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
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
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.
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.
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?)
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.
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.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
You just need to get rid of the aluminum bracket, and maybe saw-off the part where the bracket is glued.
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
Rare-Earth Rod Magnets - Lee Valley Tools
and pickup wire.
STEWMAC.COM : Pickup Coil Wire
There are piezo in-bridge solutions for this now. Graphtech make some. "Ghost pickups". Saddles with output wires! Then they go to a regular 13-pin connector.
To wire actual magnetic pickups yourself, I think it might be pretty tedious trying to make consistent humbucking pickups of that size. Take a look at the hex pickups from Roland and other manufacturers, it's 6 tiny HB pickups in the space of less than half a regular single coil! Certainly not impossible to build, but much finer work than working on regular sized pickups.
To wire actual magnetic pickups yourself, I think it might be pretty tedious trying to make consistent humbucking pickups of that size. Take a look at the hex pickups from Roland and other manufacturers, it's 6 tiny HB pickups in the space of less than half a regular single coil! Certainly not impossible to build, but much finer work than working on regular sized pickups.
Unless you really NEED a separate output signal for each string, say for midi conversion, etc. there will be much easier answers. A piezo contact mic comes to mind. So would a conventional magnetic p/up if the string spread is reasonable.
Assuming that I know squat about zithers ....
The strings you want to pick up, there are seven of them, how far apart are they? will a conventional electric guitar pickup 6 or 7 string cover the distance?
Aren't there drone strings?
Tell me about this thing and we'll figure out how to amplify it.
Assuming that I know squat about zithers ....
The strings you want to pick up, there are seven of them, how far apart are they? will a conventional electric guitar pickup 6 or 7 string cover the distance?
Aren't there drone strings?
Tell me about this thing and we'll figure out how to amplify it.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.