Question:
This Quistion Is About GUITAR PICKUPS!!!!!!!!!?
2008-09-10 09:01:56 UTC
Are there any Websites About How To Make A Piezo Transducer Pickup Sound Like A Real Magnetic Guitar Pickup Like Adding A Capaciter Or Something?????????????????????????????????????
Three answers:
Saul
2008-09-10 15:01:12 UTC
Yeah, it's not a simple answer.



Piezos have a different frequency range and response than your normal guitar pickups... they also have different impedances and output levels.



One of the many, many projects that I have on the backburner is to get a piezo pickup and preamp working for one of my guitars.



So it takes way more than just a capacitor. While guitar pickups have a high output impedance, piezos have an even higher output impedance. Their output levels are lower in general, and they have a narrower and lower frequency response. Because of these factors, you can't just plug a piezo in to a guitar amp and get a great response. You know that, good. So you need a preamp.



You can do the preamp one of two ways - either as an outside pedal or box, or internally in the guitar. It's a bit harder that way, but the sound quality will be better. With high impedance signals, you want them to run as short a length as possible, because they lose tone very quickly. Low impedance signals suffer no such loss - so, we can set up a buffer preamp and achieve at least a signal that will interact well with guitar effects, even if it isn't quite as loud - although some degree of amplification could also be included in the preamp.



You will almost certainly have to design this yourself, so you better start studying. You can do a google search on "piezo buffer schematic", "guitar piezo buffer schematic", and "piezo guitar preamp schematic", etc to get your started along your specific line of questioning. To build this you will need some basic soldering skills, a schematic you've found or designed yourself, components, etc.



I strongly suggest a schematic based around JFETs, as they're both cheap and simple to implement.



Umm... let's see... mimicking the frequency curve of a good pickup is not necessarily that easy of a task. Try googling for "guitar pickup frequency curve", that can give you ideas where to set your -3 db points for the filters you'll need to incorporate into this preamp. I bet you could do a cascode stage followed by a Big Muff tone stack followed by a Fetzer Valve stage. Your total component count should be under 20 pieces. It won't necessarily be easy to skoosh all of that into a board small enough to fit inside a guitar's cavity, but it could be done.



Alternatively you could probably get away with just a Fetzer valve, and do your filtering outside of the guitar. I think you can buy premade PCB boards of many different preamps that will simply give you a boosted, low-impedance signal - that would save you a lot of grief over designing and building one yourself.





Saul
Cami F
2008-09-10 11:08:59 UTC
I'm not sure about a site because I;m sure you've all ready looked where I would look. If you haven't tried stewmac.com, try there. They sell parts but offer great advice in their newsletter and might have searchable archives. If I were you, I would look into outboard gear that you could run from the pickup and then into the amp or wherever it's going. An amp module is maybe what your looking for there and there's quite a few out there, this is a popular one:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--LINTPUX2

Im assuimg the piezo is on an acoustic? If your not happy about the sound go the way of the gibson j-160e and throw a p-90 on there. Depends on what your trying to do and how permanent the sound and price range of course.
2016-05-22 13:05:19 UTC
Well, I don't think that using the P94 precludes you from using humbuckers... you just have to be careful not to use too high output of humbuckers, or have a separate volume control for both pickups, to make sure the volumes balance out. Me, I'd go for the Seymour Duncan. Not saying that Gibson makes a bad pickup (oh no sir!), but using the SHPR simply gives you more options, and that's attractive to me. From the product description : "...To have humbucker and P-90 tones and bring in the added dimension of the single-coil Rail, use a three-way switch (DPDT on-off-on)..." It would be just as easy to put a push/pull pot or mini-toggle to switch between the P90 and humbucker tones... you could have the volume knob for that pickup be a push/pull, for instance. I do something like this on my LTD EC-100QM loaded with Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro's and Alternative 8's.... my tone control is push/pull, and when on, coil-taps both pups at the same time. You could have a push/pull to coil-tap each pup, so you could go between the humbucker sound and P90 sound quite easily. Of course, this would remove the single-coil only sound, but... well, so? *grin* Anyways, I personally don't see a significant difference between the Seymour Duncan and Gibson pups, and I really like the ability to go between the different tones of the SD pup. A quick google search turned up a few links you might be interested in reading. I *strongly* urge you to read the reviews (last link). There are some good views on this pickup, it is well-reviewed but with some caveats. Understanding what you can get out of the pickup is important, especially regarding what position you want to put it in. Good luck! Saul


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