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Just another $1 CBG/Diddley Bow pickup. Part I.

First of all. It’s not about most common well known piezo transducer. And well, I’m not sure that it’s not another “most common” thing.  But I was curious if it is possible to find the source for building a MAGNETIC pickup. Because all CBG fans know about the drawbacks of the DIY piezo pickups.

What is magnetic pickup consist of? Right, its a magnet and a a wire coiled around it. So I had to find: (1) a source for magnets and (2) a source of copper wire or (3) both. And of course the main goal is to get it FREE! It’s everyone’s favourite price, right?

Do you know anyone who works in the call center or some customer support department?  DSC_0086

If yes, then ask them what  they usually do with the broken headphones.

I’m sure that you can easily convince them to give it to you instead of just throwing away.

 

 

 

NEXT STEP: Crash them! But carefully. Inside each of two head sets you will find … Right, there’s a magnet with the copper coil around it.

DSC_0088

It is covered with some sort of plastic membrane. I remove it. It serves to produce the actual sound in the earphone. We don’t need it.

Because if we leave it the pickup will act almost the same way as the piezo pickup: the membrane and not only the metal string itself will produce the waves which will be converted to the electrical signal.

Just trust me you will not be happy with the resulting sound.

Tip. When you cut off the membrane fix the coil around the magnet with scotch. Otherwise it will be easily displaced.

The fastest way to test the “earphone” pickup is to put it into didley bow.

We just need to solder the 1/4″  jack to the pickup and fix it on something.

So, you can see the “electric part” ready for installation on the following  image.

DSC_0187

 

Stay tuned to know what came out of this experiment and if it was a success. The Part 2 with the  demo video  will be posted shortly.

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