A Real Electric Guitar

[xtian]

And I'm sure the whole contraption weighs less than six pounds...right?

[bbsailor]

Here is an idea to look forward with a new guitar design that provides six independent outputs.to drive either audio or midi processors.

Place an alligator clip wire (thicker wire is better) to a string behind the nut and another alligator clip wire behind the same string behind the bridge. Make shure that no other strings are shorting out the selected string by being on a common metal bridge as wall as attached to shared tuning hardware.

Attach the alligator clips to the 8 Ohm side of a miniature step up transformer with about 20K Ohms on the secondary to get about 50 times step up voltage. Since the string resistance is low, you want to reduce input losses by having very low resistance connections between the string ends and the transformer input. I used the truss rod connected to a metal nut to bring the common ground side of the strings back to the body area near the bridge where the bridge is either not metal or the string sliders are not metal to keep the hot end of each string isolated.

Custom make a tailpiece with a way to hold the tail end of each string electrically isolated from each other with the hot point string attachment to the transformer input. Lower resistance reduces input losses. Read about how a ribbon microphone works with the guitar string behaving like the ribbon.

With a separate output for each string, rather than mechanically adjusting the magnet height for string volume balance, a small pot can be located behind the bridge to adjust each string output level after each string transformer. Then use multi pin connector and multi conductor wire to bring the output of each transformer outside the guitar.

Now the magnet issues. Lay a magnet under the strings with N or S facing the string. Listen to the output with a hand held magnet. A longer length of magnet will produce a higher output. This is the area where your ear will dictate what magnet length and location sounds the best.

With a typical guitar pickup the string must be able to be attracted to a magnet to work. If you use a piece of copper wire as a test guitar string, you will not get any output with a traditional guitar pickup. However, with this new pickup design the copper wire vibrating near the magnet will provide an output.

I share this with MEF members to look forward to the potential future of a new guitar design. The mechanics of using the truss rod to bring a common ground connection back into the body area is one way to do it. I have also used a low resistance copper strip under the fingerboard attached to a metal nut to attempt to achieve a better design.

I hope some MEF members alligator clip a string, attach to a step up transformer, hand hold a magnet over a string and listen to the potential future of the next generation of guitar design.

Creativity is when potential meets opportunity.

Joseph J. Rogowski

[nevetslab]

A very intriguingly complex idea. While only a few of our members have the machine shop to cobble together the new bridge and the wood shop to carve up a number of guitar bodies to go thru the multitude of steps to achieve the individual strings new signal transducers to make this prototype work, it is a very interesting concept. Have you been successful in building such a working prototype?

[bbsailor]

A very intriguingly complex idea. While only a few of our members have the machine shop to cobble together the new bridge and the wood shop to carve up a number of guitar bodies to go thru the multitude of steps to achieve the individual strings new signal transducers to make this prototype work, it is a very interesting concept. Have you been successful in building such a working prototype?

nevetslab,

Yes, about 15 years ago on an Ovation type acoustic with the copper strip under the fingerboard. I soldered the copper strip to a metal string nut. The body end of the copper strip came out into the guitar body to become the common ground. Then I glued round washers under the string holes for the string ball ends to rest against with a wire soldered to each washer to attach to the transformer. I used an 8 pin connector set to attach to the guitar body with a matching plug to connect to a 6 conductor shielded wire about 10 ft long.

I broke out the 6 conductor cable to 6 single conductor cables about 1 ft long to plug into my 6 channel mixer. Then I could adjust the volume and tone of each string individually.

My other research looked at how the truss rod might be a good ground return on solid body guitars with longer magnets under the strings. I have not done this yet as my old age dexterity needs to be better to build it now. I am sharing the idea for younger MEF members to give it a try. Just share what you discover on this forum.

Anyone who is a little curious about this new pickup concept can very simply try out a one string version to observe the concept by using a miniature 8 ohm to 20K ohms or whatever high turns ratio transformer you can find and simply alligator clip it across one string, make sure that no other string is shorting it out, and connect the transformer output to an amp input, hold the magnet over the test string and finally listen to the new pickup concept becoming something new and real.

Joseph J. Rogowski