Anyone ever put a pick-up onto a handsaw?

[imaradiostar]

SUBSCRIBED. I wanna see how this unfolds.

I'll throw another wrench into the works. Get some tiny piezo discs, like the ones you can find in some greeting cards. Digikey and Radio Shack sell them, too. A person could probably attach them at various places on the steel and pick up different tones depending on placement. Use a dab of silicone where the wire attaches and maybe solder on so small shielded wire. The impedance on the piezoceramic shouldn't be so far off from what guitar amps expect and could be resistively summed if you used more than one transducer. If the input impedance were an issue a very simple JFET or MOSFET preamp (probably a source follower) would take care of it and drive a cable and DI or guitar amp without capacitive loss that piezo is prone to.

OR...carefully remove the handle from the saw and slightly widen the slot to accept an acoustic guitar saddle transducer. The transducer would pick up any vibration at the wood/steel interface.

I suppose there are a lot of ways to do this. Good fun!

Jamie

[tubeswell]

...carefully remove the handle from the saw and slightly widen the slot to accept an acoustic guitar saddle transducer.

I like this idea Jamie. TFT

[rjb]

OR...carefully remove the handle from the saw and slightly widen the slot to accept an acoustic guitar saddle transducer. The transducer would pick up any vibration at the wood/steel interface.

Just what the world needs- an Ovation saw!

[Sweetfinger]

Deleting posts is kind of tricky, but can be done.
You have to say to delete 3 times.

Here's how:
Click "Edit Post"
Click the rectangular "Delete" button.
The edit window will expand.
You will see a message "Delete this post in the following manner"
Click the radio button "Delete Message"
Click the rectangular "Delete Post" button

Why doesn't someone just fix the glitchy software that tricks you into posting twice?

My observation about the saw: You'll probably need to use a piezo and won't be able to attach it to the blade because it will cause weird harmonics. Either up between the player's fingers or mounted on the wooden handle. WAIT! you might be able to use magnetic pickups cantilever mounted to the wood handle. I've seen commercial upright bass pickups that essentially use a couple piezo discs with a metal clamp sort of like what you used to see in office supply stores. You could mount a piezo element to a small spring loaded woodworker's clamp. There are spring loaded cheep-o piezo clamp on pickups but the one I have wouldn't have enough grip to stay on a saw, IMO.

[tubeswell]

Well someone has done it successfully! I'm trying to get the details

pyronauts at scotia - YouTube