These preamps were originally designed for wooden tongue drum builders. They produce excellent sound and are a great choice for DIY music instrument makers.
Manufacturer's description
The Active Contact Stereo Piezo Pickup is ideal for capturing a wide range of acoustic musical instruments in both traditional and experimental music settings. It includes a high-quality pair of piezo sensing elements that can be placed anywhere on the resonating instrument, and active electronics powered by a 9V battery that amplify, correct, and impedance-match the output signal from the piezo elements to a level suitable for further processing in your audio chain.
The pickup allows for high-quality, low-noise reproduction of the instrument's sound thanks to the use of high-quality components and a well-tuned electrical circuit. Additionally, its capabilities create a full stereo sound image, providing new and previously unknown possibilities for amplifying your musical instrument. The pickup is also suitable for field recording applications.
The active stereo preamp itself features a precise high-impedance input based on discrete JFET transistors, ensuring very high-quality reproduction of the signal captured by the piezo pickup across the full frequency range, from the deepest lows to the sparkling high harmonics of your instrument.
With an input impedance of Rz=10MQ, this preamp (after desoldering the piezo pickups) allows the connection of other pickups and instruments that require a high-quality shielded high-impedance input, such as various electric guitars and bass guitars, electro-acoustic pianos, experimental musical instruments, and others using electromagnetic or piezoelectric sound capture principles. It can also be used as a high-quality impedance converter from HiZ input to LoZ output. The possibilities are endless.
The internal circuits provide an overall voltage gain of 6B (which is equivalent to doubling the voltage from input to output). The stereo preamp offers the ability to balance the relative gain of each channel so that the combined output voltage is placed precisely in the center of the stereo field (Balance function). Additionally, the output audio signal can be frequency-corrected by adding bass or treble components using the DIP switch section, providing additional sound options when capturing your instrument.
The preamp allows for both stereo and monophonic operation (selectable by a small switch under the battery), enabling the mixing of both stereo channels into a single mono channel and using a standard 6.3mm guitar jack for further signal processing with common guitar effects or amplifiers. The 9V battery connection to the stereo preamp is activated automatically when the output jack is connected. You don't need to worry about the battery status, as a blinking purple LED will indicate low battery when it reaches the end of its life.
The stereo preamp is constructed as a printed circuit board attached to a 9V battery holder with a connected pair of piezo elements and a 6.3mm stereo jack output. It can be mounted directly into a musical instrument or an enclosure that you can make yourself.
How much is my shipping?
Shipping is automatically calculated before you submit your payment information. Simply add items to your cart and proceed to the checkout page, where you'll be offered shipping options and their prices. In the UK it's normally around £4 for order values under £150, and free above that. Shipping to mainland EU is typically between £7 and £20, depending on the shipping method and the size and weight of the order.
Do you ship to my country?
Almost certainly - the site will give you an estimate of shipping costs if you add an item to the cart and then enter your country and postcode. If you have specific requirements (such as if you prefer UPS over FedEx, for example) then let us know in advance and we'll try to work something out for you.
Shipping methods
We use a combination of Parcelforce, DPD, Royal Mail and UPS for the UK, and for international orders it's either Royal Mail, UPS, DHL or FedEx depending on where you are in the world. If you have a particular preference then try to let us know BEFORE you order so we can look into it for you. Please note that there may occasionally be additional shipping charges if you live in a remote area, depending on what surcharges are applied by the shipper. We'll get in touch to discuss this with you in such cases.
Dispatch times
For UK orders, we normally dispatch the same working day if we get the order before 15:00. If you have a really urgent situation then of course drop us an email before ordering and we'll always do our absolute best to accommodate you.
For international orders, we normally dispatch the same day if we get the order before 13:00 but again, occasionally it might be the next day before we can send it out, and sometimes FedEx or UPS may come a little earlier than scheduled which would also push an order into the next day.
Shipping times
Since April 2020 the couriers we use have suspended guarantees for shipping times, so even though we're paying them for priority services - 24-48 hours for most of the world - in practice it's often an extra day on top and sometimes it can be longer.
There is absolutely nothing we can do about this unfortunately. If you are outside the UK and it's a life-or-death situation where you absolutely MUST have that passive mult for the next day then... it may be better to find a local supplier.
Saturday shipping
If you're in the UK and you order before 15:00 on a Friday then we can send something for a Saturday delivery (NB: this applies to UK mainland addresses only). The success rate with DPD is about 95% so it's worth a punt most of the time. Please note that if you select Saturday shipping on an order placed earlier in the week, we'll wait until Friday to ship it.
Pre-orders
If a product is listed as a pre-order, it means we've ordered it from the supplier but it's not physically in stock yet. The product listing will include an estimated shipping date based on the best information we have from the supplier, but do bear in mind this is subject to change and is not a guaranteed date.
If you place an order containing a mixture of in-stock and pre-order items, we'll normally hold off on shipping anything until the pre-order item(s) have arrived, rather than splitting it into multiple shipments. If you need the in-stock items sooner, we'd recommend placing separate orders. As always, please get in touch if you have questions.
Product Overview
These preamps were originally designed for wooden tongue drum builders. They produce excellent sound and are a great choice for DIY music instrument makers.
Manufacturer's description
The Active Contact Stereo Piezo Pickup is ideal for capturing a wide range of acoustic musical instruments in both traditional and experimental music settings. It includes a high-quality pair of piezo sensing elements that can be placed anywhere on the resonating instrument, and active electronics powered by a 9V battery that amplify, correct, and impedance-match the output signal from the piezo elements to a level suitable for further processing in your audio chain.
The pickup allows for high-quality, low-noise reproduction of the instrument's sound thanks to the use of high-quality components and a well-tuned electrical circuit. Additionally, its capabilities create a full stereo sound image, providing new and previously unknown possibilities for amplifying your musical instrument. The pickup is also suitable for field recording applications.
The active stereo preamp itself features a precise high-impedance input based on discrete JFET transistors, ensuring very high-quality reproduction of the signal captured by the piezo pickup across the full frequency range, from the deepest lows to the sparkling high harmonics of your instrument.
With an input impedance of Rz=10MQ, this preamp (after desoldering the piezo pickups) allows the connection of other pickups and instruments that require a high-quality shielded high-impedance input, such as various electric guitars and bass guitars, electro-acoustic pianos, experimental musical instruments, and others using electromagnetic or piezoelectric sound capture principles. It can also be used as a high-quality impedance converter from HiZ input to LoZ output. The possibilities are endless.
The internal circuits provide an overall voltage gain of 6B (which is equivalent to doubling the voltage from input to output). The stereo preamp offers the ability to balance the relative gain of each channel so that the combined output voltage is placed precisely in the center of the stereo field (Balance function). Additionally, the output audio signal can be frequency-corrected by adding bass or treble components using the DIP switch section, providing additional sound options when capturing your instrument.
The preamp allows for both stereo and monophonic operation (selectable by a small switch under the battery), enabling the mixing of both stereo channels into a single mono channel and using a standard 6.3mm guitar jack for further signal processing with common guitar effects or amplifiers. The 9V battery connection to the stereo preamp is activated automatically when the output jack is connected. You don't need to worry about the battery status, as a blinking purple LED will indicate low battery when it reaches the end of its life.
The stereo preamp is constructed as a printed circuit board attached to a 9V battery holder with a connected pair of piezo elements and a 6.3mm stereo jack output. It can be mounted directly into a musical instrument or an enclosure that you can make yourself.
Technical Specs
Shipping Details
How much is my shipping?
Shipping is automatically calculated before you submit your payment information. Simply add items to your cart and proceed to the checkout page, where you'll be offered shipping options and their prices. In the UK it's normally around £4 for order values under £150, and free above that. Shipping to mainland EU is typically between £7 and £20, depending on the shipping method and the size and weight of the order.
Do you ship to my country?
Almost certainly - the site will give you an estimate of shipping costs if you add an item to the cart and then enter your country and postcode. If you have specific requirements (such as if you prefer UPS over FedEx, for example) then let us know in advance and we'll try to work something out for you.
Shipping methods
We use a combination of Parcelforce, DPD, Royal Mail and UPS for the UK, and for international orders it's either Royal Mail, UPS, DHL or FedEx depending on where you are in the world. If you have a particular preference then try to let us know BEFORE you order so we can look into it for you. Please note that there may occasionally be additional shipping charges if you live in a remote area, depending on what surcharges are applied by the shipper. We'll get in touch to discuss this with you in such cases.
Dispatch times
For UK orders, we normally dispatch the same working day if we get the order before 15:00. If you have a really urgent situation then of course drop us an email before ordering and we'll always do our absolute best to accommodate you.
For international orders, we normally dispatch the same day if we get the order before 13:00 but again, occasionally it might be the next day before we can send it out, and sometimes FedEx or UPS may come a little earlier than scheduled which would also push an order into the next day.
Shipping times
Since April 2020 the couriers we use have suspended guarantees for shipping times, so even though we're paying them for priority services - 24-48 hours for most of the world - in practice it's often an extra day on top and sometimes it can be longer.
There is absolutely nothing we can do about this unfortunately. If you are outside the UK and it's a life-or-death situation where you absolutely MUST have that passive mult for the next day then... it may be better to find a local supplier.
Saturday shipping
If you're in the UK and you order before 15:00 on a Friday then we can send something for a Saturday delivery (NB: this applies to UK mainland addresses only). The success rate with DPD is about 95% so it's worth a punt most of the time. Please note that if you select Saturday shipping on an order placed earlier in the week, we'll wait until Friday to ship it.
Pre-orders
If a product is listed as a pre-order, it means we've ordered it from the supplier but it's not physically in stock yet. The product listing will include an estimated shipping date based on the best information we have from the supplier, but do bear in mind this is subject to change and is not a guaranteed date.
If you place an order containing a mixture of in-stock and pre-order items, we'll normally hold off on shipping anything until the pre-order item(s) have arrived, rather than splitting it into multiple shipments. If you need the in-stock items sooner, we'd recommend placing separate orders. As always, please get in touch if you have questions.
