Piezo bridges

Piezo pickups are pickups that pick up the sound of the string from direct contact using piezo crystals under the bridge. They are supposed to make a guitar or bass sound more "acoustic" - acoustic-electrics guitars generally use piezo pickups. The tone is generally brighter and has more clarity, but you get more string noise so you will need better technique. You can mix the piezo pickups with sound from your magnetic pickups for a nice tone.

A simple explanation of pickups get be found here:

http://pubweb.northwestern.edu/~jbj415/pickuptypes.htm

 

IMHO piezos are much more useful for fretlesses than fretteds, but it can add an additional dimension to your tone. On fretteds, the additional dimension is likely to be fret and finger noise, unless you have exemplary technique.

 

for that reason exactly, i wish i had piezo's for tapping on a fretted bass.... it'd add high end clairty for playing, then pan over to super-piezo for tapping..

 

i actually have piezos under the saddles in my fretless carvin 5. and they allow me to play what sounds almost exactly like a double bass (ive played amplified double bass for 6 years so i would know) mind you ive got flatwounds on it too.