What ever you build make it sturdy, if you have some old ply or hard wood, That is perfect. After a broken box I decided to make my own, as my usual DIY jobs it was made out of bits and bobs I found around. If it makes a nice deep thud when you stamp on it without it breaking then you are half way there. When building your stomp box first of all you need a box. Hence the scruffiness and improvised methods. I came home from the weekend and it was the first thing I did, No bath or shower required. I made it after seeing Seasick live at a festival. Now, by no means is what I made a pretty thing. (If you are thinking about building one, read this first, there are few tips that should really be at the beginning but would have been out of context otherwise.) He is the main influence for this DIY stomp box. Originally brought about by the american blues and folk music Artists such as John Lee Hooker used it to create a thumpy “Kick drum” like sound in recent years Seasick Steve (named his home made box the “Mississippi Drum Machine”) uses his stomp box to please the crowds on his UK festival circuit every year. I've spent way too much time experimenting with these.The Foot stomp is something that has become a big thing in music in recent years. Less stiff = less noise since the cable is attached to the disk itself. This is why the more flexable cable works best. If you can shock mount the cable a bit by tucking it in somewhere so you aren't dragging it around you will pick up less noises. Anything that makes noise will get picked up. Start with the amp turned down and set clean as there are wild pops and noises you need to learn to control. Try putting the disk inbetween the strings like with a pick. If you hold the piezo and place it on with only your fingers you can get some wild phase type sounds if you rock it a little and change finger pressure, It helps to have someone else do this as you play. I used about a 3-4 foot section of cable and for the jack end I used a barrel connector (female 1/4" ) so I can connect it to a longer cable if I need to. Keep the botton of the disk free of epoxy. Make sure to enclose the edge where the wires meet the disk as a straing relief. I have ruined a few before I did this step. This protects and seals in the wires and connections to the thin wafer of the piezo. Get some 5 minute epoxy and put as much on to cover the whole top of the disk, it can be domed up a bit. Try to get the insulation part way onto the disk as well. Solder the connections as flat as you can. As noted above, any vibration or noise will be picked up by the cable movement and scuffing of it. The more flexable and maliable the better. Solder on a thin flexable sheilded cable. I have some larger ones that didn't sound as good. About the size of a dime up to a quarter. If you find other piezos I have found that the smaller ones work bette. There is an outer ring and an inner ring (two connections, tip and sleeve) use the inner for tip. Take apart the Piezo carefully with a pair of angle cutter/wire cutters and extract the Piezo disk. Here's how I found a way to use it and get some ruggedness out of them: Radio shack sells a black piezo buzzer that can be carefully dismantled and used as a pickup. Then using pauls preamp and some sort of EQ you will be set. The head stock sounds best to me but if you can jamb a piezo under the pick guard or use a small hobby clamp near the horn or sides of a guitar you will get better resuslts. The better the contact between the piezo and the guitar the more lower freiquencies. I have had good results from using a small hobby clamp or clothespin type holder and placing the piezo on the head stock. There are few nice sounds to be had from piezo elements placed on a guitar/piano/anything that resonates. I thought this might help someone here at the forum, so I thought I'd share it with y'all. Could be pretty handy for Parker Fly owners. Now I have an idea to combine this buffer circuit with my stereo splitter box for an all in one unit. Piezos need to see a very high input impedance, so the FET satisifies this requirement and the output impedance is more along the lines of a stompbox, so it drives things made for electric guitar pretty well. It actually sounds like an acoustic guitar when plugged into something designed for conventional magnetic pickups. I used it this morning for about an hour and I must say that it makes a huge difference with my Parker Mojo Nitefly's piezo pickups. It won't substitute for an amplifier that is designed specifically for acoustic guitars, but it does make one sound a whole lot better when plugged into a regular guitar amp. It should work well with any instrument that has a piezo - from bass to violin. It really works pretty well and is very easy to build. I built this little gizmo to try out with my acoustic-electrics and my Parker Mojo Nitefly.
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