SDT1 Piezo Film Contact Pickup

The SDT1 is a piezo film pickup, fully shielded, in a nicely configured ready-to use form. The film itself is 5/8" by 1-1/8". We sell it two ways: 1) Plug-and-play ready, including a standard 1/4" jack at end of the 18" cable ($39). 2) No jack -- the end of the cable is left bare, so you can run it to any sort of jack, plug, or other destination you wish ($32).

Piezo-electric film has several advantages over traditional rigid contact pickups: It shows an extraordinarily broad and flat frequency response; it is free of self-resonance; it mounts readily on all sorts of surfaces whether flat or curved without inhibiting vibration; it can extend over a larger portion of the vibrating body to give a more balanced response; and it is sensitive enough to capture some of the air resonance tone when mounted inside the soundboard of instruments with air chambers. It is made of thin, flexible polymer, so it makes for pickups that are lightweight yet durable. It can work on any instrument with a solid vibrating surface, such as string instruments with soundboards, drum heads, marimba bars, etc. (It has even been used on some wind instruments, usually placed just inside the bell where air movement amplitudes are large.)

We'll include an information sheet along with your order with full instructions, including tips on using these pickups with different instruments.
For more general information on different types of pickups, click here.

Piezos benefit from having a local preamplifier in cases where the cable run from the pickup will be long. For information on this question, click here.

In addition to this product, we offer piezo films which are not prewired, in several sizes. The advantage of these is, they're available in a wider range of sizes, at lower prices. You can custom wire them to suit your purposes, but they do require you to do your own soldering). We also sell piezos in cable form. You'll find these products listed below the SDT1s on the main catalog pages.

Discounts are available on large orders of piezo film and cable. Call or email for information.

EMI item #118