How to solder a Piezo Pickup, a quick how to from Big Daddy of Back Porch Mojo I show you a nearly fool proof method, for soldering the fragile Piezo Disc used in Cigar Box Guitars
I had to fix a PZ transducer in a "vintage " phone ringer & your technique made it easy piezy! Thanks for taking the mystery out of some rather straight forward.
This makes sense. Actually cutting them is pretty easy if you use a heavy duty paper cutter. I play various electronic organs and have several. The Wurlitzer electrostatic reed organ used reeds to create the stable frequencies to be manipulated electronically. So the reeds weren't used audibly, but electronically. Anyway, they discovered that if they placed pick-ups at various points along the reed they could imitate many voices. Google 'Wurlitzer 4600 series organs NSHOS' and go to the link.
Just a thought...If you hold the opposite to soldering side down with a piece of bluetack, they wont slip around. also just note that the first 3 letters in soldering are SOL not SOD Its Soldering not soddering You can also use silicone to hold soldered end from moving, even super glue. All in all, good info.
Hey Phil, still keeping up your music? Good on yah mate, you'll need it where we are going. Good to see you, still think of our times together on Gabriola
Same here Heath you both were and are faithful friends. Your children look lovely, we look after our Granddaughter and she is beautiful I'm 72 in a couple of months and Wendy 71 Dale's wife had a stroke when the baby was 5 months old so we bought her up until she was just over one and then some other arrangements came in. Its great to see you both looking happy....as John Cleese would say "Happy" oh yes I remember. ha ha. Take special care of each other Phil && Wendy XX
I agree with you Phil. For some reason the Yanks pronounce SOLDER as SODDER which bugs me as they also don't pronounce ALUMINIUM correctly. They leave the second "I" out and say ALOO-MIN-UM. I always thought we speak English but the Yanks change/murder our language.
Oh dear, I should have watch your video 30 min earlier. I just screwed up 10 piezo disc because either the ceramic plate has melted or the solder joint broken off. Thank you
Good video. :-) Next time lose the music. LOL. Not that I did not like your taste in music, but when people watch a video, it takes away from trying to pay attention to you/what your saying. Even though the glue idea works, "I have done it myself", it actually takes away sensitivity from the piezo. By having a rubbery adhesive on the piezo disc, it has a dampening effect. Just like a stainless steel kitchen sink usually has a dense layer of foam or rubber glued to the underside of the sink. That layer gives the sink a dull/thud sound, and eliminates the "tinny" sound. It is best to use a 2 part clear epoxy which dries very hard.
Do these hold up under the stress of a drum trigger? Im having a hard time getting the solder to stay for longer than 3 songs of a drummer beating a kick drum
Isn't any part of that surface usable? The under-saddle pick-ups are nothing more than cut piezo discs, right? I've cut several pick-ups from the same disc and placed them under saddles, even without solder, just the wire sandwiched between the anode surface and a wire on the back for the ground. Of course soldering is preferred, but in that case it worked fine. The piezo works by pressure in a sense. I seemed to get the same frequency response from a disc cut into two, three or more pieces.
In radio shack, they have a large set of drawers with electronic components, and they have piezos. They look a bit different, as they're in a black plastic casing, but it's the same thing he uses
Hey Big Daddy, Was wondering if you could tell me placement of 2 piezos on a cigar box. Ive usually been using one and putting it right under the bridge a little towards the bass strings. Where should I put a second one? Thanks, Jason
im about to hook up a little noisemaker for fun, a lot like the "electro faustus drum thing", but i had a question about the audio output. do i need a pre-amp? can i hook up a piezo directly to a mono jack?
Very informative video, man!! :) I was wondering...is there a way to solder two piezos to one output jack? My strings on my diddlybow are too far away to be covered by just one...:(
@Penfold8 - yup, could do. but that piezo stuff can just evaporate so easily - so the technique is acceptable imho. If the solder drop melts into the pad solder, that'll be OK, then you have a chance to melt the pre-tinned wire into your drop. No melt, no solder joint! It is a very tricky operation, and I ruined a week's beer money back in the 1970s when they were expensive!
HOWLIN WOLF!!!! in the Background. I have a question. When i connect my piezo element to a small male jack plug i get a Humming/Buzzing sound. do you know how i can fix it. BTW im making a stombox
Sounds like mains pickup, maybe? We use a screened lead - which helps. But if you have a proper high impedance input to your amp (which piezos need) then screening becomes really important. The screen should be connected to the copper disc, the piezo part goes to the inner wire. If you put an insulating layer over the 'top' of the piezo part, then a screening metal layer - aluminium foil works in most cases - then make sure that the foil and the coppery disk and your wire screen are all connected together - but NOT connected to the inner wire you have a Faraday Cage which should do the job.
Umm. I think you have confused something here.. are you wanting your humidifier to pickup water? Making it a dehumidifier? Or are you wanting to make a musical humidifier? To make it a dehumidifier it will need either a hydroscopic chemical material or all the guts from a refrigerator put inside. To make it a musical instrument than use a piezo pickup. If you were thinking something different than you should go back to school and raise your hand more. In all subjects..
I found one in an old carbon monoxide detector. Some sites say that you can find them in musical birthday cards, but they mostly use electromagnetic speakers for those now.
I'm sorry, but you are teaching ppl to do bad soldering. From what I can see, your soldering iron is way to hot. That's why you have figured out that you have to tap the solder on to the piezo disc. When you tap the solder on to the piezo disc, you can't control the adhesion of the solder to the disc. As you say in the video, the solder comes off real easy, that's because it's a cold joint. To solve that issue, you hot glue the solder joint. In other words, you solved the cold joint by hot gluing your solder work. If and when the hot glue let's go, your solder will let go as well. Further, hot gluing the piezo disc inhibits the motion that generates the current.
I had to fix a PZ transducer in a "vintage " phone ringer & your technique made it easy piezy!
Thanks for taking the mystery out of some rather straight forward.
THANK YOU ERY MUCH...AFTER MANY YEARS OF THIS VIDEO, IT HEPLS YET
Tip : Clean the soldering iron's tip frequently.
thanks alot for sharing your technique!
Loving these videos mate. Nice and clear explanations. Subbed
peezios.LOL
This makes sense. Actually cutting them is pretty easy if you use a heavy duty paper cutter.
I play various electronic organs and have several. The Wurlitzer electrostatic reed organ used reeds to create the stable frequencies to be manipulated electronically. So the reeds weren't used audibly, but electronically. Anyway, they discovered that if they placed pick-ups at various points along the reed they could imitate many voices.
Google 'Wurlitzer 4600 series organs NSHOS' and go to the link.
Just a thought...If you hold the opposite to soldering side down with a piece of bluetack, they wont slip around. also just note that the first 3 letters in soldering are SOL not SOD Its Soldering not soddering You can also use silicone to hold soldered end from moving, even super glue. All in all, good info.
Hey Phil, still keeping up your music? Good on yah mate, you'll need it where we are going. Good to see you, still think of our times together on Gabriola
Same here Heath you both were and are faithful friends. Your children look lovely, we look after our Granddaughter and she is beautiful I'm 72 in a couple of months and Wendy 71 Dale's wife had a stroke when the baby was 5 months old so we bought her up until she was just over one and then some other arrangements came in. Its great to see you both looking happy....as John Cleese would say "Happy" oh yes I remember. ha ha. Take special care of each other Phil && Wendy XX
I agree with you Phil. For some reason the Yanks pronounce SOLDER as SODDER which bugs me as they also don't pronounce ALUMINIUM correctly. They leave the second "I" out and say ALOO-MIN-UM. I always thought we speak English but the Yanks change/murder our language.
yeah they took our language for zilch bastardizes it and then tell us we don't know how to say it. go figure.... Irritating
Oh dear, I should have watch your video 30 min earlier. I just screwed up 10 piezo disc because either the ceramic plate has melted or the solder joint broken off.
Thank you
Thanks, very helpfull and strait forward video
that actuly looks like fun! who needs concerts and night clubs??? time to plug n da solderin iron!
Good video. :-) Next time lose the music. LOL. Not that I did not like your taste in music, but when people watch a video, it takes away from trying to pay attention to you/what your saying. Even though the glue idea works, "I have done it myself", it actually takes away sensitivity from the piezo. By having a rubbery adhesive on the piezo disc, it has a dampening effect. Just like a stainless steel kitchen sink usually has a dense layer of foam or rubber glued to the underside of the sink. That layer gives the sink a dull/thud sound, and eliminates the "tinny" sound. It is best to use a 2 part clear epoxy which dries very hard.
I like how you say "peezio"
Thanks for the hot glue tip.
Thank you, Man !
You've got your hand in the way of the camera.
Radioshack, they're called piezo buzzers. Just dismantle them and take out the discs.
cool!!!!! a stack of fun!
very nice video
Do these hold up under the stress of a drum trigger? Im having a hard time getting the solder to stay for longer than 3 songs of a drummer beating a kick drum
thanks for showing
where do u them
Have you used volume or tone control pots with any of your builds? If so, what value pots did you use and what value capacitor on the tone pot? thanks
Can they be deformed? Like bent arouns a tube?
What song is playing in the background?
Feels (I insist) like that's a method to get cold joints.
What do you mean cold? I do not have a ground, just red and black going from the piezo to a 1/4 jack.
Isn't any part of that surface usable? The under-saddle pick-ups are nothing more than cut piezo discs, right? I've cut several pick-ups from the same disc and placed them under saddles, even without solder, just the wire sandwiched between the anode surface and a wire on the back for the ground. Of course soldering is preferred, but in that case it worked fine.
The piezo works by pressure in a sense. I seemed to get the same frequency response from a disc cut into two, three or more pieces.
good
Will the piezo's work equally well with an instrument with Nylon strings? thanks Tom
Yes! The flexing piezo disk doesn't care what is vibrating it. Just so long as it is moving a tiny amount.
thanks for showing
where do u them find. piezo disk
In radio shack, they have a large set of drawers with electronic components, and they have piezos. They look a bit different, as they're in a black plastic casing, but it's the same thing he uses
Hey Big Daddy,
Was wondering if you could tell me placement of 2 piezos on a cigar box. Ive usually been using one and putting it right under the bridge a little towards the bass strings. Where should I put a second one?
Thanks,
Jason
cool man, look I did one piezo in the bridge, and now I have a hum, any way to ground it on a wooden acoustic guitar? thanks
can I connect 2 of those in 2 different places in my guitar one in the shoulder one in the bridge?
im about to hook up a little noisemaker for fun, a lot like the "electro faustus drum thing", but i had a question about the audio output. do i need a pre-amp? can i hook up a piezo directly to a mono jack?
awesome but it isn't said "pizios" its pi-ez-os
Very informative video, man!! :)
I was wondering...is there a way to solder two piezos to one output jack? My strings on my diddlybow are too far away to be covered by just one...:(
Shouldn't you use Shielded Cable?
Pee-eh-z'oh.... pretty sure, not Pee-eh-zi-oh... because there is no I after the Z... really annoying, otherwise well said
+Mason Alexander Actually, you're pretty annoying for taking the time to point that out.
nice! how do you test to check if you soldered correctly?
A little dab of flux will do.
can I bridge negative to ground on my xlr?
I MEN WHERE I CAN BUY THE PIEZO???
What, no sponge to clean yer iron?
@bigdaddysmojo Seems t'work for ya...I just got some 20 & 27mm discs; the 27's are made of a metal that won't tin, damn!
How many watts is your soldering iron? What is best?
where do you buy your peizos need some for drum triggers
where can i get a piezo disk ..? thanks
What wattage iron are you using here? Thanks!
where did u get these piezo chips
Do you sell these? Your website seems to be down and I'm really interested
So what do you do with all of those piezos?
I’m late, but thanks
He said his wires are pretend 😆jk
Where can i buy these?
Wat size are those piezos>?
what kind of wire is that?
Probably stranded
Doesn't tapping the solder on make for a huge possible for cold joints?
@Penfold8 - yup, could do. but that piezo stuff can just evaporate so easily - so the technique is acceptable imho. If the solder drop melts into the pad solder, that'll be OK, then you have a chance to melt the pre-tinned wire into your drop. No melt, no solder joint!
It is a very tricky operation, and I ruined a week's beer money back in the 1970s when they were expensive!
What sizes are you using?
HOWLIN WOLF!!!! in the Background.
I have a question. When i connect my piezo element to a small male jack plug i get a Humming/Buzzing sound. do you know how i can fix it. BTW im making a stombox
Sounds like mains pickup, maybe? We use a screened lead - which helps. But if you have a proper high impedance input to your amp (which piezos need) then screening becomes really important. The screen should be connected to the copper disc, the piezo part goes to the inner wire. If you put an insulating layer over the 'top' of the piezo part, then a screening metal layer - aluminium foil works in most cases - then make sure that the foil and the coppery disk and your wire screen are all connected together - but NOT connected to the inner wire you have a Faraday Cage which should do the job.
Where did you get so much piezo discs?!
+José Martínez You can also get them out of cheap birthday musical cards
Can these Piezoelectric Pickups be used for humidifiers?
Umm. I think you have confused something here.. are you wanting your humidifier to pickup water? Making it a dehumidifier? Or are you wanting to make a musical humidifier? To make it a dehumidifier it will need either a hydroscopic chemical material or all the guts from a refrigerator put inside. To make it a musical instrument than use a piezo pickup. If you were thinking something different than you should go back to school and raise your hand more. In all subjects..
Where could I find a piezo? In which electronic device? I don't want to buy one
I found one in an old carbon monoxide detector. Some sites say that you can find them in musical birthday cards, but they mostly use electromagnetic speakers for those now.
Yeah the birthday cards are using speakers
Where or who supplies the Piezoes?
eBay, Amazon, BangGood, AliBaba....
I'm sorry, but you are teaching ppl to do bad soldering. From what I can see, your soldering iron is way to hot. That's why you have figured out that you have to tap the solder on to the piezo disc. When you tap the solder on to the piezo disc, you can't control the adhesion of the solder to the disc. As you say in the video, the solder comes off real easy, that's because it's a cold joint. To solve that issue, you hot glue the solder joint. In other words, you solved the cold joint by hot gluing your solder work. If and when the hot glue let's go, your solder will let go as well.
Further, hot gluing the piezo disc inhibits the motion that generates the current.
The real MVP here
Out of focus and hand on the way.
I could of used both of those bro.
do piezo transducers bend?
@P57, yes, but microscopically. Try bending it into a new shape and the (ceramic?) piezo bit will crack.
too much treble, and howling ?
Peezeeo..? Is pee-ae-zoh…. Piezo
PEE-AY-ZOES
@DANIELTJ19 radioshack. $1
no flux then? and are you breathing in all the fumes not good
Pee-et-zo. SOL-DER Really - Quick......
the only important part is hidden by your hand