Vibraphone pickup system

Hi there,
Just finished vibraphone pickup system .
There is sound clip (recorded into PC soundcard):
http://k003.kiwi6.com/hotlink/kceb46p5ot/vibra.wav
http://k003.kiwi6.com/hotlink/b2vqejyn76/vibra_mp.mp3

The construction of pickup system is inspired by this product http://www.kksound.com/vibraphone.html.
  I used 2 collecting rails (at front and back). Summing amp is super simple - opamp based QU-converter (charge amp) + pot+buffer.
Piezo pickups are 9mm piezo elements from Newark (mfg Part# MCFT-9T-18A1-115) - they are nice but you need twice qty to choose best ones. The cable between pickups and collecting rail - Mogami W2368 (cheap, flexible and very good cable).
Each pickup has 1/8 plug for connection with rail.
Photos and circuits coming soon..
Added circuit.

Sounds really good, interesting work!

How and where did you apply the piezos?

How was the selection done?

Best, Anders

Hi Anders,
I've glued piezos with epoxy. To prevent pickup movement during the curing time, I've covered them with a bar with scotch tape.
Position is choosed like described in KKsound guide - http://www.kksound.com/pdf/vibesystem.pdf. The best point for pickup is under line where the holding string would be threaded - in this position pickup doesn't damp the bar.
About selection: about 40% of transducers haven't flat surface. Some pickups had stamp residue burrs at the edge. It's not manufacturing defect, just my specification.
The capacitance of stock transducers has close tolerance (about 10%) so I didn't matched by capacitance.
Leakage resistance is more than 200Meg for all stock pickups.
Before gluing to bars, I've potted each pickup with epoxy. It prevents piezo from humidity and  mechanical stresses. Also it damps self resonance of transducer.

Best, Vladimir.

Very cool.  Thanks!
Best,
Bruno2000

Added some hints how to make collective rails.

Great work. Gives me an opportunity to try out Ethan's new 'like' function.

Do you get the modulation effect when you switch the motor on that spins the disks over the resonation tubes ?

Hi,
The guy uses vibra without modulation.
Though, I doubt modulation effect can be picked up: pickups are very insensitive to ambient sound.
Vlad.

Thank You so much for finding out which transducer works ! I have ordered 100 pieces of them, that was difficult  in Germany.    Regards, and thank You again, Christian