Double Bass Making my own piezo pickup

[kmanley_29649]

I've just bought some stuff to make my own piezo pickup with a the element from a buzzer from Radio Shack. I went ahead and bought two buzzers, and I was sondering if there was any way to wire them in series, kind of like a humbucker.

I've made a couple of these before, and had a bit of success with them. They were just really ugly. I got a cheap piezo film pickup, but I want to try to make another one and make it nicer looking, plus I caught my cat chewing on the film while I had it off the bass for a while. Anyone done this in the past have any suggestions?

 

[seamonkey]

"Humbuckers" are for coils.
Just one piezo on the bass wing under the E string should do it.
I use one of these, they're already wired
http://drums-percussion.musiciansfr...rcussion-Red-Hots-DR1-Drum-Trigger?sku=444035
There's older posts on this forum on how to shim in a piezo under the wing.

 

[kmanley_29649]

"Humbuckers" are for coils.
Just one piezo on the bass wing under the E string should do it.
I use one of these, they're already wired
http://drums-percussion.musiciansfr...rcussion-Red-Hots-DR1-Drum-Trigger?sku=444035
There's older posts on this forum on how to shim in a piezo under the wing.

Yeah, I was just using a humbucker as an example of a pickup wired in series. I was wondering if there is would be any benefits to wiring two piezos together. It seems I saw someone discussing it here or on the rockabillybass forum, but I can't remember for sure. It's moe a curiosity thing than anything else.

 

[altruego]

Yeah, I was just using a humbucker as an example of a pickup wired in series. I was wondering if there is would be any benefits to wiring two piezos together. It seems I saw someone discussing it here or on the rockabillybass forum, but I can't remember for sure. It's moe a curiosity thing than anything else.

Humbuckers are not wired in series. They are two separate coils but have reversed polarity to cancel hum. There would be no advantage to wiring to piezos like this since they are not hum antennas like coils are.
Not to mention that but who knows what would happen to the sound if you wired it series. Not sure what would happen but I'm thinking it would act like a capacitor and ruin your frequency response.

 

[kmanley_29649]

Humbuckers are not wired in series. They are two separate coils but have reversed polarity to cancel hum. There would be no advantage to wiring to piezos like this since they are not hum antennas like coils are.
Not to mention that but who knows what would happen to the sound if you wired it series. Not sure what would happen but I'm thinking it would act like a capacitor and ruin your frequency response.

Sounds good to me. I was just curious of what effect it would end up having.

 

[seamonkey]

With two pickup points you can run into cancellation, and combing effects. I've had the best results with a single point of pickup.

 

[drurb]

Humbuckers are not wired in series. They are two separate coils but have reversed polarity to cancel hum.

Actually, humbuckers are traditionally wired in series. Check here and here for even more detail (about 2/3 down the page).

 

[drurb]

With two pickup points you can run into cancellation, and combing effects. I've had the best results with a single point of pickup.

+1!