Stick on Piezo and handling noise

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jcarlos

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I went ahead and picked up one of these round stick on piezos
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I don't want to drill any holes into a couple of ukes that I own so I thought I would give these piezos a try.

It sounds great up to a certain volume on my various amps. Once I reach that certain point though, the handling noise(me gripping the neck, every squeak of the strings, every tiny bump on the body) becomes very pronounced. So here are my questions.

How can I combat this?

Is there any compact 9v battery mixer that would help? Ability to adjust, mids and highs, etc.
 
I've used an LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI with great success in adjusting lows/mids/highs for an under saddle piezo, but I don't think it'll help you much with the neck/string/bumping noises. You may have to play around with the location of the pickup to see where it picks up the least amount of unwanted noise but still captures the music.
 
Unfortunately there is no way to fully combat the extra noise that you are experiencing. As mentioned, using a preamp is going to help you control it a little more, but a lot of it is really due to the design of the transducers.
 
I've seen MANY players deliberately use those pickups because they DO pick up sounds easily so they utilise them for rhythm sounds like tapping on the top. The short answer is that trying to make them perfectly quiet is probably futile.

Anthony
 
anthonyg said:
I've seen MANY players deliberately use those pickups because they DO pick up sounds easily so they utilise them for rhythm sounds like tapping on the top. The short answer is that trying to make them perfectly quiet is probably futile.

Anthony
Click to expand...

Yea,I wouldn't mind the tapping if thats what I was going for, but its not what I am going for so its annoying.


I did find a comfortable setting a little while ago though, I just had to play cleaner and with a pick in order to be able to turn it down the gain. The thuds are still there if I bump the cable or the body accidently but the gripping sound is at a tolerable level.

PereBourik said:
I shape the output of my piezo pickup with a Behringer ADI21: http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/ADI21.aspx
It makes it sound like an ukulele again.
My pickup is a Kremona UK-1. It slips under the strings of the tie bridge.
Click to expand...

Looks like that Behringer will get the job done , thanks!

How is the UK1? How pronounced are the handling noises with that pickup?
 
jcarlos said:
Yea,I wouldn't mind the tapping if thats what I was going for, but its not what I am going for so its annoying.


I did find a comfortable setting a little while ago though, I just had to play cleaner and with a pick in order to be able to turn it down the gain. The thuds are still there if I bump the cable or the body accidently but the gripping sound is at a tolerable level.



Looks like that Behringer will get the job done , thanks!

How is the UK1? How pronounced are the handling noises with that pickup?
Click to expand...

The UK-1 picks up a lot of the handling noise too. Must learn to play clean.
 
the handling noise(me gripping the neck, every squeak of the strings, every tiny bump on the body) becomes very pronounced.
Click to expand...
which, unfortunately, is the very nature of the beast. It is a piezo transducer, not a pickup. By definition, it is converting the mechanical vibrations in the body of the instrument into electrical signals. If those mechanical vibrations are induced by impact or undesirable string handling, then that's what comes out. The "under the saddle" devices are probably there for a reason, that's where the signal-to-noise ratio is best for picking up string vibrations. Re-positioning your stick-on device for best results is probably your only option and may take a degree of trial and error to find the "sweet spot".
 
I hate to be picky (pun intended), but a pickup IS by definition, a transducer. So is an undersaddle pickup. So is a magnetic electric guitar pickup. So is a loudspeaker. So is a microphone. They all transduce mechanical energy into electrical energy or vice versa. In our world, the word "transducer' has been minimized down to perhaps meaning only "soundboard transducer", and that is too bad. BTW, there are SBT's which work as accelerometers and ones that work as flexture transducers. The problem with SBTs is exactly that extraneous noise issue. UST's (undersaddle transducers) are far more string sensitive and much less body vibration sensitive.

And no, you can't EQ out that extraneous noise very effectively.
 
I use a Headway EDB1 for this same reason. It also has a notch filter which is great for avoiding feedback.

If you still get handling noise after trying a parametric equaliser such as the headway or LRBaggs ParaDI mentioned above, you could try the LRBaggs radius pickup. It is actually a mandolin pickup, but works great for uke and can be installed with or without drilling.
 
I hate to be picky (pun intended), but a pickup IS by definition, a transducer. So is an undersaddle pickup. So is a magnetic electric guitar pickup. So is a loudspeaker. So is a microphone
Click to expand...
... this isn't quite what I was taught, or at least how I remember it. My understanding of the term "pick-up" is where an electrical signal is INDUCED by the movement of a metal (usually steel) string in a magnetic field. Transduction, on the other hand, is the transference of mechanical vibrations, often from one medium to another ... but I'll admit, there's room for interpretation with some devices :)
In a loudspeaker, for instance, the electrical current induces the cone to vibrate, the cone then transduces the vibrations to the air ... a microphone working "in reverse" ... or am I "being picky" ;)
 
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