A stethoscope chest piece has a chest piece housing containing a piezoelectric (piezo) element mounted within a housing. The piezo element converts body signals to an electrical representation that is processed by circuitry on a circuit board. A back stop is affixed to the circuit board to prevent excess excursion by the piezo element and may be one of the circuit elements on the circuit board. This abstract is not to be considered limiting, since other embodiments may deviate from the features described in this abstract.