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"Talking card" speaker as pickup. Thoughts?

Anyone experiment with the speaker element from those "talking cards". You know, the kind that play tunes and such when you open them. ~$5 a piece from Wally World (Wal*Mart).

I'm gonna pick one out and test it with my amp.

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on May 3, 2009 at 7:06am

Well, it works. I will post a pic of the speaker/pickup so look for it. I'll tag it as "card speaker pickup". It does need a lot of amp tho.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on May 3, 2009 at 11:08am

But it only works if you are playing Happy Birthday, right?

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on May 3, 2009 at 11:11am

HE HE HE HE HE! Yeeeeep.

Iggy said:

But it only works if you are playing Happy Birthday, right?

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Permalink Reply by Doc Oakroot on May 3, 2009 at 12:18pm

It's just a piezo, isn't it? Same thing we use all the time.

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Permalink Reply by Roger Martin on May 3, 2009 at 1:19pm

They Do work, but the problem is you can buy them all day long on the net for a buck or 2

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on May 3, 2009 at 1:31pm

Ooooo, where? To tell the truth, at $5 card it would get 'spensive. But if you have a few lying around the house... Found objects eh?

Thanks!

-Wes

Roger Martin said:

They Do work, but the problem is you can buy them all day long on the net for a buck or 2

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on May 3, 2009 at 1:32pm

Dunno. Looks like a really thin traditional speaker. I figured it was like a mic pickup.

-Wes

Doc Oakroot said:

It's just a piezo, isn't it? Same thing we use all the time.

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Permalink Reply by Doc Oakroot on May 3, 2009 at 2:31pm

The ones I've seen have a piezo inside that looks exactly like the ones I buy for $1. It's hard to imagine building a speaker that small any other way.

Wes Yates said:

Dunno. Looks like a really thin traditional speaker. I figured it was like a mic pickup.

-Wes

Doc Oakroot said:
It's just a piezo, isn't it? Same thing we use all the time.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Sleep on May 3, 2009 at 3:02pm

Radio Shack, part # 273-073, $1.99

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Permalink Reply by Roger Martin on May 3, 2009 at 3:35pm

http://www.digikey.com/scripts/dksearch/dksus.dll?PName?Name=102-11...
SOME ONE IN THE SITE HERE POSTED THIS E MAIL AND THEY dO HAVE INEXPENSIVE PIEZOS
We better hurry tho cause they only have 11,867 left,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
They look like the answer most of us need to build piezo powered CBG's.
No question its less work then having to buy the piezo, break it open and do all that extra work.
At the listed prices their completely affordable.

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Permalink Reply by Ben on May 4, 2009 at 1:13am

I've found there are two different kinds they use in those cards. If the card plays a song that sounds pretty good it tends to be enclosed pretty well and doesn't get much of a response if its left in its enclosure. I've come across some that are really just a piezo buzzer that usually play a MIDI type file. Very artifical sounding. This is great because its just like the Radio Shack piezos except they are already out of the case. I would not recommend going out and buying up all the cards though. I'm a public school music teacher so for holidays kids and their parents love to get me those because they play music. I love to get them because I strip them apart.

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Permalink Reply by Wes "I'm Baaaaack" Yates on May 4, 2009 at 1:29am

Now that is too funny.

Ben said:

I'm a public school music teacher so for holidays kids and their parents love to get me those because they play music. I love to get them because I strip them apart.