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Piezo disk harshness in Dulcimer

Posted by Mike Breen on April 30, 2013 at 9:45am in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

In a Dulcimer build I put a piezo disk in the neck under the fret board embedded in hotmelt glue above and below, but when playing its harsh through the amp. I was told that it may work better with an acoustic amp but I dont have one and really dont want to buy one as I have several regular amps. Any suggestion how to calm a disk for my next Dulcimer, maybe silicone instead of hot glue or moving the piezo away from the bridge. I guess maybe a pre-amp would help ? not sure.

Thanks

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Tags: Piezo, disk, harshness
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Replies

  • gary herget May 1, 2013 at 10:36pm

    I use a K&K Twin spot internal pick-up in dulcimers they work great. You place a disc on either side of the bridge not directly under. They are a little expensive at about 65.00, but you get what you pay for.

    • David McQueen > gary herget May 2, 2013 at 9:37am

      I went and took a look at the K&K Twin. It is two disc piezos in parallel.

      It is a really nice looking package, but if you get busy with some shielded cable, shrink wrap and a soldering iron, you can probably save yourself about $50.00 of those $65.00.  

      If you want to improve on it (a) wiring them in parallel should decrease the impedance (which is what they are doing). So if you use three discs it would be better than two. (b) Use different sized discs to even out the resonance frequencies of the discs, extending the highs and the lows. I set up one of my guitars with a 3 different sized piezos in a piezo array, parallel linkage using conductive copper tape. It does make a difference.  I also have a single piezo bridge pickup on that one. When all four ar working, it makes a further  difference. (c) Again, put it through a preamp to lower the impedance even more. I am still working to get apreamp I like ie: one that I cannot blow out.  I am going for Zener diodes on the next one for protection.

      • Mike Breen > David McQueen May 2, 2013 at 2:31pm

        David

        Thanks for the suggestions I have ordered a preamp from Ben to try

        • David McQueen > Mike Breen May 2, 2013 at 8:36pm

          I haven't tried them, but they look like a pretty standard rig.  I have some friends with standard acoustics and preamps and they are just brilliant through an amp. Let us know how it works.

          I see lots of comments on disc piezos as being inferior. But when I look outside the CBG community, if you are into stand up bass or fiddle, rod piezos are generally a no go and people are getting good results with discs. The other thing about piezos as opposed to standard magnetic pickups is they are silent. Every piezo pickup is a humbucker in the original sense of the term.

          Good luck.

          • David McQueen > David McQueen May 2, 2013 at 9:56pm
            One thing I forgot. When you are mounting your peizos, have them off the surface a bit. Some that I break out of cases have a silicone rim that will lift them off the surface. On others I use a neoprene O ring, a plumbing part, to lift them off. It seems to cut some of the highs which give that harsh sound.
  • The Phrygian Kid April 30, 2013 at 8:43pm
    A lot of people will tell you 'oh they sound fine, just do this...'
    Be mindful, this person is of the opinion that they sound fine, that's all.
    I've tried just about everything with disc piezos and in my humble opinion they always suck. Just cos something works, that doesn't mean it works well...
    Try the rod piezos, get one with a preamp for around $6 on eBay ;)
  • David McQueen April 30, 2013 at 2:28pm
    The peizo is harsh because the impedance is too high for your amp. Gitty has a couple of cheap preamps. There are also schematics for 0 gain preamps tha have only 6 or 7 parts in them if you are handy with a soldering iron. A 0 gain preamp just acts to lower the impedance of the peizo signal to more like that of a standard pickup.

    Hth

    Dave
  • Craig Mayhem April 30, 2013 at 10:45am

    2 piezos wired in parallel?

    • Mike Breen > Craig Mayhem April 30, 2013 at 1:30pm

      Craig 

      Thanks for the response, do the piezo's have to be close to each other or does it matter

      • Craig Mayhem > Mike Breen April 30, 2013 at 2:21pm

        What I'm reading says it doesn't matter or it does matter lol. I think you can get away with one in the neck and one under the bridge if you don't want to put them both in the bridge, but that works too.

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