Advice for my sons E. Viola school project l

[lunar fog]

Hi all

Just wondered if anyone can provide some advice on behalf of my son who is making an Electric Viola for his school Design and Technology project.

He has previously been advised that incorporating a 'Piezo Pickup for Violin Maker', which he has purchased from Suntek (http://www.suntekstore.com/goods-150...lin_maker.html), is a simple approach. He is under the impression that this pickup is all he needs, and he can plug it into something like an iPod dock initially (via an extension cable he has purchased: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B015QGGN...661_TE_3p_dp_1), and maybe get some kind of Amp later.

However I am not convinced, as the pickup looks to my untrained eye as just a pickup (transducer ?) and a short wire with a 3.5 mm Audio Jack, but with nothing to 'boost' a sound. So I wondered if someone can advise if there is anything else that he needs in order to get a sound out to: a) a simple set of speakers/iPod dock initially, and b) an Amp. either now (at Project presentation time) or later.

He has put a lot of work in the construction of the Viola, and I am happy to help him purchase anything he needs to get a sound from a basic Amp setup (option b).

Many thanks in advance.

Lunar Fog

(PS - I have also posted the same thread on the Acoustic Instrument forum. I am not sure if this is allowed, but I could not see a way of reaching out to both audiences. Apologies if this is bad protocol.

[Rudy4]

Neither of your links re-direct to actual products, just websites.

I'm assuming that the pickup is a simple piezo element. I used a simple piezo disk as an electric violin pickup and it works sufficiently well. You can see the construction details in my website detailing electric violin construction. The pdf plan shows details for the pickup when you zoom in.

http://www.bluestemstrings.com/pageEV1.html

As far as I know all of the docking devices use a headphone level signal so a directly connected piezo element won't be audible without first running it through a pre-amp.

Feeding the pickup to a standard guitar amplifier will work, although a pre-amp is recommended to match the high impedance pickup to the lower impedance input of the guitar amp for much better sound.

[Mandobart]

I provided an earlier reply to this which is now gone....

Edit: I see you posted this same question in more than one sub-forum. Not generally done.

The signal from an ipad, ipod, phone, etc. to a docking station is digital. The signal from a piezo pickup is an analog millivolt signal. If he already has the pickup plug it in and tap on it lightly to see if anything gets amplified thru the docking station.