Using a turntable cartridge to make a pickup

[netvegetable]

Hi.

I have an idea about making an accoustic instrument pickup using the
element of a turntable cartridge. The idea is that I rip the element out
of the cartridge somehow, without damaging it, somehow wire it up so that
it responds to vibrations as it should, then wire it to guitar jack so it
can plugged into an amplifier. I should then have a pickup small enought
to be drilled into the bridge of a mandolin or fiddle.

Any thoughts on this idea?

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[Spajky]

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 17:56:35 +1000, netvegetable
<netvegetableNOT@dodo.com.au> wrote:

I have an idea about making an accoustic instrument pickup using the
element of a turntable cartridge. The idea is that I rip the element out
of the cartridge somehow, without damaging it, somehow wire it up so that
it responds to vibrations as it should, then wire it to guitar jack so it
can plugged into an amplifier. I should then have a pickup small enought
to be drilled into the bridge of a mandolin or fiddle.

Any thoughts on this idea?

can be done but why? ... there a lot of cheap guitar kind a pickups to
use...
(I made time ago from cristal phono head a driver & pickup for
homemade spring reverberation system - 20y ago - still have it)

--
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[Dick Bridge]

"netvegetable" <netvegetableNOT@dodo.com.au> wrote in message
newsan.2004.11.17.07.56.26.879659@dodo.com.au...

Hi.

I have an idea about making an accoustic instrument pickup using the
element of a turntable cartridge. The idea is that I rip the element out
of the cartridge somehow, without damaging it, somehow wire it up so that
it responds to vibrations as it should, then wire it to guitar jack so it
can plugged into an amplifier. I should then have a pickup small enought
to be drilled into the bridge of a mandolin or fiddle.

Any thoughts on this idea?

--
to email me remove the word "NOT" from my addy

#political_forum irc.undernet.org

"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are
conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

Hi Netveg

I can't comment on the idea of taking the element out of a turntable
cartridge. However I can tell of my very first conversion of an acoustic
guitar into an electric. I took a piezo electric cartridge fom a gram tone
arm. This I mounted, on its side, under the strings, on the tailpiece side
of the bridge so that the stylus was against the side of the bridge. I
didn't expect much because I thought that the cartridge and the stylus
would both move up and down as the soundboard vibrated, but, to my surprise
it did work probably because the inertia of the cartridge was much greater
than that of the stylus.

The output was toppy and needed some equalisation in the form of bass lift.
Otherwise it was serviceable - there was one slight snag - the pickup heard
any bangs or knocks to the guiutar body.

I suspect that the element in a modern equivalent to my old (mono) pickup
would not necessarily be same as the thin piezo pickups for guitars now so
common. My cartridge seemed to use the piezo crystal in torque and would
probably not have worked as a compression device.

Regards

Dick Bridge

 

[Wade Hampton Miller]

"Netvegetable" wrote:

I have an idea about making an accoustic instrument pickup using the>element
of a turntable cartridge.

It's been done, not only by contributors to this thread, but also as far back
as the 1920's, by Les Paul when he was just a kid back in Wisconsin.

It doesn't work particularly well, but - hey! - have some fun experimenting
with it. Don't let the voices of dour, sour experience dissuade you from the
sheer joy of tinkering with this stuff.

Good luck with it.



Wade Hampton Miller
Chugiak, Alaska

Remove the "Howdy" to reply...

 

[Ty Ford]

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:56:35 -0500, netvegetable wrote
(in article <pan.2004.11.17.07.56.26.879659@dodo.com.au&gt:

Hi.

I have an idea about making an accoustic instrument pickup using the
element of a turntable cartridge. The idea is that I rip the element out
of the cartridge somehow, without damaging it, somehow wire it up so that
it responds to vibrations as it should, then wire it to guitar jack so it
can plugged into an amplifier. I should then have a pickup small enought
to be drilled into the bridge of a mandolin or fiddle.

Any thoughts on this idea?

I believe that was part of Mr. Paul's original research. If I am remembering
correctly, he abandoned the idea.

Regards,

Ty Ford



-- Ty Ford's equipment reviews, audio samples, rates and other audiocentric
stuff are at www.tyford.com

 

[Dimitrios Tzortzakakis]

Yes-it's much cheaper, simpler and better to get the dedicated pickup for
this instrument, or get an electric guitar.Not talking about destroying a
precious turntable cartridge.

--
Tzortzakakis Dimitri?s
major in electrical engineering, freelance electrician
FH von Iraklion-Kreta, freiberuflicher Elektriker
dimtzort AT otenet DOT gr
? "netvegetable" <netvegetableNOT@dodo.com.au> ?????? ??? ??????
newsan.2004.11.17.07.56.26.879659@dodo.com.au...

Hi.

I have an idea about making an accoustic instrument pickup using the
element of a turntable cartridge. The idea is that I rip the element out
of the cartridge somehow, without damaging it, somehow wire it up so that
it responds to vibrations as it should, then wire it to guitar jack so it
can plugged into an amplifier. I should then have a pickup small enought
to be drilled into the bridge of a mandolin or fiddle.

Any thoughts on this idea?

--
to email me remove the word "NOT" from my addy

#political_forum irc.undernet.org

"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are
conservatives." - John Stuart Mill

 

[David Enke]

"netvegetable" <netvegetableNOT@dodo.com.au> wrote in message
newsan.2004.11.17.07.56.26.879659@dodo.com.au...

Hi.

I have an idea about making an accoustic instrument pickup using the
element of a turntable cartridge. The idea is that I rip the element out
of the cartridge somehow, without damaging it, somehow wire it up so that
it responds to vibrations as it should, then wire it to guitar jack so it
can plugged into an amplifier. I should then have a pickup small enought
to be drilled into the bridge of a mandolin or fiddle.

Any thoughts on this idea?

Hi Net,
a quick patent search will reveal quite a few ideas describing this
approach. Most are from the 50's and 60's, and I guess they never really
caught on too much. There are however, some modern elements that use either
a floating magnet or a moving coil approach. Schertler and Acoustek are some
that come to mind, and I also believe the SBT's in the Taylor ES are based
on this concept.

David Enke
Pick-up the World
www.pick-uptheworld.com
putw@webcoast2coast.net
719-742-5303

 

[Geoff Arnold]

A little history:

Les Paul did just that to electrify his guitar when he was a kid.

--fletch

"You do not choose the guitar, the guitar chooses you."



netvegetable wrote:

Hi.

I have an idea about making an accoustic instrument pickup using the
element of a turntable cartridge. The idea is that I rip the element out
of the cartridge somehow, without damaging it, somehow wire it up so that
it responds to vibrations as it should, then wire it to guitar jack so it
can plugged into an amplifier. I should then have a pickup small enought
to be drilled into the bridge of a mandolin or fiddle.

Any thoughts on this idea?