Best way to limit/eliminate excess noise with piezo's

Posted by Carl on December 29, 2015 at 11:54pm

I put a set of the image shown ones in 'Texas Blues' and finally got around to plugging it in and in short even looking at it is picked up them.

Apart from yanking them out what else can I use with them to limit unwanted noises such as a bracelet touching the box and sending the speakers in to orbit!!

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  • Dave Lynas December 30, 2015 at 6:01am
    I have the same unwanted micro phonics from my peizo rigs. I've encased them in tight bond and also tried silicone. Still is very sensitive to touch noise. I prefer mag pups but these little old cigar boxes don't have a lot of room for a big pickup. So I put up with the bumps. I don't play real loud so it's not a big problem. Do the expensive Fishman fiddle pickups still have this problem?
  • Paul Craig December 30, 2015 at 3:06am

    Too bad you don't have a volume pot with that setup. Basically a resistor in the circuit that reduces the impedance problem, but having 2 wired in parallel helps a lot(yours are probably in parallel).

    • Carl > Paul Craig December 30, 2015 at 3:48am

      Cheers for the assistance Gents - I'll try the double sided tape before glue, I'll let you know the progression. As for not wearing anything that'll bump the CBG I haven't taken this bracelet off for near 10 yrs, t'was a gift from my Mum so I wouldn't even consider taking it off unless it needed repairing and even then I'd be hovering over the jeweller like a starving vulture.. 

    • Paul Craig > Carl December 30, 2015 at 4:13am

      I understand.

      I would use a couple layers of tape or a plastic bottle cap to house them. And don't forget to move them around to find the sweet spot before permanently attaching to the box.

  • Paul Craig December 30, 2015 at 2:53am

    Many people put the piezo on a "bed" of hot glue, put them in a bottle cap and glue to the box or use one or more layers of double sided tape to deaden the shock noise.

    I recently install a Radio Shack piezo/buzzer with it still inside it's plastic cover. It hardly has any handling noise.

    It's a good idea not to wear anything that will bump the CBG/Guitar to make racket and handle it gently.

  • smilingdog1 December 30, 2015 at 2:31am

    The easiest way would be to abandon this twin pickup and build your own piezo pickup.

    Piezo is creating a DC currant and your amp is running an A/C currant, so the input, transfer and output impedance or frequencies don't match causing ear piercing feedback. There are filters of many varieties on the market that cost many times more than your pickup or it's replacement. A good unit will process the signal before it reaches the speaker and eliminate oscillating loops.

    Also try checking the gain on the amp and turn it down and swap out guitar cable.

    I accidentally found my solution through the most unlikely source, a cheap Behringer Preamp Booster PB100 pedal. I took this apart to see what magic was inside and to my surprise it only housed 1 resister and 9 mini caps that didn't make any sense till i lifted the circuit board and found a micro processing board that in simple terms converts your signal output to match most amps. Unfortunately these are no longer on the market.  

    • Carl > smilingdog1 December 30, 2015 at 2:35am

      There's no feedback, no strange noises at all - they just pick up every single touch. I could lightly tap the box at the opposite end of where the pick-ups are attached and it picks that tap up without a care, it's like they need isolating from the box or something???

      I suppose basically they're working much to good *shrug*

    • smilingdog1 > Carl December 30, 2015 at 2:58am

      Oh, I get it. Paul Craig  probably gave you a better tip below. I sometimes use double sided tape myself.

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