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Double Bass Piezo Pickups - Good?, Bad?, Ugly?
- Thread starter AlanSanJoseBass
- Start date
Nothing to say against using a piezo disk as a pickup as long as one is aware of the potential problems.
I use two large piezo disks cut to size with wood above and below and some glue to fix the cable in the wood housing as bridge foot pickups for my EUB. Sound is great, only my electronics (buffer) such a bit because the room is very limited. So I get a weak output, partially because of the electronics and partially because of the wrongly oriented piezo ceramic on the piezo brass disk for pressure applications.
It doesn‘t make much sense to try to built your own pickup if you want quality (but expensive pickups not always are better than a homemade). It also doesn’t make sense if you are not interested to understand how it works. And it doesn’t make sense if you only need one or two of them.
But if you have an application where you need dozens of pickups for some reason (probably not for a DB), it can make sense because with that many pickups it might become expensive with commercially available pickups. But it make take a while (years?) to refine the pickup to make it robust and well sounding.
I use two large piezo disks cut to size with wood above and below and some glue to fix the cable in the wood housing as bridge foot pickups for my EUB. Sound is great, only my electronics (buffer) such a bit because the room is very limited. So I get a weak output, partially because of the electronics and partially because of the wrongly oriented piezo ceramic on the piezo brass disk for pressure applications.
It doesn‘t make much sense to try to built your own pickup if you want quality (but expensive pickups not always are better than a homemade). It also doesn’t make sense if you are not interested to understand how it works. And it doesn’t make sense if you only need one or two of them.
But if you have an application where you need dozens of pickups for some reason (probably not for a DB), it can make sense because with that many pickups it might become expensive with commercially available pickups. But it make take a while (years?) to refine the pickup to make it robust and well sounding.
Several years ago I dug out of the junk drawer an old clip on guitar piezo pickup
.. pulled out the disk and put some adhesive foam on each side, in E side wing and playef with orientation until got nice tone. Fit is firm, not tight. A 1/8 turn makes a huge difference in tone and volumne. Runs straight into amp or board no preamp needed. Piezo disks vary greatly and will require a bit of fiddleing around to find best fit.
.. pulled out the disk and put some adhesive foam on each side, in E side wing and playef with orientation until got nice tone. Fit is firm, not tight. A 1/8 turn makes a huge difference in tone and volumne. Runs straight into amp or board no preamp needed. Piezo disks vary greatly and will require a bit of fiddleing around to find best fit.
Considering how short the "shelf life" of any given piezo pickup could be, I think it's amazing how long they tend to last in general. The Realist and Full Circle are only warrantied for 1 year, just for that reason.
The leads into the piezo electric element are usually the culprit, they are very easy to damage, unless you are very careful when installing and removing the pickup. Then there are those times
when one of the waitress drags your bass across the floor because it's in her service area. Yep, that really happened to me. I think we've given the OP lots of food for thought.
The leads into the piezo electric element are usually the culprit, they are very easy to damage, unless you are very careful when installing and removing the pickup. Then there are those times
when one of the waitress drags your bass across the floor because it's in her service area. Yep, that really happened to me. I think we've given the OP lots of food for thought.
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I've got both a piezo setup and a mounted mic on my DB, For the piezo setup I'm using a Vic's model C bridge wing and fingerboard piezo pickup combo feeding into an onboard blending pre-amp. For the mounted mic I'm using a Sennheiser e604. I'm pretty happy with the options these two setups provide.
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any possible pic s ???? thx Ben
I've got both a piezo setup and a mounted mic on my DB, For the piezo setup I'm using a Vic's model C bridge wing and fingerboard piezo pickup combo feeding into an onboard blending pre-amp. For the mounted mic I'm using a Sennheiser e604. I'm pretty happy with the options these two setups provide.
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any possible pic s ???? thx Ben
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Hi Alan , I am using for a temporarely test a piezo that is out of a 2 $ tweeter and surprisingly it works reasonably good fitted onder the bridge , practically no feedback from the amp/ speaker set up , but it is realy very sensibel how it is fitted under the bridge 1mm sideways and different sound color .. the experiment is worth trying it .
Ah - shoestring deal - got it.
If $55 for the basic fDeck is a no-go, IME any pedal that the OP or one of his band mates has lying around might be worth a try as a makeshift buffer.
Before I got my system dialed in, I made do with a Tube Screamer pedal [with the effect switched off] and it was definitely better than nothing. (A "true bypass" unit in bypass mode won't do anything.)
I wish I'd tried buffering when I was using the cheap disc solution with my first bass & amp in college. (That rig needed all the help it could get...)
Out of curiosity I´d like to see a picture of your construction. I still have some piezo discs lying around and I keep asking myself how it would sound one piezo mounted under one bridgefoot or on the top to catch the body resonance and one mounted at the bridge to catch more string details. Did you use any shielding?
Mmm, there are still a lot of very old Underwood pickups all over the world.
Depends more on the specific design methinks.
Very true Francois, Underwoods are more vulnerable to having their leads pulled out of the piezoelectric elements, than failing altogether. The Realist and Full Circle are more likely to fail because of the pressure exerted on the elements by the bridge. 
This is what started my investigation of piezo disk pickups. Last summer, I bought a 1/4 size Kay bass for a very good price. It had a piezo pickup on the bridge that the seller thought didn't work. When I got home, I plugged it into my Fender Rumble 100 amp. It worked, was loud, no hum, and had great tone on the vintage setting. Yes, I know it is garbage, but it sounded great. See images. So, since I don't have a pickup on my 3/4 size Kay, I thought that I would put a similar one together with cheap parts. Again, I only need amplification once or twice a year, so buying any professional pickup is out of the question. Also this gives me something to do during covid times. So, this image is my second attempt. See image. I'm only using one disk instead of two. By using a shielded cable, much of the hum is gone, however the volume could be louder. I plan to try a larger disk when it arrives. I'll let you know how it works out.
Thanks again for all of your help.
Thanks again for all of your help.
Attachments
Seems like you mount them with double side sticky (foam?) tape. That kills a lot of vibrational energy, specially the higher and mid frequencies and also damps the whole volume.
Use high pressure directly on the bridge (nothing in between) or glue them with epoxy.
Use high pressure directly on the bridge (nothing in between) or glue them with epoxy.
Thanks! That's great advice. Yes, I have used sticky foam and double sided tape. Perhaps your idea is the answer for me.
Not a piezo, but I also got creative with my covid extra time and built this magnetic pickup. It works amazingly well, is easy to eq, and can get loud with no feedback.
Wow! That's awesome. Where are the pickups originally from? I always thought that the pole magnets needed to be directly under each string. In your pictures that doesn't seem to be the case. Also, how did you attach the pickups to the bass? I'm not comfortable screwing anything onto my bass. Thanks.
They are some cheap pickups from guitar fetish kit, I shaped a piece of wood to the underside of my fingerboard, and used velcro to attach it. I used another block shaped at a shallow v with one screw attaching it to the other block so I can adjust it. There are springs behind the pickups for a good amount of height adjustment. With a little tweaking , the string balance is near perfect. I was concerned with the pole spacing, but apparently it is not an issue. The nice part is I can swap out different pickups quite easily.
Wow, that is quite ingenious. I like the idea that you were successful with magnetic pickups and that you didn't have to make any permanent modifications to your bass. Thanks!
Wondering how blade style pickups would work? Although I am reluctant to change anything. We have band practice tomorrow, so I will see how well it sits in the mix.
