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Where does the piezo come in handy?

MCBTunes

MCBTunes

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 12, 2005
Messages
300
Location
Canada
What exactly does a piezo do? assuming your using a fretted bass. How much does it add tonally and where does it add these tones.

Say your doing a Single H bongo + piezo vs a double pickup(either version) w/o piezo.

What kind of sound will a piezo add basically?
 
Cleaner Brighter tone....its not a warm as the active pickups but its a treat to have so you dont sound like every other eb player out there ;) and i assume you know you can use only the piezo or only the EB pups or you can blend them to your liking
 
so it would make the single less fat/warm and more traditional stingray?

wai a minute.... is the piezo an add on or is it totally different?

Still the same preamp and pickups right?
 
bovinehost said:
Moral of the story: if you're wordy enough, you're probably right!

:D
Click to expand...

Pish...that's what the pundits would have you think.

LOL...serves me right for trying to answer the question fully and clearly. I mean, gosh, I wrote all of 473 words in that post. Gee whiz...what a CHORE it must be to read that much. I apologize. It's an occupational hazard; I'm a writer by trade.

Did I miss something with this thread? Didn't the poster ask a real, valid question that deserved a real answer? Wouldn't you rather expend the effort to read 500-odd words that actually try to answer the question than a dozen 50-word posts that don't?

Has it not occurred to any of you that you've probably plowed through that much text getting to THIS point, NONE of which as anything to do with the actual question that made you click into the thread in the first place?

I'm certainly no expert and I don't claim to be, but at least I try to contribute what I do know when somebody asks a question. Is that really worthy of disrespect? Please don't think I'm getting all high and mighty, but crikey, all I did was try to help.

What-EVER. I'll get back to working on that new translation of "War and Peace" and will not bother you fine folks any more this evening.

Thanks for expending the effort it took to reach this sentence. Congratulations. You've successfully passed the 200 word mark. You must be terribly exhausted. I sympathize.

:(
 
On a slightly less dramatic note, here are two short, and old, mp3s I made of my fretted HHP Bongo when I first got it. I bleeb the strings are TI Superalloys, but don't quote me on that. I'm certain they are roundwounds, at least.

The bass was plugged into a Fishman Pro Bass II EQ to make sure I had enough headroom to keep the piezos from sounding sqyashed, and quacky. Except for a tiny bit of optical compression, the Fishman was kept flat.

Both samples are piezo only.

The first mp3 is with the EQ on the Bongo flat. This is what basswood sounds like through crystal elements:

http://www.mindspring.com/~jshew2/tunes/solo/Piezo_flat.mp3

The next mp3 is still piezo only, but I've used the EQ of the Bongo. I couldn't begin to tell you what I set it at, but I called the mp3 EQd, so I did something:

http://www.mindspring.com/~jshew2/tunes/solo/Piezo_EQd.mp3

I'm sure I have some recordings of the mags blended with the piezos, and I'm working on a solo bass version of The Rainbow Connection that will really show off the blended Mag/piezos, too.

I love both of my Bongos with piezos--I wouldn't change either of them. I plan to order a single H Bongo at some point, but I'll be getting the 3 band EQ version, so no piezos on that one. I want that bass to be my Bongo with Roundwounds, and I've found that I don't really like piezos with rounds--but, I love them with flats.
 
I got a fretless Bongo 4HHP and the Piezo adds a really nice mood to the overall tone of the bass. I think a fretted Bongo with Piezo would be a great option.

I use about 10% roll off of the neck pick up towards the bridge pickup and 25% Piezo to magnetic pickup blend (plus other EQing for Bass/treble/hi-mid/lo-mid). Real nice. One thing that always got me is putting the kind of settings I just wrote for others to try. Since each bass is different and amps are different it would be almost impossible to replicate someone elses tone by using the same settings. You would have to hear it and play with your equipment to dialing the tone you want to get.

Oh, well, it's all fun anyway :)

Get the Piezo, you'll like it (btw..it will make the single H a 4EQ instead of a 3EQ --another bonus).
 
Can somebody tell me how in the heck you pronounce "piezo". I've heard very resepected luthiers call them all sorts of different ways:

Pie-Zoe
Pee-Zoe
Piet-Zoe

Anyone?
 
Last edited:
i've always said it as....

Pi-ez-o
piet-zo would be the closest though....

but then again thats my interpretation of prenounciation
 
I thought it was, "Pee-eh-zoe", but just recently I heard a guy on some video pronounce it, "Pie-eh-zoe" and now I stutter when I try to say it. :p
 
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