I'm thinking about amplifying my cigar box diddley bow. I might use a rod piezo, because they're supposed to sound better than disc piezos and I'm planning to use the DB for performances in the near future.
I can't find any specific information about rod piezos in diddley bows. However, I did came accross the following sentence at CB Gitty: "Because the rod piezo has a separate wafer for each string, they tend to reproduce the instrument’s sound much better than a disk piezo, which is unable to be directly affected by every string."
Dumb question maybe, but does the above imply that there's no point in using a rod piezo on a one-stringer?
PJ
Replies
Even though it`s not a piezo pickup, this build i did has a custom Ted Crocker single pole pup in the nose cavity, i sent him a piece of ebony that i carved to fit in the cavity.
I think the cutting down would be the way to go if I used a rod piezo. The questions remains whether this would sound better (on a diddley bow) than a simple disc piezo.
I interpreted the "directly affected by every string" part as meaning that the seperate wafers pick up the vibrations of each string individually, with no (or minimal) interference from the other strings. If this interpretation is correct, a disc piezo on a diddley bow would be "affected directly by every string" anyway, since there's only one string to begin with (which implies the absence of interference from other strings). I might as well use a disc piezo then.
Is this the case, or did I get something wrong?
By the way: Randy, I really like your DB. Looks like a Flinstone edition. :-)
Both will work and it is down to personal preference which sound better. Both are cheap so it might be worth considering trying both and seeing what works best with your design. Discs will feedback sooner then a rod when you crank up the volume and both will sound better preamped (although some prefer the raw sound without a preamp). You can get flexible piezo cable pickups http://www.suntekstore.co.uk/product-15005697-bendable_piezo_cable_... which might be easier to fit under the saddle for the 1 string.
If you added a magnetic pickup as well you could increase the sound options and again help to reduce feedback.
Rods pickup noise from around them - I tried to build a bridge that had 2 rods with a split bridge that had a nylon string pressing via bone to one rod and a steel string pressing via a separate piece of bone to rod number 2 the concept being 2 distict sounds to 2 separate amps from the one guitar - a complete fail as both rods picked up the noise the other was supposed to be individually sensing.
Do you have a photo of the DB you want to amp up?
That's amazing!
-SD-
It`s an old hoe handle for the neck, hollowed out poplar firewood log body and cedar wood top and bottom.
I wonder what a rod piezo would sound like if you put say a 3 string rod under your one string, but put it inline with the string. It would be like 3 peizos on the same string. Seems like it would pick up even better, but I'm just guessing, never tried it.