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Sustainer Ideas


psw

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I've thought of phantom power for another project that has some onboard control elements but I don't think the general public will accept this kind of change. They have a hard enough time accepting a battery in a guitar!

Actually, Roger Mayer has just released an idea that I had...radio remote switching...doh.

I burnt my thumb and got a big blister from catching a 300 degree soldering iron by the wrong end. Still that's the sacrifices youv'e got to make I guess.

What I've made so far is the power block, buffer block and preamp block. I've tried to incorporate some of LK's ideas into it but have'nt had time to test it. I'm using both normal sized components and surface mount capacitors and IC's to keep it small, and this thing really is small...I had to use a magnifying glass the whole time to make it...I only hope it works!

I've also worked out how to control it. (I think). There's an on/off switch and a harmonic switch and a gain knob. What i've devised (cause I couldnt find a suitable dpdt switch), is a way of making it so that when you push down on the knob gently it will activate a pair of switches to run it momentarily...I'm really pleased with this solution and I think this will be a real feature to the system.

I'm also splitting the circuit into two sections. This allows me to put the high current sections closer to the driver and help reduce radiation with the guitar's circuitry and pickups.

I think I may also have got a handle on making it easier to wire up. I'm trying to make as much of the complicated stuff hard wired within the circuitry. I'd prefer the system to be able to be easily installed by someone with basic soldering skills...not have to be sent off to some tech. It shouldn't be much harder than installing a new pickup if I get this right.

I've also decided to make a Strat specific prototype. Basically it's the idea of moving the jack plate and replacing it with a similar shaped raised unit. This is so the battery can slot in to where the jack was (fits perfectly) and gives access to the wiring through the hole where the output wires come. The other thing is that it's only a couple of screws to replace it, but taking a strat pickguard off is a real pain.

The guts of this jack plate box will be modular so that the box could be removed and the whole thing mounted internally if you wish...as long as the on/off, harmonic switch and sustain pot are installed reasonably close together (and why wouldn't you) it wouldn't involve any additional wiring.

Anyway, hopefully some progress being made. I've spent too much time worrying about how best to proceed when I should know by now that my best ideas come from doing not thinking about doing!

psw

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Yeah thats one point psw. you would need the battery in a place that means people dont have to remove their pickguard and strings every time they need to change the battery. If you could incorporate a recharge plug system than that would be great. but how much would that affect the sound of the guitar in terms of any possible inteference?

I dont mean to sound like an arse here but if this system will after all be going inside the guitar, then what advantages does it have to the two sustainer systems currently on the market?

Thats maybe something that might need a little bit of thought (and then some doing :D )

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Hi all...I've been watching this topic since page 4 or thereabouts, figured it was time to stop lurking and do something constructive.

PSW, you've come a long way with this sustain thingy, and I couldn't wait for the final result so I've been messing around in 3Dmax trying to visualise what it would look like; plus you'd might find something inspiring in the following pictures.

Driver with the led strip + batterybox with controls in a single humbucker guitar:

driver-batteryboxH.jpg

Same thing in HSH config

My WebpageHSS config

driver in detail

battery box

inside battery box

the whole thing

the battery box holds the battery; the controls on a small pcb (EMG-style); and a second pcb with the preamp,switching, power etc.. This way you could either have:

a: all the electonics in the box

b: the controls pcb mounted anywhere on top of the guitar, with the battery and the second pcb mounted inside

c: everything inside the guitar

I gather from your last posts you're not going for the separate box approach anymore, so maybe I shouldn't have put in the effort, but anyway food for thought :D

Will be checking in with some more ideas shortly,

greetz,

Tim

o...I didn't model the guitar itself, model is courtesy of theloop at Jemsite (the guy who did the virtual Jem's)

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Fantastic Stuff onelastgoodbye! Have you stolen my plans or something. That's a great help I'm sure to those who don't see my vision.... Actually I almost had a stroke...I thought some how you'd actually made it from lurking in the shadows!

Speaking of which...have I lost my No#1 fan somewhere...

I dont mean to sound like an arse here but if this system will after all be going inside the guitar, then what advantages does it have to the two sustainer systems currently on the market?

Bio, how could you. :D

Advantages over other systems...

1 get to keep all your pickups

2 get to use all your pickups

3 minimum modification

4 half the cost (no coil winding with my CPx technology)

5 small size

6 good looks (got to love the LED's)

7 unique sound and effects (from pickup selection, induction drive, etc.)

I know there's more but I forget...

As far as recharging goes...you probably wouldn't want to play it while your recharging. Think of it like a mobile phone, plug it in overnight and you've got another couple of day's worth of power.

I'm not sure what I'd need to do to allow you to recharge the battery while still connected to the battery...but...I have had it running ok on a standard 8.4v NiMH battery.

Now the box idea...given up on the idea...no, far from it...though I'd like it to look a bit better than the black box I'm using now which is similar to the illustration.

I've designed a really cool looking alternative Strat Jackplate. Same oval shape and size but with the knob on top at a 45 degree angle facing the player. Push down on this and you have momentary activation. The switches are down the side, also at 45 degrees (stops the switches sticking out of the guitar higher than the other controls). Inside is also the output jack of the guitar but coming straight out parrallel to the guitar's top. It's kind of curvy and pressed out of aluminium, similar to the driver. Looks a bit like a half sixe computer mouse. The battery is housed in the jackplate hole and the wiring comes through to the control cavity. This means only two screws to get access to the battery. I even thought I could incorporate fake side vents so that the trimmers could be adjusted through them with a little phillips head screwdriver. Think 1950's hot-rod in keeping with the '50's guitar.

For a stud tailpiece guitar, similar thing but replacing the tailpiece with a box and having the strings attach to it. If you look at a Les Paul, there's quite a bit of depth there (because of the arched top) behind the tunamatic bridge. I'm sure the circuits would fit there somehow and the wiring perhaps go in to the bridge pickup cavity by carving a little from underneath the mounting ring.

Personally, the single pickup guitar limits the advantages of being able to use multiple pickup options with my system, but it should work ok.

Meanwhile, Extraordinary frustrating, this electronics caper when you only know half of what your doing...still not got my new preamp to work as I'd hoped and spent half a day making the tiny power amp block only to have the IC pack out on me on the last connection. Teach me to try point to point wiring on a surface mount IC. Perhaps I'm just a bit too overenthusiastic with the miniturization idea...a normal DIL 8 pin chip is small enough.

By the way, if I or a company were to make this thing in any quantity, I wouldn't be doing this stuff myself. It would be all SMD and flow soldered in a factory somewhere. I'd just be constructing the drivers and connecting the switches and stuff. You'd never get anywhere if it took you all day to construct the thing.

Ok, so I think I better give it a rest for a little bit as I'm just chasing my tail a little.

Thanks for those great graphics...I hope others appreciate them as much as I do. I take it you wouldn't go to such trouble if you didn't think that I was on a winner. And it's great to meet these lurkers that are coming out lately...had over 6000 visits as of today...I'm amazed.

psw

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I'm still impressed by those graphics...I'll have to get you to do some publicity for me when I get this off the ground...nice one, onlastgoodbye!

Now, since the pictures are out I'd be interested to know what people really think of the box idea. One way to make it look a little less stuck on is to make it into a feature "tailpiece" type of thing attaching at the strap button and extending up to just behind the bridge. Forconvieniance sake, you can't really beat the box, in a lot of ways...of course internal mounting would always be an option and I think the box is good as long as the guts can be taken out and mounted where you will (and if you've got the room!

Now I've made a few more developments, working in a slightly different angle that I'll discuss later. I have got it to work so it's definately an interesting new twist on things.

But, I'd be real interested to know how much the idea of the "glow strip" means to people. It seems to have captureeed some people's imagination clearly. It's definitely do-able...I've just got to work how best to do-able it.

It may be something that needs to be encapsulated in clear epoxy for the light section. How committed do people feel about the alloy shell. Would a black or white thing be just as good. Again epoxy moulding may work well and protect the inner secrets even better (know you can't see a clear one!).

Potting of the drivers are essential as any internal vibration...well... frankly stuffs them up completely. Once potted, I've not had a problem. In fact I've only ever destroyed them (and I've destroyed quite a few) in constructing them!

I can epoxy mold things, as it happens, but it's a commitment in making models etc and I'm not keen to go down that track till the design is pretty certain.

If peple still want lights in the driver, I can light up the ends...that way the top one would face the player and from the front pepole would see a glow from each end lighting up the guitar top. Of course no lights are even easier. Just put an indicator on the box or wherever. The light means two extra leads so now there are 4-5 leads going to the driver.

Also, be aware that at least one (possibly 4 core) shielded cable will need to come out of the control cavity to the box...this could be 4mm round unless someone shows me where I can get really thin shielded cable from, (preferably down here!)

Anyway, after another day of disappointment with my "obsession", a little more progress is made afterall. I really thought that I'd get further by now, this time around. It would be good to get it together, just so I can move on for a while.

psw

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I'm still impressed by those graphics...I'll have to get you to do some publicity for me when I get this off the ground...nice one, onlastgoodbye!

Well, i graduated last year as a graphic designer and now I'm studying product design, so I could probably help out with that, be sure to let me know. :D

about the box, at first I thought it would of been more obtrusive, but it seems it can be kept pretty low profile (as in inconspicuous); at least on an RG type guitar where you got this big trem that sort of makes the box blend in. On a Les Paul it would probably look a bit more out of place, but I really don't see why you wouldn't or couldn't build the circuitry into (inside) a Les Paul, after all they put the sustainiac in there too, and that's a fairly big circuit. Of course you'd still have the problem of the extra controls (that's why I thought of putting them on a separate pcb or something, so you have just the controls on the outside and everything else inside).

So, although I like the idea of a custom tailpiece, I wouldn't put too much effort into it right away. Somehow I think it wouldn't be very cost-effective.

About the glow strip, at first I made a graphic where the driver was completely in chrome (can post it if you want), which was a bit more classy looking and i liked that one better. There's a trade-off here: you'd want your driver to be unconspicuous (given the idea of hiding it in the pickup ring); on the other hand you'd want a striking look, making people go 'hey what the hell is that, I want one too'...

I was actually thinking of leds on the bottom of the driver, that could light up the area underneath the driver (think of neon lights underneath cars). You'd probably have a little gap between the driver and the surface of the guitar anyway, becase of the height adjustment screws.

I'm gonna go do a bit of research on rechargable batteries now B)

see ya, Tim

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The lights idea is great and I think any lights would advantage the product.

For the first time in this 33 page thread, I don't like an aspect of the idea. that aspect, as stated above, is the box as also a tailpiece. I wouldn't really want to start messing around with replacing a tailpiece. Plus that starts to eliminate the minimal instrument adjustment spec point.

Ok psw, sorry, I just wanted to make sure the product still had plenty of advantages even if the circuitry was mounted inside the guitar. You have pointed out that it does still hold a number of advantages over the competitors.

I don't think I would mind a small box behind my bridge, i'd have to see how it looks in reality on a real guitar. I just definately wouldn't want a tailpiece & box combo. I wouldn't concentrate on this aspect much at all.

Once you get a prototype working with whatever final solution you come up with for the circuit housing, I think you'd be stupid not to give it a go and take it to a company to see whether they think there is a market for it.

Heck, take a few different versions, one with the box, one with the circuitry inside, so they can see the variations of this thing.

Good look with the progress!!!!!

BTW, nice graphics there onelastgoodbye.

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Fantastic stuff guys...I'm just brainstorming ideas and it helps to bounce ideas around.

I wasn't about to actually make the tailpiece...just a thought.

It sounds like you guys are now in support of external mounting in some kind of box. That's kind of the way I'm thinking...at least to show it around. Yeah, I'd really like someone to pick this up and run with it...perhaps some of those "guests" are looking right now! (I answer all email's if your out there).

Otherwise, I'll do something myself...this has cost a lot more to develop than I had imagined and has grown more and more into a product. If it were just for me I'd have carved up my guitar already.

I've rebuilt my current circuit, making it neater and smaller but using conventional components (not SMD's) so it's bigger than I'd like. No more bits hanging off all over the place although I've had to mount some stuff on the back of the boards (using both sides).

Now, for the box what i'm going to make is the behind the bridge thing. The controls would be just behind the bridge pointing towards the strings. On top (closest to the player) would be the sensitivity control. This makes it within easy reach. Pushing down on the control will momentarily activate the system. Next will be the harmonic switch so you can alternate it while using the control knob. Then at the bottom, the on/off control. This is so it won't accidentally be turned off while fiddling for the control knob. i'd have a LED on there somewhere too.

The controls will be angled up at 45 degrees. The idea is that you can use the controls with the heel of your hand and maintain string damping. String damping technique is crucial to stopping all the strings sustaining away by themselves. In this aspect, this placement of controls is superior to in-built installations.

I'm thinking a silver box with rounded edges higher, behind the controls where the battery is then sloping down to about 8mm towards the back of the guitar. With the current circuit, the board is quite large but low profile. I think it better to keep the low profile even if the thing is longer as it looks less box like.

The effect may be a little like a trapeze tailpiece but not quite go to the very back of the guitar or the bridge.

Tim, yeah post that pic. It's actually easier to make it silver. Basically I press an exoskeleton, mount everything inside, fill it with goo to pot it, sand and polish it. Puting lights that shine out below would be ok to do but they would only shine out from one side, otherwise I'd have to add to the size to fit lights.

Driver lights are a bit of a self indulgence though. More wiring and a little more power. Under driver lights would not be obvious enough for the player to replace an indicator on the box and I'm not sure what the audience would see of it either. Perhaps the line of five 3mm or smaller dot lights between the strings that I tried making before is the go...it looked real cool lit up!

Got any idea for color?

Tim, email me if you want to try and make a pic of this concept and need anymore details or a bit of a sketch. I can't do 3d graphics and somethings are just more confusing if I draw up a plan.

Anyway, I'll get something together and take a photo when I can.

psw

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Madguitar has posted a really interesting link. Unfortunately it's in portuguese. As far as I can make out he's got something similar to my idea. But I don't speak spanish.

He may have 7000 plus hits but I got twice as many pages!

Seriously though, he may have worked something out. I'll try to email him to see what's up...perhaps someone who can understand it could let me in.

I don't think you'd be able to power much with 3 volts! Even the Ebow requires 9. There's 15 pages but almost all of it is dedicated to naming it, etc. None of the links seem to go anywhere either. He may just be protecting the idea but I can't even work that out...if someone could translate that would be cool.

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Well, it's a message board, so there is a lot of slang that a translator can't translate, but it gives you a start. Go to http://babelfish.altavista.com/ and paste in the URL of that site in the Translate a Web Page input, and select it for Portugese to English. That should at least give you the main idea to get you started.

He may not be willing to help:

with you must well understand of moment I cannot supply this information

But it may have been patented by now.

Edited by Steve Vai
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I'll have to get some verification on the above...meanwhile...

onelastgoodbye has offered to do another amazing drawing of my new box idea. I appreciate people wanting to install the thing inside and it would always be an option, but there is a lot of stuff to get in there which also means quite a bit of wiring. The box may eliminate the need for a bit of that so the signal connection inside the guitar would be about the only thing required.

I can see having the control behind the bridge actually being the best place for it. If Tim's drawing comes out like these, perhaps you'd find it more appealing. The secret will be to make it not look like a box stuck onto the instrument. I've given him some dimensions and what I was thinking so let's see how it looks.

Hope my Portugese rival hasn't come up with exactly the same thing...that would be too much. Even I can't make it for $19.95 and throw in some steak knives!

psw

I'll try the translator but from what I can make out there are no details on how it was done or anything...thanks SV...you posted while I posted !

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Some interesting facts about Rui Luis have come to light...

He is known to this forum as ruyzalim and made six posts only all in september. His thread on the other forum started after mine. No offense Madguitar, but is there anyreason for you providing absolutely no information about yourself, email, country and your 2 posts on this thread are the only two.

Mr Luis had a similar M.O. 6 posts after my thread then disappears and turns up in portugal soon after with this claim but with no details. I suspect something untoward as, if you we into sustainers you could hardly miss this thread as it's been consistantly on the front page of the electronics forum. If you had made such a device, wouldn't you warn me off for potentially gazumping your idea.

It's all a bit strange. No offence, and I mean it, 'cause I did invite more contributions, but...are you Ruis Mr Madguitar? I hope you appreciate, I have to ask. If your not it's a very valuable contribution, if you are, well...they warned me about people like Rui.

:D

psw

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i still say it looks good psw very good. best wishes

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Hey Ansil...always good to know your presence is out there!

I'm putting together a duplicate of my present circuit and I think it's my best soldering job ever...every joint worked out great and I could identify all the components...always a good start, eh!

That will give me two virtually duplicate test circuits, but this one, instead of caps and bits hanging off by their leads and separate circuit boards wired into a tangled mess that shorts out all the time, everything's in it's place, neat and tidy, all signals shielded and caps lying on their side to save on height.

This will be the basis for the behind the bridge box prototype. Of course in production it could be smaller, or I could burn more fingers trying, but why waste time. I actually like the arts and crafts aspect of building things than the frustration of trying to work out why something isn't working.

When I can, I'll be building a new illuminated version of my driver. I'll use a slightly different magnetic arrangement (part of the driver's secret is the use of multiple magnets to make rotating fields). One half will be silver and the other half black with lights on top and screw mount holes on the side's.

I'm amazed at how accurately onelastgoodbye was able to render my long winded explanation of my idea with that artwork. It was amazing to see it there like that. I don't know that I could make it look that good (those rounded ends look like trouble). The all silver one is probably more practical for me to make. Like the last one I can press the sheet over a mold, wire stuff up, superglue them down then fill it with special potting goo.

But the light's seem to be a selling point! Perhaps you should add more LED's to your effects and stuff. I dare say you could sell an empty box if you had an electric penguin lighting up from it.

Anyway, may be a bit busy with other stuff for a little while...there's been a bit of stuff to digest so perhaps we could all take a little break for a while.

see ya B)

psw :D

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hello psw im from Lisbon Portugal, my name is joão and you can reach me at "

joao_guitar@portugalmail.pt " i don´t know rui personaly, just by the forum i

gave you the link and from talking to him with msn you can try to reach him in

this messenger msn: " ruyzalim@hotmail.com " his a nice guy i bealeave he would help ,

bealeave me his sustainer works

with a 3v batery like the ones you have in a car key, it´s a diferent concept from

this one i think,so don´t worry! ,

i don´t talk to him for a few moths he desapeared from the net

the last time we spoke he told me he was in some recording sessions and building

some guitars, no time for internet, but he told me he was going to post in this

forum some guitar pictures still waiting :D

Edited by madguitar
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Well then, my sincerest appologies to you Madguitar/Joao if I caused any offence.

I was not the only one to notice that his thread started aftermine, that he was only active on one day on here, and that he posted on this forum in which he states that he visits this thread everyday to get ideas. This post has disappeared from the thread but still exists if you search by his name under members. He also may have used the name Wix, but I can't be sure.

Anyway, I don't have time to deal with it, if he has such a device I too would be amazed but I would also be trying my hardest to generate interest in it with a view of, if nothing else, sharing it with others, or selling it for a profit. It would be very easy to fake sound bytes etc. But good luck to him if he's done it. My concerns are with real life problems of producing something workable, not just bragging about it.

He seems to disappear regularly and take all his links with him only to come back again...no crime in that I guess...but it does bring home to me that the internet is full off a variety of charachters.

I have been warned that plagerism and interlectual theft is everywhere on the net and it has raised enough concern that I have even considered no longer posting any developments or even withdrawing or locking the thread down.

psw

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just an addition to the above...here is the text of that post mentioned above:

in response to Biohazards post:

Wow, cool. Incredible news psw. One of the most exciting parts of logging onto this forum is to check up on the amazing progress you are making with this.

ruyzalim

you bet !

im here every day looking for advances

August 18, 2004.

Page 18 of this thread.

I have emailed him politely so am looking forward to seeing what he's got and hearing it for myself.

All this political intrigue is getting way off topic. For now I'll continue as before but I think I may have to consider my options. For those who have followed the thread and helped me in many ways I would of course be contacting you first if I were to close this down and continue the work in private.

My intention was to share ideas and the inventive process with you. There is no doubt that I would not have got this far without your support, in particular there was a time when I put the whole thing aside and only came back to it through your encouragement.

For that I'm really thankful and I feel that the device is really close to completion. In fact, as I hinted previously, I have made another leap forward and there is a new twist to the system that really makes it standout against the competition. I've even fixed the circuitry to cope with it and it is working.

Give me some feedback as to what I should do. Have I given away too much already? What think you all?

psw

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Having the circuitry in a box is fine by me, unless the box is huge . However, it seems it's going to be really small, so go for it :D

I also like the push-able knob thing, for the momentary switch.

About lights, it surely would be cool. I liked the under-lighting idea, but i don't think that a few small leds would be bright enough to produce that effect succesfully. 5 leds between the strings too would look cool. But lights aren't a necessity, so i think it's your decision to decide if the extra-effort will be worth to have lights.

I too can do 3d modeling-graphics-design stuff as onelastgoodbye (by the way, good job on those pictures) , so feel free to contact me if you need anything. Not trying to start a competition though, just trying to help...

I could try to design you an aesthetic-looking box, but it probably wouldn't be possible for you to make custom-shaped boxes at home, unless you have 'em made by a sort of plastic factory.

...

emre

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Thanks emre, I'm sure you can...I know I can't do it on the computer but I can come up with something. If I were to just put the stuff in a black box as I ve done before everyone would/did go oh no! But I think it can be done.

Tim (onelastgoodbye) PM'ed me some designs based on ideas and dimensions I sent him and they look terrific but not quite right yet, so I gave him some more suggestions and we'll see what people think. Meanwhile I'll continue my end and I got a clear plastic food box that is about the size so for now I'll use that!

Now, when you see what I've proposed you'll probably think it "Huge" but I want you to consider the following.

1. I have a working circuit on a board that, for now, is a given size. I can waste time, as I have been trying to make something better and smaller, or I can refine what works and box that up. My new circuit is as compact as I can make it for now.

2. A 9 volt battery is a given size and I cant change that. The box will have to be 20mm thick to accomodate it lying down...thats a given. And at about 60-70mm wide for battery holder. There's a reason stomp boxes have evolved into the shape they are, and that's largely why. What I don't want is something that looks like an effect box stuck to the top of the guitar. It's got to look like it belongs there.

3. The only thing that looks like it belongs there that is this size 110mm long it seems to me, is an archtop tailpiece or a bigsby. Would the market (you guy's accept something like that? Well, the market seems to have accepted putting a huge chunk of floyd rose on there, because it's functional, and well, it looks the business and it works.

4. There are definite functional advantages to having the controls where I've proposed them, and you wont get that without an add on back there as, even if you do route out your guitar, it will fall below the trem or bridge.

5. The electric guitar is a child of the '50's and has a '50's aesthetic. All the major designs came from this period...the Strat, explorer, V...and since then really everything has been derivitive of them (barring Steinberger but even in the '60's they mad a flop called the 2x4!). I'm not knocking that, it's for good reasons, it works, it looks good (made at a time when people still thought about and were adventurous with design) and there is a tradition.

What I'm suggesting is that to be acceptable, any addition to the instrument must follow that line of tradition. So, I've suggested a almost '50's auto feel. (Tim's first go even had fins! It actually worked well, even on that Gem but not quite right.) Many '50's guitars were designed with the colaboration and inspiration from the car market. The thing even opens up like the hood of a car...very cool indeed.

So, don't be surprised if the thing does initially look "huge"...but it will be as slim as it can be. The length actually gives a less boxy feel. I could split the circuit and layer them but then it really would look like a box.

Anyway, from my end, I just want to get the thing off the ground and running. The circuit's pretty much ready to go, I've got the rest of the stuff to make it. The design of the "box" is floating around here and then it's on to the new driver.

I've got a few ideas on that. I've obtained some SMD red LED's (I like blue but they were expensive. I can try the strip idea or the lights between the strings. I could use 3mm LED's and file them down...you'd be surprised how much you can take off the top of an LED before you actually kill it B) ...put them on the ends, put them on one end, don't have them at all and put one on the "box", go beserk and include a light chaser circuit with Tri color LED's that respond to the guitar's signal (nobody tell me to do that please!).

One concern is that I don't want to make the thing at all fragile. The silver driver was carried in my pocket for a week without any faults. It's still working fine. One neat thing about it is that, with care you can bend it slightly to the radius of the strings, which really is important given how close it needs to be and for an even response. It's possible to do it with lights too, but the obvious way, filling it with clear epoxy...but that tends to be real hard and crack if bent. I prefer the stuff I'm using which is real ugly naturally, but can be colored.

Another major concern is that as the design gets closer and closer to completion, the security concern's are really heightened. I've spent hundreds of hours and hundreds of dollars (cash) to create this thing. The forums role in this has been immeasurable and I don't regret making this public. The ace in the hole is that the key to the whole thing is in the secret of the drivers. Everything else is common knowledge of how sustainers work in theory. As soon as I let one of these things out of my hand's, someone is sure to crack it open and reverse engineer it. LK, emailed me the other day and remarked that he actually has one of the cpx series driver's in his hands (and a confidentiallity agreement :D by the way) and even he doesn't know how it works.

This will be a problem with sharing it which we'll get around to I'm sure. I'm lucky that I live at the bottom and the other side of the world to most of the industry sharks that they don't come around and nab one!

Anyway, I have unexpectantly (and unfortunately) got a little time on my hands for the moment so I expect the final stages of getting a fully installed system up and running for you to see and hear to be sooner than later...this time I mean it!

psw

PS you're right, this isn't a competition but people will have opinions. If you want to have a go and have the time, feel free. The dimensions are between, 60-70mm wide 100-110mm long and 20mm high at it's highest...to about 45mm back from the bridge end. The controls are 2 mini toggle switches and a 15mm round control knob (15mm high) poking out at a 45 degree angle behind the bridge. At least that's what I'm proposing for the prototype. I'd like all of you to put on your guitar and imagine this placement of controls and how convieniantly that control knob comes to hand and see if you cant think of something better. That, with the above stuff should give you, and anyone else for that matter, something to work with. cheers p

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