Piezo Element Amplifier for Guitar and Violin

The board presented here is a preamplifier for contact microphones that are used for amplifying the sound of musical instruments which do not contain electrical pickups, such as guitar and violins. Most contact microphones use a piezo element to convert vibration in the body of the musical instrument to a voltage. The circuit is built using OPA1678 OPAMP. The low noise and low input bias current of the OPA1678 makes the device an excellent choice for high impedance preamplifiers for piezo elements. This preamplifier circuit provides high input impedance for the piezo element but has low output impedance for driving long cable runs. It provides a balanced audio output that can be fed to a balanced microphone pre-amplifier. The circuit has also the option for phantom power input. Install R3=1.2K Ohms, R2=1.2K Ohm and Zener diode 24V.