Free recycled Piezo pickups

Posted by Wade on February 15, 2011 at 5:44pm

As many of you may already know. Piezos can be made into a simple and effective contact pickup. Did you also know many can be found cheaply or even free? Here are a few places I found piezo elements free because they were going for the trash:

Cards that play music

some talking stuffed animals

smoke detectors

games

I found 4 or 5 out of a broken rockband drumset

an old auto alarm system.

Hope this helps. Feel free to add to the list.

You need to be a member of Cigar Box Nation to add comments!

Join Cigar Box Nation

free, pickup, piezo

Email me when people reply –

Replies

Where's Uranus? May 22, 2013 at 1:21pm

Seems a lot of the modern musical cards aren't using piezos anymore they're using some kind of tiny flat dynamic speaker, usually in black plastic, stamped 16 ohms.

Howsoever, if you're prepared to wait around a couple of weeks, you can order a bag of 15 for $3 and change from these guys, they've always been reliable for me, but they're never very fast. Expect a month and you won't be dissappointed.

I too stocked up on the Dollar Tree alarms, before finding this.
Order99 September 7, 2012 at 11:56pm

The headphones didn't work out as well as i'd hoped Rusty-too tiny and too cheaply made, with cellophane heads, they weren't receptive enough. Now I did get a faint signal when I used it in my godawful-loud Piepan Dulcimer-banjo, but not enough to justify trying again. So far, i'm sticking with the simple Piezo and Mono jacks when I bother to electrify at all-most of my latest Tennis-racket specials are nearly as loud as a full-sized Classical (i'm betting it's the maple-veneer chamber) so i'm not electrifying unless it's for a client and they want the option...
rusty case August 27, 2012 at 11:27am

Tnx for suggesting the possibilities!

rc
Frank Miller July 25, 2011 at 11:15am

Just a reminder, this is prime yard sale time. Around here, I'm finding a lot of toys that make noise for 10 to 25 cents.
Order99 June 30, 2011 at 12:51am

These aren't Piezos-but that Dollar Tree mentioned earlier for the window alarms? They also sell headphones...two tiny speakers for a dollar. Still working on my first build(might finish this weekend I hope) and I aim to try the speaker route and see what happens...
- rusty case > Order99 September 5, 2012 at 11:42pm
  
  o99... how did the headphone speakers work out for you???
  
  :-)
  
  rc
  
  $ store had 0 door alarm buzzers available... I had only bought a couple, many months ago to use for scaring deer in my garden... they are hopelessly lost, now.
  
  just found 6 of em at a yardsale... all wrapped up in a bundle of packing tape..lol.. a buck for all of em!
  
  :-)
Mark Ayers April 22, 2011 at 2:05am

Great ideas that I'll have to look into thanks
econnofoot April 22, 2011 at 1:29am

I smashed an old digital alarm clock and got one out of it that I just put in a uke build.
Frank Miller April 22, 2011 at 1:24am

I find a lot of sources for piezos by searching through yard sales. A lot of times, noise-making toys, etc, are available for next to nothing (my kind of price). Some have small speakers, but these can be used as pickups, too, but you may want to build a pre-amp to up the signal.
keith peterson February 25, 2011 at 11:37am

I have found a lot of them in old phones, has to be the phones that are really heavy, piezo is the ringer between two metal plates, cant be a digital phone. Also window alarms at the dollar store for 99 cents. Happy Hunting. PS you can find these old phones at Goodwill, Salvation Army, ect...