Best way to stick a piezo transducer to a vibrating element?

[amundsen]

Hello,

I have built contact microphones with piezo transducers. However, I wonder what is the best way to stick the piezo transducer to the vibrating element so to have both a good recording and a long lifetime for the transducer. Should I use tape or should I use some kind of modelling clay? What kind of clay is shipped with commercial contact microphones?

Thank you for helping.

Amundsen

 

[paddyponchero]

The contact material should be dense, the closest thing I can think of to the stuff supplied by akg and others is self-amalgamating tape (butyl rubber). I havn't tried it myself - the only stuff I have is on the TV antenna about 40ft up on my chimney

 

[XLR]

The transducer I use came with a very dense, hard-textured putty. I replaced it with a softer and more rubbery putty and liked the tone better on guitar. However, with another make of transducer the best result was obtained with double sided foam tape.

Tim

 

[The Axis]

I am an acoustic engineer for a piezolectric transducer company....weird, huh ?!?!
We don't make guitar transducers though, but I play guitar and have experimented with this. (I can take samples home from work.)

It seems like I should be able to give a simple answer, but I can't.
The tone will depend on a lot of things. I think the most important is WHERE it is mounted.

Then, the type of adhesive used: the thicker and more rubbery, the more "damped" it will sound, with less high frequency content.
What sound you LIKE will be a matter of opinion. You will never get a piezo spot pickup to really sound like the natural sound of the guitar.


If I were doing this to my own guitar, I would first do a lot of experimentation with LOCATION, using a very thin double-sided tape to hold it in place as tightly as possible. Then, when confident you like the position, clean all surfaces thoroughly and bond it in place with a fairly hard epoxy. 5-Minute epoxy is good. Press it into place during cure so the bond line thickness is very thin.

My acoustic guitars actually have the Fishman under-saddle type of piezo pickups though !