Re: Seeking a bridge pickup for my Eastman 515
We're getting a little OT here, but pops1, it sounds to me that you are describing a condenser pickup, rather than a piezo, which would be "two conductors separated by a layer of piezoelectric material" (not a dialectric). My favoured pickup is indeed a condenser (AKG c411), and just like a piezo, it sounds different if attached to the soundboard with different materials (so.called "acoustic putty", blu-tack etc.), and if you play around with the mass of the device. For example, if I attach it directly to the soundboard with double-sided sticky tape the signal (which is probably the truest transduction of the soundboard's vibration) is very harsh, and to my ears, unpleasant. A little "padding" between p/u and instrument does wonders. The double-bass player in my band has a piezo pickup that clamps to the bridge and has removable weights that affect how the pickup "hears" and reproduces the vibrations of the bridge. He mixes the signal with that of a DPA mic, which alone is too prone to feedback.
"Give me a mandolin and I'll play you rock 'n' roll" (Keith Moon)
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