Bass Emporium Newsletter - Volume III, No. 4 Workings of Piezo Pickup Elements New LOWER String Prices Owners Manuals Missed a Newsletter? New String Survey Elrick Bass Strings Please participate in our NEW On-Line Survey!
Hello LowEnders!
What's in this issue:
Workings of Piezo Pickup Elements
New LOWER String Prices
Owners Manuals On-Line
Missed a Newsletter?
New On-Line String Survey
Elrick Bass Strings
Some bass builders add a piezo pickup (pronounced "Pee-ay-zo") as an "under-saddle" option that allows the electric bass to produce a more "acoustic" sound. Other basses, such as Acoustic Bass Guitars (ABGs), Electric Upright Basses (EUBs) and Amplicoustic Basses such as the Renaissance Instruments from Rick Turner may only have this type or pickup. Basses that employ both magnetic and piezo elements allows the player to select or blend pickup combinations to produce a range of sounds from fully electric to acoustic in nature.
The term "Piezo" is a Greek word for pressure or "to squeeze," and these devices operate very simply. The amount of vibration applied to this element (in either the form of vertical (downward) pressure or a change in the horizontal dimension can create an electrical charge. One of the reasons that piezo elements can sound so natural is that operate in a 3-D axis, rather than a magnetic pickup which is primarily "decoding" the vibration of the string in a 2-D axis. Piezo pickups are made from many crystal types (quartz, barium lead, barium titanate, lead zirconate titanate and others) which produce voltage as they are stressed due to pressure. It is a great misnomer that all piezo crystals are the same. Material differences produce dramatically different sounding transducers. The advantage of piezo pickups is that they do a great job of representing the detail of the vibration of the strings (since most piezo pickups are employed as under-saddle pickups).
The downside of piezo pickups is that they have a very narrow soundstage and miss a lot of the air that comes from an acoustic instrument, and this is why in recording situation a microphone always works better. This is something more commonly an issue with completely acoustic instruments and not something that we have to deal with as much in an Electric Bass environment.
Piezo pickups detect the pressure changes with a very wide frequency response as well - from near DC (below audibility) to beyond human hearing on the top end (100,000Hz or beyond)! These pickups often have a very high impedance (typically over 5 MegOhms) and this is the reason a buffered preamp is required (even when a manufacturer tells you that they don't). Without proper matching of the piezo pickup to the amplifier the result will be a severe "low end "roll-off" and a honking "cardboard" type of sound. The pickup usually needs to be plugged into a buffer-preamp with an input impedance of at least 2 MegOhms (2,000,000 Ohms), but more is better. I would prefer to use a preamp with a 5 MegOhm input impedance. Piezo pickups are also terrible cables drivers and you want the piezo to attach to the preamp with as short a cable as possible - preferably attached to a preamp inside the instrument. The capacitance of a normal instrument cable can load the pickup and suck away 10db or more of output voltage.
The varying materials used for the piezo pickups and the presence and quality of the preamp (electronic interface) are partners in producing the final output quality. The huge difference between magnetic pickups preclude them from being able to be mixed or blended with a simple pan-pot (passive) arrangement like two magnetic pickups. When selecting on onboard preamp with a buffer-blend circuit chose an 18-volt preamps as the output of a piezo element can easily exceed 12-volts.
This being said, many bass builders will add the Piezo elements to get the electric bass to approximate an upright bass sound, and if the instrument is fretless it can often be very convincing. Investigate the quality of your pickup system before adding these or buying an instrument with these installed. And remember - if the bass doesn't sound great without being plugged in, don't add electronics to make up for bad sound. I still feel that 95% of the sound of the bass comes from the neck and body without any pickups at all!
We have started looking at the string survey that many of you have already taken part in and have reassessed our string selection and pricing. We have lowered almost all of our string prices and we now feel confident that we are the LOWEST price that you can find for quality bass strings. The shopping cart has been updated and all pricing information is current. We are still evaluating whether to add more brands and models of strings, so if you haven't done the survey yet, now is the time to stand up and be counted. String sales have been increasing quite a bit, so if we run out of something, please be patient while we restock. Go to http://www.bassemporium.com/catDetail.php?1090076928 to check out our string offerings. Remember, free shipping with order of $100 or greater!
Some of our customers were not aware ouf the collection of owner's manuals and specification guides that we have on our website. If you go to http://www.bassemporium.com/manuals.php you will see 275+ owner's manuals, specification sheets, wiring diagrams and brochures. This is a great resource and we are adding to this repsoitory all the time. If you can't find what you are looking for, please let us know and if we can find it, we will add it to the site!
All of our back-issue newsletter (excpet for the New In Stock information) is archived at http://www.bassemporium.com/newsletters.php. So, take some time and go back through and see if any of this information is informative or helpful in your quest for tone!
We have created a new survey that asks questions about your string preferences and use. It is only a short 12-question survey and can be found at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=342751674616. Please help us understand your needs and inform us of your string choices. As a reward for you help we are giving away (16) prizes. We are giving away (15) Bass Emporium T-Shirts and a grand prize of (1) Boss TU-2 Pedal Tuner. So, click on the link above or go to the homepage of the website. The survey will be active until April 30th!
The Elrick Bass Strings have finally arrived! Elrick Bass Guitar Strings are the product of several years spent working closely with the industry's top string designer. Developed for Rob Elrick's personal use and for use on new Elrick Basses they are now available to the public in pre-packaged 4- and 5-string sets. The string sets are constructed using the highest grade steel wound over a hex core. All sets are fully wound with either Nickel-Plated wrap for the Nickel sets and a Stainless wrap on the Stainless sets. The 5-string sets feature tapered B strings to aid proper intonation. For more information or for ordering these great strings go to http://www.bassemporium.com/bass_emporium.php?Elrick%20Strings.
We now have a new on-line STRING survey tailored so that we can help you better in the future regarding stocking and selling Bass strings. This survey consists of about 12 questions and can be answered online. One of the struggles that we have is making sure that we handle the products that you are looking for, have these in stock and have them at the price that you want. Help us to improve our business by filling out the survey so we can know what you want. You can fill out the survey anonymously if you prefer, or you can include your email address (at the end of the survey) to enter for some prizes. We are giving away 15 Bass Emporium T-Shirts and one Boss TU-2 Pedal Tuner - so, you have 16 chances to win! To fill out the survey you can go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=342751674616 or go to our home page and link from there!
Let us know if you have anything that you would like to see in the upcoming issues of our newsletter. Thanks and let us know how we can serve you!
John