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Ashbory Bass > Ashbory Discussion > Ashbory: Technical Topics > Builders - will any piezo pickup work?
September 07, 2010, 07:09:42 AM
News: Welcome to Large Sound 3.0 -- The forums! Let me know if you see anything odd or wrong. Thanks!   -Brock (frazier@largesound.com)

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Author Topic: Builders - will any piezo pickup work?  (Read 3142 times)
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Builders - will any piezo pickup work? « on: May 25, 2007, 08:14:49 AM »
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Posts: 7
Will any bass piezo pickup / preamp work, or is there some special magic to the Ashbory pickup?  I'm wondering if a different approach might yield more adjustable intonation and string height, but I know something the Ashbory pickup was patented, so there must be something unique about it.

Has anyone built a bass with a non-Ashbory piezo pickup with good results?
   
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Re: Builders - will any piezo pickup work? « Reply #1 on: May 29, 2007, 07:16:12 PM »
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Nothing?  Nobody? 

I did just get my parts package including the bridge, but I'd really like to know if other piezos would work.
   
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Re: Builders - will any piezo pickup work? « Reply #2 on: May 29, 2007, 09:14:48 PM »

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Maybe Mike will make a comment here soon. He's tried both.

There's multiple pro custom builders out there and some use Ashbory pickups:
http://www.earnestinstruments.com/stretch.html

...and others do not:
http://www.largesound.com/ashboryarticle/concept/ukulele/


Not the best answer, but better than the others (none) thus far!


-Brock


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A to the S to the H to the B - O - R - Y!
   
img  Mike Tavener
Re: Builders - will any piezo pickup work? « Reply #3 on: May 30, 2007, 11:52:54 AM »

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Sorry for the delay in replying, I meant to when this was first posted but forgot. Thanks for the nudge  Brock!

I tried an undersaddle piezo and I've also made a couple of piezo pickups, a very fiddly job but very satisfying when you get a sound out of them. While they all gave some output, none gave anything like the output of the real Ashbory pickup, in fact my homemade ones needed a further preamplification stage to boost them (and cause more background hiss  :-(). I'm not really sure why - the pickup obviously works by amplifying the vibrations in the strings, which apply a downward pressure in tension over it. AAJ has obviously got it very right.

For what it's worth my view is that it is best to stick with the pickup made specifically for the job, others will work to a degree but I think it's unlikely that they'll be as satisfactory.

Mike


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Mike Tavener
Supplier of replacement G & D string for the Ashbory bass. Details on http://ashborystring.website.orange.co.uk
   
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Re: Builders - will any piezo pickup work? « Reply #4 on: May 30, 2007, 04:53:08 PM »
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I was thinking of using a 4 element piezo strip pickup made for acoustic bass guitar, or even the piezo saddle type used for some electric basses, but I'm guessing they're really set up more for the higher tension (and therefore downward pressure at the bridge) of those types of strings.   I'm guessing the Ashbory pickup will be better. 

I have a few spare bass piezo strips (and preamps) around, I'll try to rig something up and try the experiment sometime this summer. 
   
img  Road Toad
Re: Builders - will any piezo pickup work? « Reply #5 on: May 31, 2007, 12:33:37 AM »
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Piezo disks should work fine. Just make sure they are aligned directly under your saddle. Undersaddle pickups just won't give you enough output andrespond better to high frequencies. Best bet is to use a piezo designed for acoustic bass. I hope that helps.


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Road Toad
   
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Re: Builders - will any piezo pickup work? try Digi Key 668-1017-D « Reply #6 on: December 19, 2008, 03:49:43 PM »
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I tried  DIGI Key part 668-1017-D
Buzzer Piezo Element 41mm 1.3khz

Cost $1.80 CDN. I ordered 10 and had them delivered the next day for $28 including shipping.

I'm building a custom Ashbory and I tried the above in a test bed.

Attached the wires using conductive epoxy. The epoxy is pricy at 25$. You could try soldering but might damage the pickup.

Then used regular 5 min epoxy to attach the piezo to a 1/8" thick piece of hardwood.

Attached the piezo directly to my amp thru a 1/4" jack.  No pre-amp.

This thing sounds better than my fender Jazz . No kidding.

A guy at work is a sound expert and we are going to add a circuit with op-amps to shape the sound even further.

If you ask me it sounds great as is and could work as a dead simple pickup without the electronics.

Will let you know how the electronics work out.

gary
   
img  WN
Re: Builders - will any piezo pickup work? « Reply #7 on: March 30, 2009, 12:35:56 PM »
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When you look at the electric violin bridges that AAJ made, no preamp needed just plug straight into an amp, or a DI box if a soundboard, he really knew how to get the best results. There is probably a lot more to the bridge than at first appears.
   
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Re: Builders - will any piezo pickup work? « Reply #8 on: April 07, 2010, 04:10:40 PM »
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Hi guys

I'm radically modifying my cheap 4 strings bass. I'm adding the low B, repainting the body with a design, removing the frets and changing the PUs. My questions are related to the latter.
I would like to obtain a sound as close as possible to a double bass' one. I was thinking to get rid of the original single coils (filling the holes with maple or other wood types) and get bridge piezoes.
Because of the 5th string, I'm forced to use single unit bridges (i.e. http://cgi.ebay.de/Bass-Bridge-Bruecke-1-string-einzeln-chrom_W0QQitemZ400026631782QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAllgemeines_Musikinstrumente_Zubeh%C3%B6r?hash=item5d2371fe66 ) and put piezoes following http://fittell.id.au/piezo/ under each unit. The questions are: how to connect all the single piezoes to the internal preamp (by the way: which preamp would you suggest?). Are the wires coupled together and sent to the preamp or is the latter receiving the cables separately?

Thanks in advance

Carlo
   
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Re: Builders - will any piezo pickup work? « Reply #9 on: April 10, 2010, 04:16:57 AM »
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If you want a 5-string piezo bridge, check out ebay seller choppersmusic http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/CHOPPERS-MUSIC__W0QQ_armrsZ1 - if he hasn't got any in his ebay store, he'll probably have one in stock. He's currently got both chrome and black. Might be a bit wide for a 4-to-5 conversion though.

Ideally you'd put the five piezos through five separate buffer preamps to allow their volume levels to be individually set, then in to a preamp, eg. the Artec SE3 http://www.artecsound.com/pickups/electronics/se3.html but practically it would be easier to connect the five piezos together in parallel and run them to the preamp input - Artec say the SE3 will work with piezo input. There are other variants of the SE3 and SE2 (two-band eq) available.
   
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