mounting homebrew contact mic

[harry bissell]

Yes... airrifle pellet... very light (as pellets go) and has a flat nose so it
is easy to glue reliably...

The piezo as a driver will probably not have enough "balls" to drive a spring,
esp at low frequencies... I'd use a iron spring (or iron rod... pipe etc) ir for
a small spring, a ferrite bead... and drive with an electromagnet driven from a
stereo amp... Get enough turns so you don't fry it...

Slinkies make good springs... if you put a magnetic pickup on a few stretched
slinkies, and then KICK it it makes a wonderful explosion...  "Yes" (the band)
shared that idea during a soundcheck during the "Relayer" tour... used in "The
Gates of Delirium"... Its like kicking a spring reverb but much BIGGER !!!

Christian Oncken wrote:

> All this talk about contact mics got me thinking... would it be possible to
> create a strange reverb/delay system using 2 contact mics?  These things are
> transducers, capable of making noise as well, no?  If so, use one as a
> "driver" and the other as a "pickup", with appropriate circuitry to drive
> the input signal and amplify the result.  With this arrangement you could
> connect them both to opposite ends of a suspended spring, send a signal to
> be effected to the driver, receive it at the pickup and have the equivalent
> of a spring reverb, right?  How about sticking them to the pipes in your
> house, or to a huge concrete floor?  Could you turn anything into a reverb
> this way?  It would work better on some things than others I suppose... how
> about a tree, or an antenna tower?
>
> Sorry if this is a little bit out there... its late and I'm tired, but am I
> crazy?  What do you all think?  I thinking miking a tree would be cool.
>
> Christian Oncken.
>
> BTW,  what exactly is a wadcutter pellet?  Some kind of air rifle
> projectile?  Please elaborate in private email.
>
> >Thanks to Harry Bissell & his idea (gluing a .177 wadcutter pellet to a
> >RadShack piezo--#273-064, $1.79), I now have a piezo contact mic.  But I
> >don't plan to attach this unit to a big metal/nylon disk for use as a drum
> >trigger. I wish to use some kind of non-destructive removeable reusable
> >adhesive to place the face of the piezo/pellet gadget securely in contact
> >with, say, the soundboard of guitar or for other such temporary
> >installations.  Any suggestions/sources for such an adhesive or other means
> >of temp. attachment?
> >
> >Thanks for your help,
> >Kevin
> >