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K&K Straight Rail Vibe Pickups "Piezo Discs"

Alec Dube 15 December 2015

Hey everyone!

I've been using the K&K straight rail pickups on my musser pro vibes, and i've been loving them! Recently one of the piezo discs cracked and came off, so I decided to splice my own cable/jack/piezo and make a home replacement. When I was done I glued the disc on (it's the "optimal" spot of the bar) and plugged in, but the replacement disc is MUCH louder than the rest of the bars. My guess is I need a specific size piezo to properly and evenly pick up the sound. I have no idea what kind of discs they use, and the only buying option on their website is to buy the emergency kit (which has a lot of stuff that I don't need, and it's $80.) Does anybody have any information on what kind of discs they use?

Thanks!

Alec

Comments

Vince H Fri, 03/18/2016 - 10:17

Hi Alec,
You need 12 mm piezo discs. You can get these from DigiKey and a few other sources. However, the cheapest source by far is e bay. As a matter of fact, you can even get them there with "flying leads"--already soldered. If you buy them like this, twist the leads around each other to help shield the hot lead with the ground lead and then cover with heat shrink tube. I purchased 50 w/out leads about 4 years ago for only about 10 bucks. Normal purchase thru DigiKey or similar supplier is about $1/ disc. The ones on e bay are probably Chinese. I've found them to work great. Keep in mind that the small trim pots on your KK rails are actually there in part to deal with the fact that even in high quality piezos there are minor differences one to the next. The trim pots help adjust for the differences. This is very much an easy DIY project. You can use the hand-knead nonmetallic epoxy as a potting compound--use a very small amount to put onto the piezo disc to protect the junction where the leads leave the disc; heat shrink tube over the leads; and a 3.5 mm male jack at the end of the flying leads. Easy and much cheaper than buying replacements from KK.

[Edit]: here is an ebay offering for the 12 mm discs. You'll also want a 3.5 mm male phone jack and heat shrink tubing, and some non metallic potting compound, e.g. epoxy. Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/20PCS-12mm-Piezo-Elements-Sounder-Sensor-Trigge…

Enjoy your project.
Vince

alonzo Sun, 03/20/2016 - 12:32

Vince, thanks for a real answer. In all the years I have had the kit, I have never had to replace a pickup. Re glue a few times/never drink and disconnect! thanks again.

Vince H Sun, 03/20/2016 - 23:25

just contact me directly if you need help. I love hacking the vibes.

tombeckham Thu, 05/26/2016 - 13:25

I've noticed that some pickup systems use 3 wires on the piezos. Do you know what the difference or advantage is, if any?

lihameha Mon, 08/19/2019 - 03:48

Hey there!
I found this thread since i'm thinking about DIYing a complete system (since KK seems a bit expensive). Any idea of what kind of potentiometers they use in the rails?
Greetings,
Tiit

campb3ll Thu, 05/07/2020 - 14:23

I spent a lot of time and money trying to "do it myself" and finally broke down and bought the K&K sound system. It's totally worth it in my opinion! I've had the same set since Dieter sold them out of his shop in Washington. I even have the Midi Master (although I don't think that is available any more) I've only replaced a few of the piezos during that time. the system is ultra reliable and once you adjust the pots for your mallets and playing style it sounds clean at any volume with plenty of dynamic range. When I consider what I paid and how long and how many gigs I played with them to me I feel I got more than my money's worth

pask74 Sat, 05/14/2022 - 17:09

Hi Dave,
Thanks for sharing your insights.
I’d be interested to also know about the electronic aspect of the project.
Are all piezos simply passively summed? And then what resistance would we need at the mono output?
What would be the output trim pot value?
I guess that a guitar-like output impedance would be ideal, right?

Cheers,

Pascal

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