I recently built a cigar box kalimba and used a round piezo attached with two-way tape to the soundboard prewired to a 500k pot and a jack. It sounds great, but it has a lot of handling noise. Everything I touch on the instrument is picked up by the piezo. Is that normal? I haven't used one on a CBG yet but may start. I like mag pups but they hog a lot of space especially with neck-thru design. Thanks.
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Does a piezo need a string ground like a magnetic pup? It sounds good and not making noise so I'm guess maybe not?
Piezos work on a totally different principle than magnetic pickups.
The metal disk is coated with a special ceramic material. When a mechanical stress is applied to the disk, the two different materials generate a small electrical current. Check out the wikipedia article on piezoelectricity, It's quite interesting. For the disks, there is no magnetic interaction possible. So if you plan on playing in a room with a tesla coil (like at a Maker Fair), piezo is the only way to go.
nope
Man, after trying about 5 different spots and as many piezos, I think I finally found a spot that is a decent balance of tone and handling noise. It's on the backside of the neck closer to the heel than the bridge. The tone is good and the noise is manageable. When I put the neck through, I beefed up the backside to compensate for what I had to take away from the top. I used PINE for this, which is really soft wood but it works. I wonder if the softer nature of the pine helps to insulate the piezo? I dunno. I'm happy with it, FINALLY!
Piezos come in several sizes. Is there a difference in sound or volume between a 20mm and 50mm piezo? Doe size matter?
Hi Kevin, I imagine there is a difference. The piezoelectric I use on my CBG's cost a few dollars as single units, I can get packets of ten, and they are as you described unless I do sme creative thinking when installing them.
However the units I put in the full guitars that I build cost hundreds of dollars, and perform very well and do not pickup body taps and feedback is less prone.
There are different crystals, and along with different sizes have different ratings in output and other electrickery that I don't pretended to understand. I understand that a high priced model CBG out there uses these good quality piezo.
Taff
Are there better quality piezos with less noise? Or are they all pretty much the same?
Pretty much the same . , but rod piezos are a a step up in sound quality from disks for cbgs. ... in my opinion . They work a bit differently and are installed different , you may want to research those .
Thanks guys. I have a CBG I'm working on and I think I'm going to use a disk piezo. The kalimba is very small so my hands are close to the piezo all the time. I'm thinking it may not be as sensitive on a guitar, as least with the left hand on the neck. And yes, a preamp does help a lot to get a strong enough signal to the amp.
In this case , the preamp lets you tone down the eq type settings manually , so it doesnt sound like you are pulling a cat through a keyhole .
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