Piezo pickup for a bass guitar.

[ambient]

I used to have a really lovely old Yamaha TRB6P, which as the P suggests, had a piezo pickup as well as normal magnetic pickups. I’m interested in having one fitted to my W&T Chronos bass. Can anyone suggest something suitable please?

[itu]

Nearly any piezo would work well (K&K or similar). Sizewise the frequency response is a bit different with smaller or bigger disks. But there are two things you should consider: the placement and the preamp.

Preamp is the easier one, piezo has so high output impedance that it should be tamed with an active buffer. This high impedance may cut bass response drastically in an amp input. You can tinker one by yourself (like something FET-based) or buy one.

Placement is another story. If your bass has a place for the piezo, fine, but you may need to make few trials. Bridge area is very common but as the piezo is sensitive to vibrations only, you may try any surface that vibrates. Thinner may be different (like the control cavity - remember, that both sides are fine) than the neck pocket.

You can not bend a piezo (it is ceramics), but as it likes vibrations, tape or glue it very well. A tin or copper foil/tape can be used to cover the disk to prevent hum. Insulation is naturally needed in between.

If you want to study a bit of acoustics, check Chladni patterns.

[hubrad]

Looking at the bass model, the bridge looks pretty normal format, so I'd look at a replacement bridge with piezo saddles.

Hipshot do them, as do Schaller, probably others too, depending on suitable dimensions. Don't forget string spacing!

 

[ambient]

1 hour ago, hubrad said:

Looking at the bass model, the bridge looks pretty normal format, so I'd look at a replacement bridge with piezo saddles.

Hipshot do them, as do Schaller, probably others too, depending on suitable dimensions. Don't forget string spacing!

 

Thanks. It’s got a hipshot bridge on anyway, I’ll see if they do a straight replacement for it.

[Geek99]

Talk to john east - he is a member