Why piezo on electric bass is so underrated?

[chadds]

They can be a horror show if not buffered properly. Even with proper buffering all such pickups or preamps don't match properly with the front end of just any amp you plug into. Eq doesn't fix this. Bridges would have to be different so it begs what advantage would one be seeking?

I use undersaddle piezos, K&K under plate piezos, continuous filament under saddle piezo and on EB mag pickups all on distinct basses for their particular strengths.

 

[Flamingo21]

Why the "y"?

I wasn't thinking all that clearly.

 

[Flamingo21]

I have a cheap ABG with a cheap built in piezo. For years I only used it for noodling acoustically. But just this week I decided to plug it in, and I was pleasantly surprised. Full, round, usable bass. No EQ needed.

Now I've ordered a piezo for a guitar-to-bass conversion I'm doing. Hope it works out.

 

[BazzaBass]

View attachment 4417730
Hell, where I come from, me and my kin say pie-zo.
I mean, this ain't no Italy or France, this is the good old USA, boy!

Forget piezo. I love hearing those from the good old USA say "literally" Or "soldering".

 

[TrustRod]

interesting. Does it sound any good without further tone manipulation? The piezos I have used all needed extra oomph in the lows -thus the need for a preamp of some kind..

It is bright, but that's what hifi is. Instead of boosting the lows I've rolled off the highs, so a similar thing. I tend to turn tweeters off and cut some highs on any bass already. For me magnetics sound better but piezos still sound good. On my piccolo I used 5 cheap disc piezos from ebay and a standard blend of I think 250k, it's definitely a useable tone.

 

[minimalist freedom]

just like it's written. Pee-A-zo

Pee - e (as in energy) - zo
My Yamaha BX4 love it blended with the magnetic pup

 

[themickster]

I find the cheese leaves greasy marks on the fingerboard and the crumbs get stuck down the side of the pickups.

 

[amper]

Why? Because a lot of people still think the 1957 Precision Bass is the be-all, end-all of bass guitar.

 

[B-Mac]

pee-EIGHT-tso

Who is pee?
Why did he eat a tso?

 

[amper]

I've heard it pronounced pie-zo.

Pumpkin pie-zo, apple pie-zo, cherry pie-zo.

Those people were saying it wrong.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

Because I don't want to deal with batteries although I got a bass with one.

 

[Bonecat]

I love 'em and prefer 'em. There is a closeness and an immediacy for me that I don't experience with most magnetic pickups. Yes, Rick Turner is quite the piezo guru and the Fishman that Rob Allen typically uses in his "Mouse" short scales is warm, deep and rich.

Plus nothing looks better than the purity of a bass with no annoying pickups in sight. I love the clean look:

Here are a few of mine:

View attachment 4417720

View attachment 4417721

View attachment 4417722

View attachment 4417723

View attachment 4417724

View attachment 4417725

View attachment 4417726

OMG, that burl top is beautiful!

 

[Bonecat]

And I'm just gonna leave this here. The piezo system on this works very well indeed….

 

[gstaats]

Here is one of my Carvin basses with a hipshot bridge w/ piezo saddles.

 

[gigetto]

And I'm just gonna leave this here. The piezo system on this works very well indeed….

View attachment 4418668

Aerosilk works well with Bartolini in my AFR (look at the official club) but little trimmered with Nylon Wounded strings. Polar NS Design and Godin Piezo are little bit less Harsh IMHO.

 

[delta7fred]

Why? Because a lot of people still think the 1957 Precision Bass is the be-all, end-all of bass guitar.

Probably quite a major factor.

 

[Doug4321]

Pee ay tso

To the cognoscenti



oops, sorry it's actually Greek
WORD ORIGIN FOR PIEZO-
from Greek piezein to press

 

[Doug4321]

piezo-
/ (paɪˈiːzəʊ-, piːˈeɪzəʊ-, ˈpiːtsəʊ-) /

combining form
pressure. piezometer

The original Greek is πιέζειν

https://translate.google.com/?sl=auto&tl=en&text=πιέζειν&op=translate

 

[1bassleft]

I've been wanting a fretless with piezo pickup for some time. Does anyone make an aftermarket bridge for electric bass with piezo saddles?

Graph Tech makes replacement saddles for a lot of bass bridges.

I have a Jazz defretted (aesthetically not brilliantly but smooth) by the previous I bought it from. I put new D'ads on but don't eat bbq wings often enough for long enough to get the right sound so I had Graph Tech saddles installed professionally. It's set up to blend well with the mags and has a stereo jack but I didn't go with individual EQ because I hoped some s/h Roland things will become cheap (didn't happen). As others have said when limited in this way, I was surprised by how opposite to acoustic it sounded. Gravelly, quite a lot like the bass in LCD Soundsystem's Daft Punk is Playing at my House. I like that sound, but not what I was aiming for.

 

[ad9000]

I have a 1992 Yamaha TRB-6P, and I have mixed feelings about the piezo in it. The piezo has a nice, airy acoustic-like quality, and the 50hZ cut switch is useful to get rid of its sub-low thump which can be a bit irritating. The ability to blend the piezo and magnetic pickups is a nice feature as well. Having said all that, the character of the piezo is mostly obscured in the context of a full band, and in recent years I've found that I use the magnetic pickups only.

I have played some basses (like Turners) with piezos that sound great.