# (sort of) electrical piano diy **URL:** \ **Category:** DIY STUFF\ **Created:** [April 30, 2023, 1:28pm UTC](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/t/sort-of-electrical-piano-diy/6145 "2023-04-30T13:28:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![michel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@michel](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/u/michel)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 1:28pm UTC](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/t/sort-of-electrical-piano-diy/6145/1 "2023-04-30T13:28:33Z")
Hey everyone, about 4 years ago I found a video on YouTube about a diy pickup for xylophones ([Xylophone Key Mounting Concept - Aluminum Keys, WIP (Glockenspiel) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TDmG0_c8vc)). Since then I want to build an instrument, that gets played like a piano, but instead of the strings there are the xylophone plates, that are amplified through the pick up seen in the video. Unfortunately I do not have any knowledge about electronics, that’s the reason why I never started this project and why I really need some help :D. In the video you can see, that a magnet is taped on a xylophone plate. A coil picks up the magnetic vibration and transforms it into sound. Can someone explain me, how I would have to set it up, so I can transform the magnetic frequencies to audio frequencies? I know that you need an amplifier for that but i don’t even know how you would connect that to the end of the crocodile clips and what else I need to do so I can, at the end, plug in my headphones to hear the sound. It would be so amazing if anyone could help me. Thank you very much. ---
**Author:** ![analogoutput](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/analogoutput/32/29663_2.png) [@analogoutput](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/u/analogoutput)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 1:49pm UTC](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/t/sort-of-electrical-piano-diy/6145/2 "2023-04-30T13:49:15Z")
Isn’t this about the same thing as a guitar pickup? I don’t know anything about magnetic guitar pickups really, but it’s certainly well known technology. There’s this > **[GitHub - TomWhitwell/Electrophone](https://github.com/TomWhitwell/Electrophone)** > > Contribute to TomWhitwell/Electrophone development by creating an account on GitHub. a synth module that is a guitar pickup with amplifier. It’s basically this: ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/lookmumnocomputer/original/3X/4/3/43d729cf45bf432e429441f8b426bbc91c85ba1d.png) the bottom half of which is a distortion circuit you probably don’t care about, so all it is is a 1M (not 1m!!!) resistor to ground followed by two simple amplifier stages. This is intended for synth level outputs, to go into a sound system you wouldn’t need as much gain. In the repo there’s an [article](https://github.com/TomWhitwell/Electrophone/blob/master/Collateral/HughDaviesMakingAndPerformingSimpleElectroacousticInsttruments.pdf) by Hugh Davies, “Making and performing simple electroacoustic instruments” which looks like it might be worth studying. ---
**Author:** ![JaggedNZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/aeb1de/32.png) [@JaggedNZ](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/u/JaggedNZ)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2023, 10:36pm UTC](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/t/sort-of-electrical-piano-diy/6145/3 "2023-04-30T22:36:49Z")
You should have a look at how Rhodes pianos work, it’s very similar except they use tines instead of bars. There are lots of schematics etc. available for them. ---
**Author:** ![Kirtai](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/kirtai/32/29870_2.png) [@Kirtai](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/u/Kirtai)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2023, 6:10am UTC](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/t/sort-of-electrical-piano-diy/6145/4 "2023-05-01T06:10:29Z")
The description kinda reminds me of an electric [celesta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celesta). Btw, xylophones have wooden bars, glockenspiels are the ones with metal bars. ---
**Author:** ![michel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@michel](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/u/michel)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2023, 7:57am UTC](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/t/sort-of-electrical-piano-diy/6145/5 "2023-05-01T07:57:35Z")
Thank you very much, thats very interesting. I will definitly have a look on the article ---
**Author:** ![michel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@michel](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/u/michel)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2023, 8:01am UTC](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/t/sort-of-electrical-piano-diy/6145/6 "2023-05-01T08:01:02Z")
Oh yes, thats right. unfortunately i don’t know how to read the schematics yet, but i’ll try to learn it ---
**Author:** ![michel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@michel](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/u/michel)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2023, 8:03am UTC](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/t/sort-of-electrical-piano-diy/6145/7 "2023-05-01T08:03:40Z")
Oh wow i didn’t know about a celesta, looks and sounds amazing. i always confuse xylophones and glockenspiel ---
**Author:** ![michel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@michel](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/u/michel)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2023, 8:18am UTC](https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/t/sort-of-electrical-piano-diy/6145/8 "2023-05-01T08:18:58Z")
I also just found this video: [Weekend Project: Sample Weird Sounds from Electromagnetic Fields - YouTube](https://youtu.be/rrDtBW1FyJo) I think that the technology is basically the same.