Sustainer Ideas

[monkey69962000]

wait so you might sell these for only a dollor per string, or is that the price you paid to make one.

[psw]

Sorry Monkey Man...nothings that cheap...the postage would be 5x this alone.

I was just refering to the actual driver element material cost. It does take some time to make them (say $20+au per hour) and then there's the circuitry and I'd want some profit and something to pay for about a year of R&D and to fund further projects!

But I am aiming for a price mark of about the cost of a quality effects box and I don't think that would be at all unreasonable for the complete system.

By the way...I've detirmined that the hex driver system will only really work with a hex pickup system. I developed several magnetic pickup designs (about the same size as the last driver pictured) that work and there is potential for these to be developed into a pickup system in their own right.

I even produced probably the worlds smallest working ebow but it takes a little power and I don't think I'll be developing this.

What I am doing is producing a really neat sounding hex piezo system that easily fits under the saddles on a strat style tremolo bridge...so far really promising and a great sound. These, teamed with a set of drivers you get infinite sustain and acoustic sound!

Now that's got to be worth paying for!

pete

[monkey69962000]

problem is will it work on a regular, lets say marshall amp. Or will the consumer have to build their own ruby or little gem.

[psw]

Well it's like this...

The vibrations of the string are "picked up" by a pickup a small amplifier (like the ruby, etc) with a little processing (filtering, etc) then sends a stronger version to the little driver which vibrates the string. These vibrations are again picked up and around it goes in an endless feedback loop till you stop the string.

Now, I'm going to have to duplicate this for each string. That mean's 6 pickups, 6 amps, 6 drivers (Hex is six in latin) hence hex pickup and hex driver.

All this happens on board the guitar and is silent except that the guitar will sustain till the battery runs out!

Now piezo pickups are often used on acoustic guitars as they sense the physical vibrations of the string vibrations through pressure on tiny crystals. Piezo crystals, when vibrated physically produce a current. Magnetic pickups sense changes in a magnetic field, caused by the string, via it's coil...also producing a signal of fluctuating current. They work in different ways to produce a signal and therefore sound different. Piezo's tend to sound more "acoustic" because they sense all the vibrations sent to the bridge, via the strings. Magnetic pickups only sense a small portion of the string around it's magnetic field.

Now, to drive the string I'm manipulation a magnetic field in which the strings caught up in causing it to move in accordance with these magnetic changes. This is exactly how a speaker works but instead of a paper cone, it's moving the string.

So, in answer to your question, you can put it through any amp you want. You could the magnetic pickups through one amp and the piezo's through another. With a Hex pickup you could even run each string to a different amp or effects unit...

By running each string through it's own fuzz circuit you get hex-distortion...this effect sounds like a distorted guitar but doesn't turn to mush. These kinds of effects are of most use in recording situations.

As to where I'm at now...I've just crashed the other computer so I might be off the air for a while!...I'm developing the acoustic pickups as a separate unit to which the sustainer could be added. I've got some interesting ideas for putting them together and may even start a new thread on these when I devvelop them more

bye for now

psw

[ansil]

hey psw man, for the whole hex distortion thing have you tried that split hex pickup thing i was telling you about a while back where you have one regular coil and six individual coils with individual trimpots for volume controls. all cascaded together so you can use it as a single humbucker with better ballance or as a split pickup so you get some much and some clarity too.. anyway sorry its not quite on the whole minidriver thing but thought i would ask since you were talking about hex pickups.

[psw]

Ansil

Yes and no...

I bought one relay to test it out...a little expensive

Anyway been a little busy with this stuff...the idea here is a kind of stick on system not a pickup replacement...

But I love the idea of separate coils and have got a host of ideas for radical pickup designs by playing with these drivers...as soon as this system works!

Got to watch string bending as you may bend into the other strings coil or lose volume...my things are pretty directional

I even had this idea of a pickup where my mini drivers form the core of a conventional coil or a set of six coils...probably replacing the mid pickup....

Got a bunch of SMD stuff so I'll be getting my fingers burnt for sure...

And I guess the hex-o-distorto thing would only be really effective with six separate amps as the speaker would go a little wierd with all those harmonics and compression...or am I wrong?

Anyhow, great to see your still keeping an eye on things in sustain land...how is you stomp sustainer going....any results or still fine-tuning?

psw

[ansil]

had to give up the stomp one for now, but i plan on getting back into it as soon as time permits. it was going nicely. but it had some quirks to it. after it got worn in a bit.

as far as bending out of the hex range per string. i htought of that thats what gave me the idea along time ago to actually use the extra coil with it. but i have fallen in love with the idea of replaceing the middle pickpu with the hex one hmm now thats somehting to go home and nap on.

[monkey69962000]

man, when you get those sustainers toltaly filtered and sounding fantastic ill buy them. Well if i dont make one myself. You said that you made a really small ebow, well if you want PM or post how you can make one (this is if you have the time and would like to). Maybe not the small one but an ebow. I have schematics but still am confused on how to make one. Dont get mad at me please. School started early (last week) for me and i cant think straight right now because of an ayhole english teacher, so if the answer is right in front of my face somewhere on the forum please tell me. Also sorry if you told me before but the patents are hard for me to understand.

[psw]

Don't worry, monkey man, your safe

As I explained...I don't want to give away the secrets of how my drivers work!!!!

Nevertheless, It's perhaps the language that patents are written in that's confusing. This is done on purpose to cover all the bases to protect people copying it but, at the same time, to not reveal exactly how to do it.

Basically, the ebow is as I described above. There's a pickup...an amplifier...and a driver.

You need two bobbins (have a look at the patent) round and less than 2cm wide that you can put something magnetic in the middle. Place a magnet on the back after winding.

It does state in the patent that the driver is wound with heavier gage wire. Use the type that you get to wind coils in speaker crossover networks. The wire has an enamelled coating...you'll need to sand this off to solder it...don't use normal copper wire as it will short out! Wind it on a circular bobbin (look for something in the sewing box for something suitable or make something suitable)

Make another coil with hundreds of winds of very, very fine wire...pickup wire is as fine as a hair...you may get it to work with something thicker...but where talking really fine and it may be hard to get. It also must be enamelled or it will short out.

You are using fine wire to get enough turns on it to give a strong enough signal for the amplifier. You use heavier gauge wire for the driver as the current going through it will get it hot and threaten to burn it out (see my first post, page 1) and to not restrict the current flow.

Now a 386 amp like the ruby or what ever...even the extremely simple Ansil's sustainer mod amp...or check out an electronics store for something 1/2 to 1 watt in a kit...that's what I'm now using for my experiments. If your pickup's not very strong you may need a preamp...see how you go.

Connect your pickup coil to the input (mic) of the amp and the driver to the output (speaker) and see how it goes. You may want to have a DPDT switch wired to reverse the speaker wires...or just resolder them the other way to see if it works. A volume (power control is a must...a kit will probably have a trim pot...you can replace this later with a normal sized pot of the same size with a knob on!

Find a suitable non-magnetic box and place the pickup and driver a couple of inches apart so that the coils dont interfere with one another. If there's too much squealing then it's probably that your coils are a bit loose so when winding perhaps put PVA in it while you do it and soak it at the end (both coils)

Best of luck...hope this helps

psw

By the way, Ansil claims to have made one so perhaps he'll have some more tips

[ansil]

Primal

I know where your coming from, sort of

But, if the thing pulses it must do so at some kind of frequency, yeah???

My idea of using vibrating motors to shake the bridge was like that. I was hoping that the strings would move from that alone.

I found some in Hong Kong from a manufacturer who is prepared to send some samples for free but the freight is about US$50!!!!!

LOvekraft had some valid concerns about standing waves, etc. so perhaps it wouldn't work

psw

[of cousre i know some of things mentioned here will make people here cringe ayeeeeeeeeeeeee putting holes in you guitar]

have you ever taken a small vibrating motor such as one from a large pager [the ones with the weight on the end of it thats uneven so it vibrates just to be clear] and placed it in the guitar body. say ie at one of the horns?

when i relocated a strap button i had a gaping hole that had happend from all the times i used a larger than nesecarry screw in the button hole. so i decided to try something i drilled it out a little larger added a little motor in there and controlled it via a pot worked crappy.. then i epoxied it. worked fantastically.

it hardly had any of the motors humm or pitch was picked up via the pickups. but one problem because of my mismatch in voltage i fried the motor and it was already mounted in there.

now i am not suggesting a permanent thing in the guitar. but it seems to me that if you enbed it in the wood and have it far enough away from the pickups it works really well something i am working on currently. [in my mock spare time that is.. ha what is spare time] but i have found that in a cheap test guitar a few years ago i drilled a rather small hole trhough a large section of the bass bout where the arm scarf would be if it wasnt' such a crappy cheap guitar body..

[wood was rather nice not as dense as i woudl have likedd it i think it was told me to be something called japanese maple. as it was clearly not an american wood but they have many different trees over there that resemble maple so its all lumped together.]

i had an ex girlfriend who woudlnt' pick up her crap. and well lets say she left a very tiny personal item that used batteries [not trying to offend anyone but it is relevant to the situation and i couldnt' think of a nicer way to put it.] so i cleaned it measured it. and drilled a suitable hole for it. found it worked nicely as "a vibrating unit to sustain my guitars string." it wasn't indefinate but it did add an etherial alive feeling to the guitar.

if i canfind the clip [its no longer on the site due to geocities sucking tail pipe on bandwidth that is] i can email it to someone who wants to host it, it is rather long and i dont' have it on computer anymore to edit it. and its colored all throught the song. i added it to a weird pitch effect on my unit to get some background noises also there is a bad electric razor through a phasor and flanger that is on there not to be confused as it was what gave me the idea of processing it like that. that and reeves gabriel too.

anyway enough for now i am continuing to read the thread from the begining to see if i missed soemhthing.

ansil

[ansil]

read this

If the link has worked you should read about a sustainer mod that ANSIL came up with. I have not tryed it yet but plan to and if it works well will be fitting it to all my guitars. Ansil is a electronic wizard, i think the guy knows everything.

for a more true sustainor sound like ebows and such i would definately follow psw's thread as mine isn't quite as reliable the last time i tried it i think it definately makes a difference what pickups you have and the quality of speaker too. it still works but its not as constant as i like it to be. so i will have to re think it.

[ansil]

Ansil, Keep working on it! Most people prefer a stomp box to a purpose built guitar so it will probably be more acceptable.

What I'm trying to achieve is an add on that offers a huge range of natural techniques to the guitar itself, simply, cheaply and with as little modification as possible.

Perhaps you can help with this. I need to put in a switch so that, when the driver is activated, only the bridge PU is connected.

Also, I have a neat little encoder "pot" with a push-push switch. I know this is getting into digital territory, but has anyone tried using this type of control for effects and stuff and would it have a place in this application do you think?

Also, I'm looking to build in some simple effects into the driving chain (tremolo, etc). Has anyone got any thoughts on this? Early experiments with a flanger were really weird!

Ansil, since your looking at synth type stuff. Perhaps there is a place for it in my type of sustainer. Consider this, a synth note generated from the played note, driving the string. The string would feedback with characteristics of the synth note would it not? Just a thought, what do you think.

thanks

p s w

psw a few quesitons you asked before, about the gain control and range. the 1k pot doesn't give you the control you need but you can use a 1M it will have a much stranger sweep than a normal say 1k pot. as the internal resistance is only 1.35k between the pins 1 and 8. you can also make a positive feedback loop from the output back to input according to the datasheets some where i have from national ][i think they are still online?] you can also do the lm386 similar to how we dot he opamps.. think about the mxr distortion circuit. heres the pic if you need it.

see how we have the gain control done with the 1M pot from the .047uf and the 4.7k RC joint. so since the gain is actually set via the feedback loop resistor and the 4.7k and the pot acts as its reference to ground changing the actual "see-able gain" you can do simialr with the lm386 by taking it and bridging pins 1 and 8 and adding say a 5k pot to pin 1 with a fixed resistor of say 220 ohms coming off of lug three lug 2 or middle lug connected to the pin 1 of the ic. this will give you more gain.. i forget the actual amount but according to a radio oscilator guy from japan [where the article was found and discussed on diystompboxes.com] he said it took it from a max of 52 to 74 db aproximately if memory serves me this morning [i actually slept at night this time so i am a little weirded out by this scenerio.]

now another thing to try is this.. get an lm380n-8 chip. [not a common radioshack one i know] this is another 700mw power chip. i switched to using these because they have a better input impedance and seem to use less power as they seem to be designed better IMHO. they also have the same pinout as the 741 opamp except pin 5 is also a ground pin as to help out with the heatsink issues. if the 386 had this incorporated into it personaly i belive it would be more efficient.

now as for the guitar note triggering a synth to have the synth note of the same freq drive the strinng to incoroporate the features of the synth i think two things.

1. this is in theory a great idea, and one i belive by using different wave shapes will affect the actual note quaility and quantity ie what the note contains instead of just the fundamental again ie more artifacts and peculiarities [ps my spelling sucks and i dont care for the last person who pointed it out to me for 98.9% jof the time i can be understood and i will leave it at that.] also i dont' really know if the sustained note would pickup more of the synth qualities thats why i said in theory cause again its worthy of trying but i dont' have the actual answer at present.

2. i have to agree with LK right now. i think that using a signal that isnt' the best hifi quality will make all the difference in the world. maybe add some filtering in there that would limit the driver range to only the guitars freq range and then worry about overtones and harmonics later?? still sorting this al out. \

still sorting all this out for myself so sorry for the lateness i reply to questions when i can and today is a day that i can read the thread but i have to type this up as i go or i will forget it by the time i get trhough the thread. so i hope i dont' offend anyone with the long posts.

currently looking for app notes that i thought were interesting.

and usefull

http://www.national.com/an/AN/AN-69.pdf this is page 7 the title is below.

BOOSTED GAIN USING POSITIVE FEEDBACK

For applications requiring gains higher than the internally

set gain of 50, it is possible to apply positive feedback

around the LM380 for closed loopgains of up to 300. Figure

21 shows a practical example of an LM380 in a gain of 200

circuit.

http://www.national.com/an/AN/AN-386.pdf lm386 app notes i am still reading this one.

ok was wrong not lm386 but interesting.. sorrry

again i didnt' remember if i stated or not. if you are using the lm386n-1 it is a six volt chip the ones from radioshack for a driver it might be ok but as an audio amplifier it starts to experience premature death at 9v from a regular transistor radio battery. you can hear the quality of it die and it will eventualy oscialte and stop working. now of course this is all subject to actuall use. in my pedals everyone of the n-1 died even the non radioshack ones.. however my n-3's work great and have not had any problems allso they can take more voltage and the n-4 will go up to around 22volts or so and can source more current. usefull in drivers i would say compared to the n-1 anyway.

back to my reading.

Edited August 27, 2004 by ansil

[ansil]

Ansil -

CP5x uses metal to direct the power up and over the string. Measuring the strings position with my hall detector thingy, this is exactly neutral. This means no string pull, no dampening, no adverse tone effects and remarkable EMI control. The changing field is altomatically attracted to the opposing identical change in the other coil and the power of the magnet, which can be substantial can be added to because both poles are actively involved in moving the string. The motion of the string is indeed from side to side or circular like it would be naturally, not up and down which CP1 for instance did exclusively - less distortion and more control for the next step.

Remember also that this thing is tiny 5x5x12mm. In fact, the deflector is made from common staples...now thats DIY ...there goes another secret

Now youv'e let on that you have trided to replicate the ebow...tell me more

I retried it with CP1 and realize now that I had the driving amp earthed to the guitar so it was not completely isolated as the ebow obviously is...still working on that.

I seem to have some success driving a string with miniture ferrite inductors and that is where I'm heading at the moment...cheap...consistant...tiny...and I don't have to wind them . I still think there are merits to ferrite cores as they transmit but don't hold a permanent magnetism too well so should therefore be more responsive...or so i'm thinking

short answer on the extent of my diy ebow, started out as a partial schematic [gone unfortuneatly due to flood waters in my old storage building] the driver was wound by my friend on a plastic sewing machine bobbin. we used one of the little radioshack rare earth magnets there and applied this directly to a lm386 actually a gutted distoriton pedal that i was expiramenting with dip switches for different capacitance settings and such. so i could vary the output from normal pedal bass enhance and all the way to just a treble booster. the input of the 386 was actually taken from a crude wave shape generator. not sure on the exact settings as it was broken at the time and most of the knobs didnt' work, later it was hooked up to my tremolo pedal and i used the tremolo pedal as the source for driving the coil. if i find the rest of it i would gladly reverse what we came up with but i dont' remember much of what we did as i only have half of it left. the rest is long desolddered or disapeared as most of the things in my shop have done.

hmm aftrer reading the phase issues thing adn what andreas was talking about the wood missing from the equation. what if the actual resonant freq of the guitar was taken in to account. i mean everything has some resonant freq. wouldnt' this also help with the equation. what about a varying resonat control in the elctronics to match a little resonance of the guitar??? maybe i am not quite being clear on that hope that helps somewhat.

[ansil]

I know nothing about electronics, but a HUGE feature would be the ability to select responsiveness. You could dial in either those nice swells for orchestral effects, or instant-on sustain for seamless sustaining of notes.

hmm for the selective ness of it what about a mini pad that set outside the pickups that was detachable so you could activate it with a push button and hold it down for swell effects. just and idea

[ansil]

Ansil reckons he built one but didn't detail it as I remember... on this thread I think...discussions on the ebow featured alot early on

I'm fiddling around with a miniture one using my stuff but no luck as yet!

DW - thanks for that I knew of the FAAS saddle system but not of the synth/midi compatability...not much on the circuit board so suspect it just sends a nice clean signal that's processed in Monkey's box as he said.

I use string savers on my main strat, I'm really impressed...don't know about the $$ for me. But if you have them, spend them on this...neater than the roland and you get acoustic sound too!

actually i said we got around 90% done with one based on our own designs and ebows design. all from cracking one open and screwing with it however the final version that kept overheating and crapping out was destroyed by me with a 5lb sledgehammer[the little hand held ones] as i was done with it.. however as i mentioned above it was started again this time leaning more towards my own ideas but when i became homeless i stored most everythingi had.

also i had the problems already stated in this thread with pulsing it, i really need ot try out some of this new info that psw has come up with i thihnk i may have to go get a sewing machine and start winding again.

ok i finished all eight pages [notsure how the rest of you set your screen up but i dont like waiting on pages to load so i have max replies to thread set on my options.]

[monkey69962000]

Basically, the ebow is as I described above. There's a pickup...an amplifier...and a driver.

You need two bobbins (have a look at the patent) round and less than 2cm wide that you can put something magnetic in the middle. Place a magnet on the back after winding.

It does state in the patent that the driver is wound with heavier gage wire. Use the type that you get to wind coils in speaker crossover networks. The wire has an enamelled coating...you'll need to sand this off to solder it...don't use normal copper wire as it will short out! Wind it on a circular bobbin (look for something in the sewing box for something suitable or make something suitable)

Make another coil with hundreds of winds of very, very fine wire...pickup wire is as fine as a hair...you may get it to work with something thicker...but where talking really fine and it may be hard to get. It also must be enamelled or it will short out.

You are using fine wire to get enough turns on it to give a strong enough signal for the amplifier. You use heavier gauge wire for the driver as the current going through it will get it hot and threaten to burn it out (see my first post, page 1) and to not restrict the current flow.

Now a 386 amp like the ruby or what ever...even the extremely simple Ansil's sustainer mod amp...or check out an electronics store for something 1/2 to 1 watt in a kit...that's what I'm now using for my experiments. If your pickup's not very strong you may need a preamp...see how you go.

Connect your pickup coil to the input (mic) of the amp and the driver to the output (speaker) and see how it goes. You may want to have a DPDT switch wired to reverse the speaker wires...or just resolder them the other way to see if it works. A volume (power control is a must...a kit will probably have a trim pot...you can replace this later with a normal sized pot of the same size with a knob on!

Find a suitable non-magnetic box and place the pickup and driver a couple of inches apart so that the coils dont interfere with one another. If there's too much squealing then it's probably that your coils are a bit loose so when winding perhaps put PVA in it while you do it and soak it at the end (both coils)

Best of luck...hope this helps

psw 

By the way, Ansil claims to have made one so perhaps he'll have some more tips

Well long quote but...

ok now your saying if i do this that would create a ebow sustainer. Well im am a little lost yet again from school but i am getting a little more from this. I realize the 2 coils i need to build but dont know how and where to wire them and what other electric organells i need for it. MIC imput and Speaker output probably means a preamp because i dont think a ruby has those. Well ill wait for someone who has pictures to show me. (not saying do it now or even this week, but ill just wait till someone decides to make a tutorial about making a sustainer, or somone shows a picture of making an ebow) if someone has a site about them making an ebow, can someone post it.

Well lets get back to sustainers. Now would a piezo crystals sustain more that a coil pickup. If so Radio shack has some really cheap piezo speakers for like 2 bucks. And that might also give you a different sounding sustain sound too.

[psw]

Come on monkey, that's not a quote...that's just a repeat of everything I said...don't do that...it makes the thread too long and adds nothing...I know what I said.

That said, I'm not trying to make an ebow so I wont be showing anyone myself.

Clearly, you need to get some experience and learnin...get a basic book which has kits that you can build in them from the electronic's shop...some of them have some cool guitar effects and practice amps.

Learn a bit more about pickups and the theory of coils and magnets so you can understand how it works

No piezo's wont sustain more...everything sustains as long as the string vibrates...they do sound different...very sharp attack, kind of percussive...like an acoustic guitar.

Piezo's are non magnetic and aren't effected by electromagnetic radiation. That means that it is easier to separate the signal of one string from the other. This is important as the drivers need this to be efficient and to clearly sustain more than one note at a time.

I'm using them for this reason, and because it's a cool sound, especially mixed with the guitars magnetic pickups...so why not. After all the preamps can be shared with the sustain circuitry.

Anyway, thats it for a while...a little busy to work on it so don't expect much progress. I'll be working on the piezo pickup system. I'm making 6 preamps actually on the pickups themselves to cut back space and noise.

later

psw

P.S.

Now, take note monkey...in order to do this I need to get some circuits, adapt them to my needs, make one test it, throw it out,make another one, burn my fingers, make some more...then shrink them...make a plate to hold them to the bridge...make some more preamps...test them...work out controls or adjustments for each string for balance...work out some way of fitting this stuff onto the guitar...then work out a way to modify these signals for the sustainer project..........A lot of work but thats what it takes...with a project like this I'm spending as much time with a pencil and pad and my head stuck in books as I am actually making stuff. It would have taken years to get the ebow to where it's at...it's not reasonable to expect anyone to repeat all that work for something you can buy off the shelf. You could get something to work, the principle is simple enough, but it's not likely to be as refined so why not just buy one! Take baby steps at first and get your fingers burn't...the is no other way...p

[psw]

Ansil...great to have you join us...I did'nt see all those posts as I crashed my computer

I'll have to study them more...but...

Actually a pure sound seems to work best to drive the strings. A fuzz sound will, and it does sustain the strings but is not as responsive, takes a lot of power, but does vibrate the strings in a musically interesting distorted manner.

I think this is because it responds best to a signal most in tune with the physical vibrations of the string. The synth stuff then will need to be considered in this light.

I think the square wave, which you would think is more efficient, has problems because of the phase shift problem. The edge of the square wave may occur at exactly the wrong time/place to the physical movement of the string and defeat it. If it survives to sustain...then it takes over driving the string at it's wave structure. If you apply enough power the string is forced into the signals vibration mode almost instantly however...but then your looking at a lot of EMI.

Your sustainer appears to work by "inductive" feedback. That is the signal builds by sending it around in a loop between the little speakers and the pickup. I don't believe that you get true sustain (at least from my efforts) from it but massive compression and a weird distortion effect that sounds like a super loud guitar out of control. I dont think that there is anything in the equation to actually physically move the string itself...as far as I can see. It is however a worthy effect in itself and if I could tame the massive power obtained from it (I've tried but LK and me can't see how it can be done) to create the drive signal. You have kind of created an electromagnetic, positive loop amplifier...give it some thought.

Selectiveness...still working on controls...a slider would be cute (like a violin bow action). One of the Hex pickups posted has a mini momentary switch built into it that can be operated by pushing the heal of the picking hand on it to introduce it momentarily, rather than having it on all the time.

I think taking the resonant frequency of the guitar into account is going a bit far. I have done a few crazy experiments with effects...an auto wha will drive the string through it's harmonics...kind of a harmonic wha!!! Flanger's sound like birds flying and tremolo has a kind of orchestral tremolo...the strings keep ringing between drives!

I'll have to study the circuits stuff a bit more...but....are you saying the 386 chip is unreliable...tell me that it's not true...I just bought some SMD versions to try out and I haven't had a problem with them yet.

By the way...my drivers do generate heat...or at least they would if I did'nt imbed them in aluminium casings!

AS far as the ebow goes...it can be done...but it has been done!...see above post!

so...back when I can

psw

PS...pressure sensitive pad eh...sounds good...you could put it in your mouth (or some other orafice...forgive me Kevan) and give the guitarist's grimace everytime you sustain a note into feedback!!! (or maybe that's how Garry Moore et al do it now!)

[ansil]

hmm sorry but i think there was a little misunderstanding,

i know how my unit works although i do appreciate putting it alot more in detail as that way i dont' have to explain it to people not that i mind but sometimes it seems like i get thing beamed into my little space helmet fromt mars like instant transmissions and i havedn't decoded it from martian language to the earthly language that is so popular here. [thats a long story my buisiness partner things that i am from another plantet lol ]

i was agreeing with lovekraft on the squarewave not really my own thought just sounds good and until i can check it i was going with that. good to know that i dont' havet to fool with that now.

as far as the resonat freq goes on the guitar, i thought maybe that was a way to help solve the differences in the sustainor now and say one of the ones that bolts on the headstock. no worries though shoot your the one doing the leg work here i am just enjoying it.

the lm386n-1 is a reliable chip as long as you follow certain guidelines on it. for your purposes it may be the best one in the world. for mine now it is not, but since you are using it to drive a current not amplifiy a guitar signal then you should be ok only time would tell.. however i do like the smt versions much better.

question how expensive is it to mail stuff in austrailia.. like if you are there.? i ask because i have to send some stuff out in a bit and i figured if ican piggy back a few things to save on shipping. i would try to send you soem misc ic's

my sentiments exactly on the ebow. best wishes.

ansil

ps i had another question would you be interested in making a hex pickup for someone to use in there guitar.??????

[psw]

Ansil...good to see some color in your posts....

OK, I'm not diss'n any ideas...squarewave good if in phase...likewise any other wave. In fact I'm rather taken with an idea I have called SDE.

SDE stands for senor / driver engine. Basically it uses simple digital switching (that is simple...but not to me...basically like an LED chaser though) to alternately sample through a hex sensor...then send a drive signal triggered by a compator...then on to the next string...scanning each one in turn. The momentum of the strings will keep them ringing till the next pulse. Crosstalk and EMI and power use would be minimised.....

I have more details if your the man to take this further...

Likewise...early days on the hex pickup...once I work out how to do it in a practical package...yes!

Now post...from the US I don't know...LK sent me a letter and I still have'nt got it yet...been a few weeks! LK has a confidentiality agreement on the driver technology and I sent him a driver...cost of postage for A5 sized padded post pack A$7.50 (we're at 70c in the US dollar) so for this type of thing it's not to dear. Email me for any more details....

Oh...you mean within australia (just reread it!). A50c for a letter...A$1 or $2 dollars for a little post pack I expect...anywhere to anywhere...cheap and reliable...except when the postie snaps a CD in my letter box Still he did snap it the next day so he was fast!

Got to run now...take care

psw

Oh...am mucking about with 2N3904's for the pramps...any good?

[monkey69962000]

ok. When i have time im going to the electronic store anyways.

Clearly, you need to get some experience and learnin...get a basic book which has kits that you can build in them from the electronic's shop...some of them have some cool guitar effects and practice amps.

well how do i find one. I cant find any kits for a preamp thats less than 300 dollars. I only have 100 to spend for a project. PSW, you dont have to answer this. Also the ebow tutorial statment i said wasnt for you but for anyone.

[ansil]

ok. When i have time im going to the electronic store anyways.

Clearly, you need to get some experience and learnin...get a basic book which has kits that you can build in them from the electronic's shop...some of them have some cool guitar effects and practice amps.

well how do i find one. I cant find any kits for a preamp thats less than 300 dollars. I only have 100 to spend for a project. PSW, you dont have to answer this. Also the ebow tutorial statment i said wasnt for you but for anyone.

hey monkey not to be rude but might i suggest this.

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?cata...uct%5Fid=28-280

it has a great little book with it [two in fact] i use it for bread boarding as my friend was going to get rid of it. makes a great little lab with a few mods like taking out the vu meter and adding in a couple of 1/4" jacks

[ansil]

oh i understand psw man now worries i was just letting you know i was piggy backing a theory

yes i like color it is nice but sometimes i dont' have time to go through and do all of that and i dont' have time to remember all the code lol

i like the idea for the sde i would love to work on it however i dont' have the means as of now i got too many irons in the fire. [i know this is a more than worth while cause but i am semi swamped with amps and home brew stuff and trying to finnish two websites i suck at websites but we couldnt' find anyone else right now. that and i desperately need a fullsize template for say like a uv7 but i can't find anyone in town to do it for reasonable price. all i need is the paper template and i can cut it myself. io had good luck with my protoytype neck and will have the completed fretted neck back in a couple of weeks from my buddy. it played great as a fretless so i am going to have to wait.]

yes see when i send a few things over to austrailia i figure i could do one flat rate envelope with a bunch of stuff in it to a few different folks and send a little cash their way and see if they would mail the stuff [already pre addressed ] to the other folks to save on shipping. i only ship to the land down under via a flat rate 5$ envelope. and there fore i hate to send just a few things there for 5usd. as its a waste of money when i can fit 4lbs of stuff in there for the same price.

3904's are ok i like the mpsa13's and 2n5089's better. for yourneeds you might want to check out the 13 its a darlington and has mega gain.

[monkey69962000]

um. the lab thingy looks wierd. Oh whats a UV or what ever. Um im new at this. sorry. Oh and my guitar teacher taught me if i took my Zoom 606 and boosted the Comp on it with no equalizer and no noise reduction that you can create an infinate sustain. Whats with that, i mean it sounds just like PSW's system just a little less clean.

[Wix]

Edited September 10, 2004 by Wix