Anyone have an extra pickup you wouldn't mind donating?

[troy mcclure]

I am an electric player and have donated an amp to my son's high school jazz band. This year they have an incoming freshman who will play upright and the director asked me to help him out with a pickup.
I will gladly pay shipping...

Or if you can recommend a cheap pickup that would be adequate, I would appreciate that also.

Budget cuts are so bad that they were considering scrapping the program altogether, but have decided to just not travel to competitions, so I wil be footing the bill.

[bassophil]

One solution could be to buy one of these 0,99$ piezo transducers and ducktape it onto the body. Probably this won't sound good but its a low cost solution that would at least make the bass louder.

Or do it with a microphone...

[Gearhead43]

Right....yeah, that's the ticket!!

[troy mcclure]

Originally Posted by bassophil

One solution could be to buy one of these 0,99$ piezo transducers and ducktape it onto the body. Probably this won't sound good but its a low cost solution that would at least make the bass louder.

Or do it with a microphone...

The piezo trasnducer, I think can be gotten at
radio shack, I could use double stick tape on it, maybe wire a 1/4 female jack to it. Where would I get the best sound?

Thanks for the suggestion.

[bassophil]

I could use double stick tape on it, maybe wire a 1/4 female jack to it. Where would I get the best sound?

I would try both: double stick tape and direct contact piezo<->body and see what gives you the better sound. (perhaps buy two in case one breaks or is badly manufactured)

As far as the sweet spot concerning you will probably get the best results somewhere in the area marked in the attached JPG. But this is only a guess! Try some spots until you find the sweet one

And just to make clear what we are talking about a photo with piezos (linked from wikipedia)


P.S.: Be aware of the fact that the sound of piezos is dominated by highs. So you should search a very bassy spot on the body (perhaps by laying your ear on the body).

[troy mcclure]

thank you

[Gearhead43]

Originally Posted by troy mcclure

thank you

If you can scrape up 50 bucks, maybe grab a Six Rounds Original pickup off of Ebay. They fit in the bridge wing, and sound pretty good after some EQing.

That's about the cheapest pre-made, ready to plug in bass pickup I know of anyway.

You can also get cheap piezo drum triggers (wired up and ready) from G. Center that will work OK in the bridge wing too, just gotta be gentle with them and leave them alone once they are shimmed and installed in a good spot.

[akmusicfreak]

I saw this on EBay $50 I don't know how good or bad it is but I'm sure it's the same one they put on the Palatino EUB.

http://cgi.ebay.com/PIEZO-PICKUP-FOR...3286.m20.l1116

[mstclairmiller]

You could use the 4 rubber bands method of attaching a mic like an SM 57 if you've got one available.

[reedo35]

If you are halfway decent with electronics you could make your own:
http://www.fittell.id.au/piezo/

[mstclairmiller]

Make it a school science project!

[bassophil]

don't forget to tell us what you did and how it worked

[mark koschik]

I have a Barcus Berry 3150 that works fine, with two b3150m`s (the part that attach`s to the bridge) that don`t work fine,that you`re welcome to, maybe you can fix them (I can`t solder to save my life), or new one`s in `05 were $54.00)