POLYPHONIC PICKUP

[Yau]

HELLO EVERYONE !!
I was wondering if anyone knew how to diy a polyphonic pickup for string instruments which could look like roland's GK-2A or , lrbaggs, or even Hexpander by Graphtech Guitar Labs

The thing is those pickups are designed for guitars ...
And I need something customable for an old 7 plucked string zither

any suggestion or resources will be highly appreciated :
hope somebody would be able to help, i've been looking for this for hours now !! and posted it in loads of forums : (
Regards

Yau

[aot]

A polyphonic pickup is essentially an individual pickup for each string, giving you an independent signal for each string. So for your 7 string zither you would need to place a pickup underneath each string. A telephone pickup coil (such as Black Telephone Pickup Coil With A Sensitive Microphone: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics) is actually a small guitar style pickup, and might be of suitable size. Plus they are cheap, as little as £1 each on ebay.

In order to minimise bleed from neighbouring strings it's good to make each pickup quite weak and have a built in pre-amplifier (like an active pickup). Going one step further, by using high impedance differential input amplifiers no current will flow in each pickup and mutual coupling between them will be minimised, but it's probably not that essential for audio.

[Keriwena]

A friend of mine developed the ARP Odyssey. The hex pickup was the hardest part. I'd say it is a very amibitious DIY project, and on a zither, you might do just as well with digital filters.

[ZilogMan]

Originally Posted by Keriwena

A friend of mine developed the ARP Odyssey. The hex pickup was the hardest part. I'd say it is a very amibitious DIY project, and on a zither, you might do just as well with digital filters.

You mean the Arp Avatar I guess - a spin-off of the Odyssey which was a Kbd instrument.
I did use four Fender Rhodes piano pickups to make a custom quad pickup for a bass a long time ago, wasn't bad at all.
(I had some business with Arp Musical Instruments in the mid-70, what is four friend's name?)

[Keriwena]

Yeh, I meant the Avatar. Been a while.


Joe Lemanski, he went to DBX after that, and now he's at Bose.

[ZilogMan]

Originally Posted by Keriwena

...Joe Lemanski, he went to DBX after that, and now he's at Bose.

Ah, sorry, I don't know this gentlemen. Those I personally knew at the time were Phil Dodds, Tom Piggott and Steve McLaughlin (and a few more I can't recall the names). Phil (alias Jean-Pierre) was the synth player in the "Close Encounter of the Third Kind" movie, he was there to operate the (Arp, of course) synth in the big scene. The turmoil Arp Musical Instruments ended in is a sad story.

Sorry for the OT diversion... Back to the original "multi-coils pup" topic.

[ZilogMan]

Unless you want to wind your own coil, the piano pickups could be a good deal. However, they are quite large (imagine the spacing between piano keys) but I don't think they have to be lined up straight.




You just need to get rid of the aluminum bracket, and maybe saw-off the part where the bracket is glued.

[Yau]

thanks for all the replies the piano pickup sounds really interesting . where can i get those ?

sorry for it took so long to answer but i still havent solved the problem

[Printer2]

You could make your own pickups if you want. Use alnico rod magnets

Rare-Earth Rod Magnets - Lee Valley Tools

and pickup wire.

STEWMAC.COM : Pickup Coil Wire

[Yau]

thanks a lot printer2 for the suggestion
should i just wrap it around and stick a plug on it ?
sorry kind of ignorant the videos on youtube they seem to do loads of weird manipulation ??