Got a cool looking old wooden box and attempted to make it into a stompbox. I experimented with a piezo taped underneath the top and amped it up. Sounded crap. Just a short hard tapping sound. I'm wondering how I can get it to sound deeper and with some thump. Any suggestions welcome please.
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I used to do sound for bands and a good kick has a low thud but also a high click or pop and not much in between in my opinion .Some people do like a dull thud though
Anyway working on this idea I glued one piezio to the bottom and one to the top
On one of them I coverd it with hot glue (to make a bassy sound)
The other I let open (toppy sound). They are both wired in parallel
Seamed to work quite good, at least better than just one
i built mine by placing a 6 inch stero speaker right under the lid and wiring it to a quarter jack. Sounds like the deep thud of a bass drum.
Sumner McLain > Reverend OtisSeptember 27, 2012 at 5:58pm
i've seen people use speakers for this- i just don't get how a speaker (output) becomes a pickup (input)? I'm really just starting on this whole diy audio stuff, but is there any specific way you wired the speaker up? Any input would be appreciated
It does work. get a 1/8 to 1/4 headphone adapter and plug your headphones (not earbuds) into your guitar amp and walah! they work like a mic.
like a piezo buzzer used as a pickup, if you feed a signal into it, it vibrates, if you vibrate the piezo, it generates a signal.
physics: the diaphram has a coil mounted to it, in front of a fixed magnet. run a signal through the coil and it attracts/repels to/from the magnet moving the diaphragm and you have a speaker. move the coil in front of the magnet and you have a tiny generator making a weak signal that most amps can grab and use.
wormil > Sumner McLainSeptember 28, 2012 at 12:55am
I saw a CBG someone made and used a small speaker as a pickup. They mounted it under the lid like a piezo, seemed to work fine but it was playing through a tape recorder turned into an amp so it sounded tinny, hard to tell anything.
I was scanning this Stomp Box thread and ran across something that made me think "Hey, that's exactly how I made MY stomp box!" then I saw it was posted by Ham and realized it WAS my stomp box.... LOL
Anyway - here's my theory. The sound we get when mounting piezos is effected by out attachment method. The crispier the adhesive - say epoxy or CA (super glue) and you get a really bright, brassy response - or at least as many highs as that particular piezo is capable of. If we use soft stuff like silicon caulk type adhesive, or foam tape, or PL Concrete seal and the like - we get less highs and more mids and bass. Soooo, since all I wanted was a big fat bass drum sound I figured what kind of attachment would filter out the most highs and not rattle around obnoxiously? So I thought - why not NO attachment? So I did what Ham said - wrapped the pickup in foam rubber - the very squishy, not at all dense, kind about 1/2" thick foam. [it was actually a box liner with a kind of cheap velvet like flocking on one side, though I doubt that made a lot of difference] That took out almost all the "slap" sounding highs. I did do one more thing, which was to wrap the box itself in several layers of that "non-skid" drawer liner stuff.
Anyway - it worked for me.
When I get a chance I'll upload an audio clip of it.
Smojo,,,i saw one of the most simple designs the other day that sounded better than all the stompboxes ive ever heard before...
this fellow took one of the stickon piezos (the kind you stick on the top of your guitar or ukulele or whatever) and wrapped it snuggly with some foam rubber packing material he had, and placed it in a low profile cigar box. Now the piezo isnt touching anything, just the foam that surrounds it, and the foam is loose enough that when you close the box, the foam touches the top and bottom. By tapping your foot on the box the vibrations are transmitted through the top and into the foam producing a nice dull thud. Hey ...give it a shot...
Hey Smojo, I know how you feel! I spent ages trying to get a good sound out of my guitar body stomp box thingy... different pickups / mics, different positions, different coverings (carpet, foam, rubber... tried 'em all!). Eventually I stuffed it full of old cushions and sheets an rags and bingo... much better!
Replies
I used to do sound for bands and a good kick has a low thud but also a high click or pop and not much in between in my opinion .Some people do like a dull thud though
Anyway working on this idea I glued one piezio to the bottom and one to the top
On one of them I coverd it with hot glue (to make a bassy sound)
The other I let open (toppy sound). They are both wired in parallel
Seamed to work quite good, at least better than just one
My blog
http://darrenscigarboxguitars.blogspot.co.uk/
i've seen people use speakers for this- i just don't get how a speaker (output) becomes a pickup (input)? I'm really just starting on this whole diy audio stuff, but is there any specific way you wired the speaker up? Any input would be appreciated
It does work. get a 1/8 to 1/4 headphone adapter and plug your headphones (not earbuds) into your guitar amp and walah! they work like a mic.
like a piezo buzzer used as a pickup, if you feed a signal into it, it vibrates, if you vibrate the piezo, it generates a signal.
physics: the diaphram has a coil mounted to it, in front of a fixed magnet. run a signal through the coil and it attracts/repels to/from the magnet moving the diaphragm and you have a speaker. move the coil in front of the magnet and you have a tiny generator making a weak signal that most amps can grab and use.
I saw a CBG someone made and used a small speaker as a pickup. They mounted it under the lid like a piezo, seemed to work fine but it was playing through a tape recorder turned into an amp so it sounded tinny, hard to tell anything.
Anyway - here's my theory. The sound we get when mounting piezos is effected by out attachment method. The crispier the adhesive - say epoxy or CA (super glue) and you get a really bright, brassy response - or at least as many highs as that particular piezo is capable of. If we use soft stuff like silicon caulk type adhesive, or foam tape, or PL Concrete seal and the like - we get less highs and more mids and bass. Soooo, since all I wanted was a big fat bass drum sound I figured what kind of attachment would filter out the most highs and not rattle around obnoxiously? So I thought - why not NO attachment? So I did what Ham said - wrapped the pickup in foam rubber - the very squishy, not at all dense, kind about 1/2" thick foam. [it was actually a box liner with a kind of cheap velvet like flocking on one side, though I doubt that made a lot of difference] That took out almost all the "slap" sounding highs. I did do one more thing, which was to wrap the box itself in several layers of that "non-skid" drawer liner stuff.
Anyway - it worked for me.
When I get a chance I'll upload an audio clip of it.
this fellow took one of the stickon piezos (the kind you stick on the top of your guitar or ukulele or whatever) and wrapped it snuggly with some foam rubber packing material he had, and placed it in a low profile cigar box. Now the piezo isnt touching anything, just the foam that surrounds it, and the foam is loose enough that when you close the box, the foam touches the top and bottom. By tapping your foot on the box the vibrations are transmitted through the top and into the foam producing a nice dull thud. Hey ...give it a shot...
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