PianoPiano

YAMAHIKO Piano PickupPiano

High Quality Piano Pickup System For Professional Use

With it’s natural sound and ease of installation, the YAMAHIKO piano pickup is becoming the system of choice of for sound reinforcement world wide, with users in over ten countries.

• High selectivity on music sound vibration without taking other noises
• Stable positioning realizes high fidelity sound for long time
• Easy to set on/off in short time
• Very seldom to damage the musical instrument by the setting of the pick-up
• No need to use adhesive tape in between
• No spot or scratch on the surface after setting it off
• Able to set both on grand and upright pianos
• Force mode pick-up system(FMPS) realizes high fidelity and high S/N
• Stereo-like sound expected when using several pick-ups simultaneously
• Low noise because of complete-shielded structure
• No noise due to self-vibration-preventing construction in the connecting part of the pick-up body and the cable cords

CPS-PF1 Instruction Manual（Ser.30840 or later） CPS-PF1 Instruction Manual（Ser.30839 or earlier）

Sample sound

• SR (Sound Reinforcement) model

• Recording model

Demonstration of leakage from environment sound.

This sound recorded at very narrow stage of small Jazz club in Yokohama. (with recording model CPS-PF1R)

• Total mixed sound

• Sound of piano track

The new concept of Force Mode Pick-up System (FMPS)

Many pianists are facing the problem that their performances become difficult since they can hardly listen to their own piano sound in loud sound ensemble such as with electric instruments. It is very hard for them to solve this problem by themselves because an ordinary microphone would likely cause another problem like howling. The existing pick-up systems for piano in the market are very useful with its less howling margin and capabilities of amplifying without over-dominating sound around the piano. But still many products might have the following unsolved problems:

1. Unnatural reproduction of sound tones compared with those via microphone
2. Unstable sound for long time use
3. Spot or scratch would remain on the surface after removed
4. The piano owner, afraid of spot/scratch trouble would possibly refuse to utilize it
5. Out of order after a number of uses

By introducing the new concept of Force Mode Pick-up System (FMPS), we have succeeded to develop the new pick-up system without the above troubles even in the frequent uses by the professional pianists. It would promise that they could obtain ideal self-monitoring environment when they use our compact pick-up system. It can be easily set in the piano by the players themselves in short time without damaging the instrument if carefully set as explained in the next clauses.

Adoption of FMPS

Many of existing piano pick-up systems collects the vibration of the piano from the parts in full sound vibration which will be then output as the electric signal. On the contrary, our pick-up takes the vibration of the piano from the soundboard and least-vibrating parts e.g. brace and backpost. It changes the force arose between soundboard and brace/backpost into electric signals, which reproduce very natural and stable sound. Some sound modification by equalizer and reverberator would probably make even higher quality of sound than that via microphone.

Sound variations and stereo effects

Simultaneous setup of more than 2 pick-ups is possible since they can be positioned anywhere between soundboard and brace/backpost, by which you can obtain stereo-like sound or several sound variations depending on the setup positions. Even 2-3 pick-ups enable you to obtain the well-balanced stereo sound through the wide range of piano notes.

About the construction of a piano instrument

Before we go into the detailed explanation of our piano contact pick-up system (hereafter call it“the pick-up”), some knowledge on the piano construction would be indispensable, though the names (how to call them) of each part might be more or less different among piano manufacturers.
The following figure shows you the side view of a grand piano.

The pick-up is to be placed between soundboard and brace, which please bear in mind referring the figure-1 below:
Next, here we show the side view of an upright piano. The pick-up is to be placed between soundboard and backpost.(see figure-2)

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Explanations of mechanismMechanism

The pick-up can be set both on grand and upright piano, between the soundboard and brace (grand) or backpost (upright).
The pick-up consists of the following parts:

1. Contact tip (on the soundboard)
2. Sensor (exchanging the vibration into electric signals)
3. Base (to support sensor)
4. Cable cord (to transmit the electric signals with high fidelity)

Contact tip

This is like a half of globe that has small half-globe hollow in lower part connecting the upper part of the sensor part. It promises its thorough touch on the soundboard in any angles without scratching it, as well as maximum transmission of the vibration into the sensor part. The contact tip has a magnet inside that always keeps itself on the sensor part during the set-up operation.

Sensor

This exchanges the vibration coming through the contact tip, into electric signals with high fidelity. In every 90 degrees angle, it has the output connectors, so that you can select the most convenient one to put the cable cord during the set-up operation. The sensor is thoroughly shielded to be suffered from least magnetic effects.

Cable cord

This is well protected not to add any electric signals by the self-vibration on the original sound signals during the transmission to the amplifier. As mentioned above, it is easy to connect it to the sensor since you can put it on any convenient output connector of the sensor part.

Base

Five bases are prepared in different thickness so that you can select the most suitable one for the set-up space of your instrument.