I'm thinking of making a piezo pickup out of a radio shack buzzer. Most of the time when I see someone make one, they usually put shock absorbers around it and such, so why does the piezo element have to be pried out? Am I missing something:confused:

a piezo is basically a contact mic, so it has to directly touch whatever's vibrating (the bass body in this case). piezo leads are very fragile, so it's a good idea to use shock absorbers or something similar. it's also important to match the impedances with a piezo, or you'll get pure treble. preamp is suggested.

i found best result with quite a bit of pressure on the piezo . and yes the wires can break, but i only broke one and put two piezos in two basses. they are cheap so no big deal

I'd like to see more info on this topic! and pix!!

I am also interested in this information as I will be building and installing a piezo system into my 8-string build. Any information or pictures are greatly appreciated.

The driver circuit on the Radio Shack buzzer will act as a pre-amp when you sense voltage rather than apply voltage.

I've glued them to drums & clave sticks with Duco Cement. I didn't like the sound when I sandwiched it under the bridge of an old bass.

I would rather just buy some of the piezo tubing or a piezo strip and solder my own leads. My experience with the RadShack stuff is that you have to have a piece under each string or you don't get even remotely consistant volume across all strings

I would rather just buy some of the piezo tubing or a piezo strip and solder my own leads. My experience with the RadShack stuff is that you have to have a piece under each string or you don't get even remotely consistant volume across all strings

+1

Did that with a couple of buzzers from RS on the fretless J. Worked fine - cept the variance accross the strings. Opted for the Ghost saddles in the end.
David