp for mixing mag and piezo pickups. Edited February 15 by Jabba_the_gut Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aidan63 Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 if blending piezo and magnetic pickups there is Noll MixPot, onboard mixing preamp; I picked one up nib, off a member on here, not sure now I will be using it 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamIAm Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 2 hours ago, biro said: Graphtech, which I am sure are great, but a bit impractical in terms of accessibility What do you mean by accessibility? When I looked into piezo Graphtec seemed the best, sadly not the cheapest. And GraphTech do shipping to the UK. Sam x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
biro Posted February 15 Author Share Posted February 15 Thanks guys, this is very useful! It is exactly how it has been put—I thought I was going insane, as I had a very distinct memory of piezo bridges of dubious origin being readily available on eBay for decent prices. Not anymore, it appears. Well, I will hunt around or take a look at the Graphtec offerings... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 The cheap piezo bridges off Ebay were crap. I have a couple knocking around somewhere, I tried them and the sound was very scratchy, for want of a better word - no bass and the tone was very gritty and low fi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kodiakblair Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 2 minutes ago, tauzero said: I tried them and the sound was very scratchy, for want of a better word - no bass and the tone was very gritty and low fi. Do you remember what you were running them through ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted February 15 Share Posted February 15 21 minutes ago, kodiakblair said: Do you remember what you were running them through ? Not offhand, but I'm sure it was a decently high impedance for the piezo as I'm aware of that need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.gif.9ad672bb8b84505709f76b39c8c256ec.gif)
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.