I had the Idea while listening to doctor Gussow about 4 am this morning. If you are like me and don,t like to hold onto a mic while you play,then this might be an idea for you.I bought some piezo elements off ebay I was planning to try to make a smaller mic with them,so it would be easyer to hold. Then I got the idea to attach it right to the harp and to my surprise it worked and does,nt sound bad.Now all I am holding onto is my harp with a mic cord sticking out from between my ring and little finger!Now all i have to do is figure out a better perminent and better way to attach the piezo to the harps .It is working fine but does,nt look all that good the way I have it now!I will come back on here once I get it all done.
How come when you guys put up a link i can't click onto it??...like i mean there in black n white and unless i type in every ,com.56.67332de/yjhgf/mm. stuff i cant just click the thing.
I thought the piezo was a great idea so popped out at lunchtime and bought a piezo transducer from Maplin, it cost me 99p. I soldered on a lead and jack plug and plugged it in the streetcube. It worked a treat. I then stuck it to the underneath of the bar that holds the harp in a rack and hey presto a lightweight mic'ed rack harp :^) It also works well taped to the back of my cajon so I might buy another one. The downside is that it picks up quite a bit of 'handling' noise. The question is how to fix it to the rack but be isolated from it yet still in contact with the harp as I don't want to fix it to the harp. the other downside for a lot of you guys would be that it is a clean sound not distorted, but that could be different when matched with a different amp. for 99p [and a lead/plug] it's worth an experiment.
there is commercially available a piezo 'mic'
kksound not that I have tried one or even seen one.
Although at those prices it would hurt to by a complete set. Maybe they need to make chromatic instead. They also have their fascinating Turbo Slide harmonica that uses magnets to change the vibrating frequency of steel reeds.
As far as changing keys,as cheap as the piezo elements are a guy could just attach a element and a female cord adapter to each harp like I said it was just an idea that seemed to work and sound good the sound you get from your hands moving around on the harp are covered up by music as you are playing hey it was 4 am so for what it is worth!I do know this ,being able to play the harp the way I learned,(without a mic) is better for me,and the piezo elements sound great to me!Once I am done with this and decide on a design I will post what I come up with
