idsnowdog
Imperator of Indignation
A few years ago I went through a phase of adding piezo pickups to a few of my instruments with magnetic pickups. Since I didn't want to add a preamp to my instruments I wired the piezo to go straight to the sleeve of a stereo output jack while the magnetic pickups used the tip and they shared the ground ring. That way a stereo cable could carry both signals which could then be split and amplified on the other end. However, it wasn't a successful experiment because the output of the two signals was too different to be practical. I tried a few cheap ebay piezo preamps but they either didn't work or they were noisy and weak.
So this weekend I began modifying and testing a JFET piezo preamp circuit on my breadboard that I found online. I was blown away by how much better my circuit sounded. It has a thick and full frequency range without that tinny zzzzt sound you normally get from piezo's. However, it overpowered my magnetic pickups signal so I began modifying and testing a flat frequency clean boost for the magnetic side of the signal. The piezo side is still a little stronger sounding but the magnetic side is much fuller and louder now and they mix well. I call it the MAGPIE because it amplifies both magnetic and piezo signals. The signal comes into a stereo jack and is split into magnetic and piezo signals. Both signals are then amplified and mixed down to a single mono output signal. It is very quiet and doesn't distort at all.
So this weekend I began modifying and testing a JFET piezo preamp circuit on my breadboard that I found online. I was blown away by how much better my circuit sounded. It has a thick and full frequency range without that tinny zzzzt sound you normally get from piezo's. However, it overpowered my magnetic pickups signal so I began modifying and testing a flat frequency clean boost for the magnetic side of the signal. The piezo side is still a little stronger sounding but the magnetic side is much fuller and louder now and they mix well. I call it the MAGPIE because it amplifies both magnetic and piezo signals. The signal comes into a stereo jack and is split into magnetic and piezo signals. Both signals are then amplified and mixed down to a single mono output signal. It is very quiet and doesn't distort at all.
