Review of Schertler vs. Radio Schack hack

mitch251

a few things
I wonder if the element it self would do better with full contact?
The putty would seem to hold it away a little.

I had a friend who made a few of these pickups for her upright bass
and she would set the element into epoxy on the back side in some
kind of mold (a greased bottle cap maybe)

Also she would make a pair that would run into a stereo chord

It is still a Barcus Berry at best

Tom

djangology

ha ha! you guys are bigger geeks than I am. this is turning out to be a pretty cool thread. :-)

V-dub

I used this for a gig last night. I loaned the schertler to the other guitarist and I went with the radio shack pickup. We switched during the second set. Ironic, since I just got the schertler this week and haven't gotten to use it live yet, but I new he wouldn't be down with the idea of putting this radioshack piece of junk on his guitar (he was nervous enough about using the schertler).

Volume wise, it certainly held up. It had to be cranked up a few notches to keep up with the schertler. We could trade lines and hear each other perfectly. The schertler was much more warm and acoustic, while the radio shack was more high-end and borderline harsh.

I found that the placement of radioshack pickup helps with the harshness and high-end (with mine anyway). I put it sort of in the middle of the body behind the bridge on the treble side rather than right up against the bridge. It was defintely a lot deeper and took some of the highs away. I still had to EQ them down though.

In the end, we both agreed that we're probably gonna order another schertler all the same.

mitch251

The other thing I remember about this sort of pickup is
that the one I had which was a Fishman built into a archtop bridge
(not a homade one ) is that it warmed up a bit when I ran it through a
tube pre amp

V-dub

Man, I am really starting to geek out on this. I have created a monster. After hearing about my latsw one, I was commissioned by a buddy to build him a pickup, so I got to work on another one. I might have to hang on to this one after all.

I give you the Welch's Juice Cap Acoustic Guitar Pickup:



And close up:



There is a circular piece of foam behind the piezo transducer. This is glued to a plastic circle (cut from a credit card) which in turn is hot-glued to the back of the cap. The foam serves two purposes, it helps the frequency response and it presses the piezo snug against the surface of the guitar without damaging it.

I had to cut a section out of the side of the cap to allow the cable to pass through. This was also secured with hot glue. For this one, I also added a input jack from the remnants of old guitar amp. That way you dont have to yank it off to unplug the cord.

You can roll some putty to stick along the rim of the cap and it holds great, forms a tighter seal, allows the piezo to make better contact with the surface! This is way more sturdy than my previous design and it sounds even better. I didn't hear the same high frequency problems with the last one. This may because I am using a much larger piezo (came from a radioshack "piezo transducer" not "piezo buzzer".

This is sure to turn some heads at the next gig.

Josh Hegg

Okay that's it.... I'm building another on. The one I have now looks great but sounds like ass. So I'm going to try a piezo transducer this time. Thanks for the post V-dub

Cheers

Jack

V-dub wrote:

There is a circular piece of foam behind the piezo transducer. This is glued to a plastic circle (cut from a credit card) which in turn is hot-glued to the back of the cap.

Is the transducer the milky white top section there, or did you stick something else on top of it? I know the buzzer version had exposed copper, so I'm just wondering. And why the extra layer of credit card plastic? A friend and I made a couple of these last year, but I might try again with some different materials.

By the way, the Welch's cap is a great touch; don't forget to match it to an ascot for upcoming gigs!

Best,
Jack.

V-dub

Jack wrote:

Is the transducer the milky white top section there, or did you stick something else on top of it? I know the buzzer version had exposed copper, so I'm just wondering.

It actually is copper colored, the camera made some of the colors look wierd. So to answer your question, yes that is the transducer.

(In fact, the bottle cap is actually purple, not blue. )

Jack wrote:

And why the extra layer of credit card plastic?

I had to raise the transducer a little so that it would make better contact when fastened to the guitar. It is about a milimeter higher than the edge of the cap. The foam compresses and keeps the contact snug when attached. If I would have cut the correct width of foam the first time around, I wouldn't have had that problem and I would have glued the foam section directly to the cap.

Jack wrote:

By the way, the Welsch's cap is a great touch; don't forget to match it to an ascot for upcoming gigs!

I showed my buddy and he said, "aren't you gonna paint over the welch's logo?"

"Are you kidding? Thats the best part!"

Scotsman

I thought it might be helpful to post the part #
Radio Shack peizo transducer #273-073a, this is the one that I had the best luck with.

Polkat

I've also built a few of these over the years and agree that the 'transducer' provides a better sound then the buzzer. Any small preamp with an equalizer section will work wonders with it as well.

Djangology...what did you mean in your original post when you said "saran wrapped?"