Primal

So, I had an idea for a driver design. I'm not sure if anyone has though of this yet. Its sort of a hybrid between the standard humbucker design and a coil on its side (like the Q-tuner pickups). Here it is:

I have absolutely NO idea of such a design would work as I imagine it in my head. Anyone with more knowledge care to comment? Please excuse the HORRIBLE artwork.

Thats why I don't like dealing with chains. Little or no real customer service.

Doh, I've never even thought about posting a notification in the thread about reporting it. Will do from now on.

Sorry, only goes up to 40 but you might be able to extrapolate.

http://amasci.com/tesla/wire1.txt

At the very bottom it gives the DC Ohms per thousand feet. Just divide the number by 1000. Comes out to about 1.66 ohms/foot.

Why not just build a guitar from scratch? Honestly, I think it would be significantly easier to build a complete guitar from scratch than try to rework an existing guitar (reroute neck pocket, etc). But, thats just my opinion.

There is a guy on Jemsite building a stone guitar. I'm not trying to talk bad about him because he appears to be doing an amazing job, but the weight still qualifies the guitar as "unergonomic," I think.

But the SUSTAIN!

sorry but thats actually a bass. but it still looks comfortable

Terrible fret access though.

that was my concern as well...

Don't you all know that bassists only play the first 5 frets anyway?

Treble bleed cap?

Here's another one: http://images.wikia.com/uncyclopedia/image...-Air_Guitar.jpg

Although, I think the hair-do is more unergonomic than the guitar is...

And, to get off topic, I think this one may be, by far, the most COMFORTABLE guitar in the world: http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/9125/guitar9av.jpg

How about this one?

http://www.harmony-central.com/News/2004/Big-Guitar-lg.jpg

You know, I didn't click on the link because I had this eery feeling that it was some XXX spam or something, since it was the posters first post, and a very vague post at that. Glad it wasn't. I'll check out the video tomorrow.

Guitar sites charge much more than companies like Mouser because Mouser is able to buy in far larger quantities. In all likelihood, you could probably find the exact same item on Mouser as most guitar-related sites.

Does anyone have a working, single sided PCB layout for the fetzer/ruby amp? I've etched two of my own design so far, and for whatever reason it doesn't seem to be working.

EDIT: Never mind, a closer inspection of the schematic and PCB layout over at runoffgroove.com shows that its the same.

Trouble shooting question: I've built many drivers and they all are microphonic in that when an amplified sound goes through the coil, it reproduces that signal audibly, like a speaker. This seems to kill the efficiency of it. Specs: the driver is a 3mm thick core, 33 AWG wrapped to 8 ohms, and its about 3mm tall. I get the best response on the high E and B, and I didn't understand why that was until recently and correct me if I'm wrong. I think the reason why I only get response on the two highest strings is because since they're higher in pitch, the amplified signal is less likely to create microphonic problems in the driver, where as when the pitch is lower, it more easily vibrates the coil of the driver, and kills the efficiency so it doesn't vibrate the string. Any thoughts?

Sounds like a potting issue to me. How did you pot your driver?

You could easily isolate yourself by using the metal plate to activate a relay that kills the signal. However, I think it would be far easier to just place a momentary switch under a piece of metal.

Most of those electric uprights are essentially normal bass guitars. They almost all have either a 34" or 35" scale neck. Upright basses have a 43" scale neck, and the neck is at least 2.5-3" think (if memory serves).

FlashBandit, that is exactly how I pot my coils. The only downside is that, when winding by hand, the center windings may become loose. Still, for me its a LOT easier to wind it then pot it in wax for about 15 minutes.

A tip: I use a double boiler, but my wax is actually in a mason jar. I just fill the top pot up with water and set the mason jar inside it. This prevents you from having to deal with a big chunk of wax in your pot after you are done.

The only down side is that the coil MAY get hot enough to soften the wax allowing windings to shift, but I'm not entirely sure.

Sounds very 80s!

I spent the entire day today fabricating some cores and bobbins to make a dual rail driver. Rather than go with the smaller drivers everyone else is making, I'm building this driver to just completely replace the neck humbucker.

How have the driver details, especially with the dual rail drivers, changed? Avalon mentioned two ~13 ohm coils wired in parallel for a total of ~6.75 ohms. Has anyone experimented with two ~4 ohm coils wired in series for ~8 ohms as per the original single coil? I've got a neat little core/magnet arrangement that would yield a dual rail driver the size of a single coil. However, there isn't enough space to fit two 13 ohm coils, but would likely have plenty of room for two ~4 ohm coils.

Thanks for the tip, Avalon. I assume you are using a standard LM386 amp to power it?

So, summer is upon me, which means loads of free time. I'd love to revamp the sustainer I built a year ago. Would anyone care to point me towards the pages where some of the more recent and promising tweaking has taken place? I would especially like to revamp my amp, i.e. build something different.

Any help would be great! I'll be reading through this thread tomorrow when its not quite as late (if I started now, I'd be up till 4AM!).

Wood is another story all together. Hiscock's book will give you a start, but you might want to read a bit on wood movement in the radial and tangential planes, and what quarter sawn means so you can orient the growth rings and planes nicely. You've got some searches to run, but there's lots of info online.

I disagree. There is no reason for a newbie to worry too much about wood movement. Its been discussed, and I believe that there have been some (unofficial) experimental results showing that an old Fender flatsawn neck is just as stable as a similar quartersawn neck and that the quartersawn voodoo is mostly just that, voodoo. Do you think Leo Fender examined each piece and tested the tangential and radial movement? Of course not. But I digress.

Knowing the difference between rift sawn, flat sawn, and quarter sawn wood is a very good idea, however. Flatsawn and quartersawn are the way to go -- riftsawn should be avoided at all costs, especially for necks, since the orientation of the growth rings would tend to cause the board to warp. I think the most important thing is buying a nice, clean (free from defects like knots, etc) piece of maple or mahogany (arguably the two most popular neck woods in guitar making).

That's just what I believe to be true, of course.

Doesn't the concept of zen kind of go against complexity? Or at the very least, the electric guitar goes against the concept of zen, originally "chan" in Chinese meaning "silence."

Anyway, in general, the bridge pickup gives a more trebly sound, with a sharper attack, but less sustain (well, the last part is theoretically correct -- YMMV). The neck pickup generally gives a warmer, more mellow tone, with a softer attack than the bridge pickup.

I can't say anything about parallel vs series, or in phase vs out of phase (other than out of phase will probably sound thinner, due to the frequencies that are canceled out). I think 7 switches should be able to get you plenty of options: two phase switches, two coil tap switches, two parallel/series switches, and a 3-position LP-style switch. With that many switches, however, I can't even begin to tell you how to wire it up.

God, I bet that fretboard was expensive...

Its hilarious how all the commenters are bashing the guy for his bass. I bet none of them could play what he can...

Wouldn't it be easier (and cheaper) to get a nice replacement nut (maybe even with ball bearings) and some locking tuners? If I recall correctly, most tuning problems with trems are the result of poorly cut/lubricated nuts.