any piezo demos?

[GaryOpenhill]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVjRrkOcET4&NR=1

Aynoneknow if there are any videos demonstrating the pure sound of piezos on a tapper? Does it work as good as it seems it would watching this NS video?

[PhoBucket]

The harpejji uses piezo pickups. At around 1:15 in the demo video, they show a sunburst harpejji with less effects on the sound. I think that's a pretty good example of a dry piezo sound.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=liGDMa0PNgc


Also, doesn't TheEclectic use piezo pickups in his Megatar to power midi? TE, do you have any non-midi clips?

[TheEclectic]

Yes, I have piezos on my Megatar as part of the Ghost Hexpander 13-pin midi system.

Since an mp3 is worth a thousand words of jabbertalk, I will try to do a simple recording this weekend using only the piezos - no effects or EQ or such. Also, no amplifier, as I will go straight into the computer.

Now for my thousand words jabbertalk:

When I installed the Ghost system I went ahead and ponied up the cash for the acoustophoinic preamps (a guitar preamp and a bass preamp, which the Ghost people say are EQ'ed differently). For cost reasons I did not purchase the switches and knobs to mix the signals or to output directly, but I can play the piezo sounds by routing the 13-pin signal thru my VG equipment and using the "Guitar Out".

I thought that the bass sounded good, but I was not able to get a balanced sound from the trebles - the highest two strings (especially the highest string) were weaker sounding than the other strings. I play those high strings a lot, typically as the melody line, and I want them to cut thru so this volume drop aggravates me to no end.

Note that I have the same problem with the magnetic pickups, and the sound drop off for the higher strings is about the

[sobear2003]

I have piezos (RMC) on the treble side of my axe.

Here is a url to a tune that demonstrates their sound.

http://www.tommcmahon.ca/audio/texada.mp3

Tom McMahon

[Tom Drinkwater]

I was checking out the ghost saddles and acoustiphonic board on StewMac today. I am really considering this stuff for a laptar. Is there a big difference between the Ghost and RMC or other brands?

[GaryOpenhill]

Originally posted by sobear2003
I have piezos (RMC) on the treble side of my axe.

Here is a url to a tune that demonstrates their sound.

http://www.tommcmahon.ca/audio/texada.mp3

Tom McMahon

Tom is that melody piezo only, and tapped? If it is its kinda amazing. To me it sounds like a steelstring played with a plectrum.

[TheEclectic]

Is there a big difference between the Ghost and RMC or other brands?

I have spoke with a few luthiers that have installed both systems and the RMC is their preference - especially for triggering midi. Both companies have good tech support. The down side is that the RMC costs a bit more.

Godins use the RMC's. I have a classical and an electric by them. The classical guitar does not sound to me like a real classical guitar - it has a quacky piezo sound (imagine that), but the electric guitar sounds killer with the piezo mixed with the magnetic pickups - the combined sound is better than either individually.

Some of the Godins use an L.R. Baggs piezo system, which is not capable of midi / 13-pin output. I do not know much about this system.

[TheEclectic]

Here is my sample, the intro. to Dave Brubeck's Fujiyama. It is a pretty simple piece, but still a challenge for me:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKfr5snBkEg

Be forewarned that I could not help myself...only the first repetition is piezo. But it is piezo with no effects. The other repetitions are made of synthetic sounds.

Everything was recorded in the first repetition. The sound variations were done during mixing.

I typically practice this piece with Vibes and Acoustic Bass, like in the second repetition.

Note:

In wiring the pre-amps I summed the "normal" and the "mid/dark" outputs to get better gain. With normal wiring the signal is much weaker and almost needs to be run thru a pre-amp.

I ran this wiring by the Ghost Tech and he thought that this was unusual, but said no harm would come of it. Typically, they sell a switch to use either circuit (normal or mid/dark), but not to combine them.

[harpejji]

Phobucket is right, the harpejji uses piezo pickups alone. Here are some new videos that demonstrate the sound:

http://www.marcodi.com/sights_video.html

[lactose]

I haven't used piezos on a tapper, other than an experiment I did with a prototype. From what I am reading here they work pretty well. That is a little surprising to me, as, at least with my bass and my acoustic, the piezos pick up a bit more body noise than my magnetic pickups. And unlike by bass and acoustic, with a tapper, I am constantly thumping the body (tapping the neck). Perhaps a good installation eliminates the thumping sound.

[traktor]

I was a little surprised by piezo sound. It was some years ago and I had a Santucci TrebleBass, and with some help from Richard McLish (RMC) from RMC in Berkeley, installed his piezos and midi-breakout circuit on the TrebleBass.

My purpose was extracting midi signals, however I also had access to the piezo sound, and I expected it to be all highs. And, yes, it does have nice crisp highs. But it also had real good low bass response. Richard explained that with magnetic pickups, and typical gear used by guitarists, there is a bias toward mids, but that piezos by their nature have no inherent bias and provide fairly even full-frequency sound.

So the bass was strong and deep, but crisp, too.

I do not notice a great difference between the RMC and the Graph Tech piezo sound, although the embedding of the Graph Tech piezos in the StringSaver material probably has some slight difference.

The Graph Tech people describe their sound as 'Acoustiphonic', and the sound to my ear is very similar to an acoustic guitar, but I don't know whether that is a byproduct of their particular piezo's natural sound or the preamp that they use.

I know that it is a lovely sound.

Although we do not have any recordings yet of our own piezo instruments, I have obtained some recordings from the Graph Tech people. There are two bass recordings, to compare magnetic sound with piezo sound, and there are three guitar samples. The guitar samples were done on a strat. However, both the bass piezo sound and the strat piezo sound are very similar to Megatar piezo sound.

I have uploaded these piezo sound sample, with Graph Tech's permission, and you can hear them here --

http://megatar.com/docsfiles/soundfiles/ghost/

I'd be interested to hear -- how do they sound to you?

[Tom Drinkwater]

I think they sound great. I would love to hear a piezo megatar. I have an older graphtech acoustic system in a Peavey tele copy that doesn't sound nearly that good.