![]() ![]() On acoustic stringed instruments it can be near the bridge with an offset to treble strings and I will sometimes sandwich the piezo in card (the baffle) and attach with tape. With piezo its the position and the baffle that is the most important. I have fitted many piezo and Mic systems from ukuleles and zithers to harps, drums, under saddle systems for electric guitars to bridge systems for cellos and though I’ve never found a good universal preamp for either ceramic and electret and there are simply so many ways to go. And yes, the microcontroller pin should be protected against voltages outside that range. The small piezo signal would have to be amplified (to within 3.3 V peak to peak) and offset (to keep it positive). But 1/4" is more compatible with what other people use.įor the effects box, the microcontroller will need a signal within the range 0 to 3.3 V. It’s your uke, you can use a 3.5 mm jack if you want to, and if you need to you can get adapters or cords with different jacks on the two ends. ![]() But you can get by without it, at least as a start.Įlectric guitars and other electrified instruments pretty much universally use 1/4" jacks. Ideally there should be a preamp mounted near, or in, the instrument - you can buy such preamps for under $10, made to be mounted on the upper side of the body. If that isn’t satisfactory you’ll need to amplify the signal before putting it into a line level input, or use a sound interface that has an instrument level input. ![]() You can try it, you won’t fry your computer or anything. before going with a permanent solution.Ī piezo puts out a small signal - much smaller than line level - so it won’t work well to plug it into a line level input. You can try out different positionings etc. I’m not saying I recommend this, but it is repositionable and removable unlike 5-min epoxy. Last time I checked it was still attached. I have a ukulele I “installed” a piezo disk into some years ago using blue masking tape. Any advice or pointers towards links would be much appreciated =) Sorry for the load of newbie questions, I’m much more a software kind of person. Do I need an amp, or conversely some kind of protection from overvoltage? I’m also thinking about making my own effects box based around a 3.3v microcontroller, which would involve sending the instrument signal into a 3v3 tolerant pin. Are there any benefits either way, or is it just down to personal preference? Should I use a small eurorack style jack or a big kosmo style jack? Everything I own at the moment uses small jacks, but most instruments I’ve seen use big jacks. While googling, I got a bit confused about the differences between line level and instrument level etc, is that something I really need to worry about? Would that be sufficient to, say, plug into a computer’s microphone input? My first thought is to attach it to the inside of the back with some 5-min epoxy, then lead tthe wires out using a jack. I’m planning to use one of those little piezo disks, but I’m not too familiar with how I should use it. I recently invested in a ukulele, and while I may not be the best at playing it, I’d like to be able to add a contact mic to it for better recording. It probably won't eliminate the hum completely, but certainly better than any body-grounding hacks.Īdditionally, hum can actually be tackled quite well with noise-cancelling algorithms I think many newer noise-gate pedals use that nowadays, so that may be worth a try as well.(I’m not very used to these kind of websites, so please forgive me if I mess this up) Short of that, I'd recommend wiring a simple buffer preamp directly to the PU you have, and taping some grounded tin foil over the inside of the guitar's top so it covers the PU and preamp. You'd probably be best of ditching that PU and getting a better one (or in fact another guitar that already has a piëzo built in). (BTW a preamp is also a very sensible thing to have even in a magnetic-PU guitar, but there it isn't quite as critical.) Of course, it also helps a lot to have a preamp very close to the PU, to minimise the hum-susceptible parts, which is why better piëzos for guitar tend to come with preamps. A decently made PU system should have all components well wrapped in metal and using good coaxial cables between the parts. The only proper solution is to ensure all components are shielded in the guitar. ![]() A piëzo has way too high impedance to be reliably shielded with body-grounding. Forget it, this is all just bodging around the real problem. ![]()
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