The best way to amplify springs?

[The Mysterious Creep]

I've got a show coming up and I don't want to rely entirely on feedback loops, so I need a new nasty feedbacker device. I want to do something with springs because they create crazy effects, but I'm not sure what to use for amplifying the springs. A contact mic, I worry, is just going to screech one high pitch endlessly from wherever it's placed (I'm going to be doing vocals and moving around, so I need a box that will be highly reactive and create chaos even when I can't be actively smacking it). But I'm also concerned a guitar pickup, which should only pick up physical feedback like I want, isn't going to work correctly or won't carry across the distinct reverberation of a spring. Since trying to look up putting springs on guitars only gets results about springs that are supposed to be in guitar bodies and every spring box seems to be contact mic-based, I figured I'd ask here. Making a noise device with springs: Guitar pickups or contact mics? What are the tradeoffs?

I didn't put this in DIY because I'm not gonna be actually building it, a friend who's a luthier is.

[NoiseWiki]

I'd say in most cases a contact mic is more easily applied yiu simply need to mount the mic and the spring to the same piece of metal.

I'd think using a pickup would be a bit trickier because you want the spring to be moving over the pickup.

Can't say I've ever done this with a pickup and springs.

The basic wiring for both is similar and both need a preamp. I suppose one advantage of a pickup is if you are stealing from a guitar it may come with tone controls.

[The Mysterious Creep]

I'd say in most cases a contact mic is more easily applied yiu simply need to mount the mic and the spring to the same piece of metal.

I'd think using a pickup would be a bit trickier because you want the spring to be moving over the pickup.

Can't say I've ever done this with a pickup and springs.

The basic wiring for both is similar and both need a preamp. I suppose one advantage of a pickup is if you are stealing from a guitar it may come with tone controls.

Got no preamp for either. The luthier friend I asked to build one I know has guitar electronics lying around and also told me he has a spring reverb tank taken from an amp, so there's a likely spring. Only contact mics I have on hand are cheapo plastic ones, so I'd have to buy a new and probably much more expensive one to get one with an appropriate preamp. Do guitar electronics not include a preamp anywhere? I would assume all the electronics needed are either connected to the pickups or dealt with in amp, which is pretty much what's happening here (into some pedals and a mixer, then amp).

I could have sworn Tim Drage posted photos of a guitar with stock electronics rigged up with springs back on Noiseguide, but those threads are long gone now and I don't know how to @ people on here.

[NoiseWiki]

Preamps require a power source so unless the guitar has a battery compartment it will not have a built in preamp.

Usually the amp takes care of this but if you want to run your guitar through a bunch of pedals there will need to be a preamp or a distortion pedal with gain to amplify the pickup or contact mic.

Pretty much all contact mics use a piezo transducer.. which is a wafer thin piece of metal with a fragile layer of a ceramic like material. The cheap plastic simply protects that ceramic material.

In order to mount it to a shaker box or whatever you can leave it in the plastic and glue it to the metal box or take it out of the plastic and use epoxy to glue it to the box. A thick coat of epoxy will help protect it.


Spring reverbs also use a transducer but its a coil. The springs run between the transducer and the amplified audio signal vibrates the springs. Then on the other end is another transducer that pickups the vibrations and sends then to the output.

If you want to manually pluck and disturb the springs then you don't need the input transducer. The second transducer in the spring reverb is similar to a guitar pickup but configured differently and looks different.

In the case of the piezo transducer the sound waves changes the pressure on the ceramic material which causes a small electric charge to be released. Whereas coil based transducers are fluctuating an electric signal using disruptions in a magnetic field.

Anyway in your case using the contact mic is probably the easiest way to get what you want. Or if you have a salvaged springs reverb tank you could use that.

[The Mysterious Creep]

Spring reverbs also use a transducer but its a coil. The springs run between the transducer and the amplified audio signal vibrates the springs. Then on the other end is another transducer that pickups the vibrations and sends then to the output.

If you want to manually pluck and disturb the springs then you don't need the input transducer. The second transducer in the spring reverb is similar to a guitar pickup but configured differently and looks different.

Anyway in your case using the contact mic is probably the easiest way to get what you want. Or if you have a salvaged springs reverb tank you could use that.

So the salvaged tank he's got will actually work as a noisemaker without any serious electronics work, just connecting a 1/4" jack to the output transducer and running it into some dirt?

[NoiseWiki]

So the salvaged tank he's got will actually work as a noisemaker without any serious electronics work, just connecting a 1/4" jack to the output transducer and running it into some dirt?

You'll probably still need to run it through a preamp or pedal that has a gain knob unless you are going directly into an amplifier.

[The Mysterious Creep]

You'll probably still need to run it through a preamp or pedal that has a gain knob unless you are going directly into an amplifier.

Digitech Death Metal it is!

[Soloman Tump]

I'd say in most cases a contact mic is more easily applied yiu simply need to mount the mic and the spring to the same piece of metal.

I'd think using a pickup would be a bit trickier because you want the spring to be moving over the pickup.

Can't say I've ever done this with a pickup and springs.

The basic wiring for both is similar and both need a preamp. I suppose one advantage of a pickup is if you are stealing from a guitar it may come with tone controls.

Got no preamp for either. The luthier friend I asked to build one I know has guitar electronics lying around and also told me he has a spring reverb tank taken from an amp, so there's a likely spring. Only contact mics I have on hand are cheapo plastic ones, so I'd have to buy a new and probably much more expensive one to get one with an appropriate preamp. Do guitar electronics not include a preamp anywhere? I would assume all the electronics needed are either connected to the pickups or dealt with in amp, which is pretty much what's happening here (into some pedals and a mixer, then amp).

I could have sworn Tim Drage posted photos of a guitar with stock electronics rigged up with springs back on Noiseguide, but those threads are long gone now and I don't know how to @ people on here.

Plaguerider Death Stick!

[timdrage]

I could have sworn Tim Drage posted photos of a guitar with stock electronics rigged up with springs back on Noiseguide, but those threads are long gone now and I don't know how to @ people on here.

i don't have it to hand but yeah, that works. Hard to get the springs the perfect distance from pickups - too close and they stick to the magnets, too far and they are too quiet. if you were building something from scratch with pickups, springs and a plank of wood or whatever it'd make sense to put the pickup/s near the end of the springs for this reason


Mine works pretty well but not amazing, last time i tried recording with it I had some hum or something and didn't end up with that great a sound. probably due to the terrrible cheap nature of the guitar I used tho, in principle it works

[RUBBISH]

My very large spring sounds great at home but live its limp and lame.

The smaller springs are fine but the bigger they get the more issues it seems.


Good luck.