Piezo
What Is a Piezo Pickup?
- Piezo.com are experts in all things Piezo! We have standard piezo products (piezo sheets, piezo actuators, piezo sensors, piezo energy harvesters, piezo fans, and piezo kits), customized piezo products, and piezoelectric experts that can help design an integrated piezo.
- Piezo Motion products are used in broad range of industrial equipment applications, including food and pharmaceutical processing, gas and oil pipelines, power reactors, chemical reactors, steam/water pipelines, and vacuum systems.
- PZT piezo ceramics used in ultrasonic sensors. (Image source) Barium Titanate is a ceramic piezoelectric material that was discovered during World War II and is known for its long lasting durability. Barium Titanate.
With the release of some of our recent new models like the LTD EC-1000 Piezo and the LTD Signature Series guitar for Ben Burnley of Breaking Benjamin, the BB-600 Baritone, we’ve had a number of people let us know that they’d like to learn more about what a piezo pickup is and how it works. We’re here to help!
First, The Basics
We’re not going to get into very much of the scientific discussion behind piezo (pronounced “pee-YAY-zoh”) pickups, but you will at least want to know a basic idea of what they are and how they’re different from the pickups you already know and love.
PRS Hollowbody II Piezo Electric Guitar - Trampas Green 10-Top Hollowbody Electric Guitar with Maple 10-Top, Maple Back, Mahogany Sides and Neck, Rosewood Fingerboard, 2 Humbucking Pickups, and Piezo System - Trampas Green.
Most pickups on electric guitars are magnetic pickups. Whether active (like many from EMG) or passive (like most made by Seymour Duncan), magnetic pickups work on the same principle. The pickup has a magnet or series of magnets that are wrapped in wire coil. Hit a string on the electric guitar and the string vibrates. The field created by the magnet and coil translates the vibration into electrical signals. This is a similar idea in regard to how most microphones work, which is why pickups and mics are both called transducers. They translate acoustic energy into small electrical signals that you can then amplify.
A piezo pickup is very different. First, you don’t even see them on the guitar. Unlike magnetic pickups, which are easily noticed under the strings between the bridge and the neck, piezo pickups in an electric guitar are usually located inside the bridge itself. The reason is simple: piezo pickups work by picking up the actual vibrations of the string and the instrument. That’s why they’ve typically been used as pickups for acoustic instruments, like nylon-string guitars that wouldn’t work with a magnetic pickup.
Piezoelectric Effect
Software testing techniques by boris beizer free download. The EC-1000 Piezo (top) and the BB-600 Baritone (bottom) are two ESP LTD models that include both piezo and magnetic pickups.
How Piezo Pickups Work (TL;DR Version)
Instead of the magnetic field as described above, the piezo pickup actually measures the pressure of the string/instrument vibrations to create the electrical current. They typically use a type of compressed crystal to receive the vibrations (we know it sounds like crazy magical voodoo talk, but trust us, it’s true), and the signal gets translated and preamplified before being sent to the guitar’s output. Piezo-electric pickups, to use their proper name, are actually an older technology than that of magnetic pickups. The more important thing to know as a musician is what to expect from them tone-wise.
How Do They Sound on Electric Guitars?
If none of the information above made you do anything but yawn, that’s okay, because the real thing you came here to learn is what piezo pickups sound like.
It’s said that piezo pickups on an electric guitar produce a more acoustic-like tone, but that’s not exactly accurate. What is being picked up with a piezo is the sound of the strings and the vibrations caused by the resonance of the wood and the hardware… in other words, the actual sound of the guitar. This can be thought of as being more akin to that of an acoustic guitar tone in many ways compared to the tone of magnetic pickups. Piezo pickups are often brighter and less warm than magnetic pickups, allowing for a high degree of string articulation and clarity in your tone. While they may not automatically turn your electric into an acoustic guitar tone-wise, they indeed represent the actual acoustic energy from your electric guitar.
Another thing to be aware of is the dynamic response of piezo pickups. Often, the active circuitry of a piezo pickup system needs to include some kind of compression, because you’ll find that a piezo behaves much differently than a magnetic pickup in regard to how loud or quite it is versus how hard or soft your playing style is. One really nice thing about piezo pickups in regard to overall sound: you won’t have to worry about picking up electrical hum because there are no magnets involved.
For the EC-1000 Piezo, we chose the Fishman Powerbridge, a highly-advanced piezo system that is voiced specifically to add acoustic-type tones to your electric guitar. With the BB-600 Baritone, we went with the Graph Tech ghost Loaded ResoMax saddles, which serve a similar function. In both guitars, we offer dual output jacks that allow you to route the magnetic pickups and the piezo pickups separately (like to two different amps, or two channels of a recording interface, PA, etc.), or in some cases, blend the signals to create a tone that’s fresh and unique.
I know that the Seymor Duncan are incredible microphones, but I would like to know if these can change to EMG and if that alters the function of the Piezo system
I have a question can I use a distortion peddle on a semi electric guitar with a piezo pickup?
The piezo pickup turns the vibrations into an electric signal before going to the output jack, so any pedal receiving the signal will still alter the sound before going to the amplifier. In short, yes, the pedals will still work with this type of pickup.
Piezo materials are a special type of ceramic that expands or contracts when an electrical charge is applied, generating motion and force. (Conversely, piezo materials will also generate energy when a mechanical stress is applied.) Piezo actuators harness this motion to provide very short strokes with high frequency and fast response times. They also generate high forces relative to their small size, giving them a significant power-to-size ratio.
Because of their conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy, piezo devices are often referred to as motors, but the term “actuators” is used interchangeably.
The piezoelectric effect produces motion that is parallel to the electrical field. Some actuators, however, operate on the transverse piezoelectric effect, in which motion occurs orthogonally to the electrical field. There are four main types of piezo actuators, distinguished by the arrangement of their piezo elements and by the type of movement they generate.
Longitudinal actuators
Also called piezo stacks, longitudinal piezo actuators are created by layering multiple piezo elements on top of each other, thus combining the effect of each element’s expansion to produce a useful movement and force. These actuators use the piezoelectric effect to generate linear displacements from 0.1 to 0.15 percent of the actuator length. They have a high force density—typically in the range of 30 N/mm2—resulting in useful force in the thousands of Newtons. Longitudinal piezo actuators also have high resonant frequencies, which makes them well-suited for dynamic applications.
Shear actuators
Shear actuators are similar to longitudinal versions, in that they consist of multiple layers of piezo elements. But they differ in how the voltage is applied and the type of motion created. For shear piezo actuators, the elements are polarized horizontally and the electrical field is applied orthogonally. The resulting displacement occurs in the horizontal plane, creating a shear-type motion. The height of shear actuators is limited by shear stresses and bending, but they are often combined with longitudinal actuators in multi-axis systems.
Tube actuators
Tube actuators have radial polarization and use the transverse piezoelectric effect to create displacement. These actuators can experience axial, radial, or lateral (bending) motion, depending on how the voltage is applied relative to the electrodes. Piezo tube actuators are not suitable for producing forces, but they provide micron-level travel for scanning microscopes and nanoliter dosing and pumping applications.
Contracting actuators
Flat actuators with two piezo elements can produce contracting (or expanding) motion when both elements act together. These actuators use the transverse piezoelectric effect and typically produce motion in just one direction. Contracting and expanding piezo actuators have small displacements—typically up to 20 microns—but can generate hundreds of Newtons force.
When a contracting actuator is mounted to a base or substrate, a bending actuator is created. In a bending actuator, the applied voltage causes one piezo element to expand while the other contracts. The result is a bending motion with relatively large displacement—typically several millimeters—but low force generation.
When specifying a piezo actuator, two parameters are usually considered—free deflection (Xf) and blocking force (Fb). Free deflection is the movement achieved when the maximum allowable voltage is applied and no force is generated. Similarly, blocking force is the maximum force that can be generated when the maximum allowable voltage is applied and the actuator is not allowed to move.
A piezo actuator is considered to be optimized for the application when it provides the required force at one-half its free deflection.
Piezoelectric Crystal
Piezo actuators are commonly used to replace solenoids in valves, pumps, and dispensing equipment, but they are also able to withstand extreme environments, such as the high vacuums found in semiconductor processing equipment and the strong magnetic fields found in MRI machines and aerospace components. Complete piezo stages can be created by incorporating piezo actuators with cross roller bearings or miniature guides, and these stages can be stacked to provide X-Y or X-Y-Z motion.
Piezons
Feature image credit: Noliac