transient

Hi guys, I'm still around, checking the thread -almost- daily Good job with the tutorials Pete, teaching us to hunt fish for ourselves And good luck Tim I still am busy with a few things, so i can't experiment - yet. Now about the single-string thing, yes i used a cheap pc speaker as a power amp. I didn't use the hedphone-out though, it might not be loud enough. I connected the driver to the speaker wires, removing the speaker of course. I had around 30 turns of wire around a very small screw, with a small magnet taped to the end of the screw. It worked really good, maybe as effective as an ebow, even the high-E string could be easily driven. And in fact i had taped the driver under the high-E string, right next to where the fingerboard ends. Here's a short mp3 file recorded a few months ago with that setup: single-string driver sample I'm playing fretless there (but not a glass-fingerboard one, i have the glass on my fretless classical), sorry for the intonation A single-string driver works so well that it fools you into thinking that it really shouldn't be *that* hard to build a sustainer. But then you find out that it gets a lot harder and complicated as you try to get the same effect with a 6-string driver. Anyway, good luck with your experiments, i will join you soon ... emre

Hope you're well Pete. I'll start experimenting when i have some free time (i'm pretty busy at the moment), and i of course would share my experiences if i somehow can get it to work. ... emre

Try StewMac . ... emre

Thanks a lot lovekraft . e

Thanks Should i set my multimeter to DC or AC for the measurement? ... emre

Hi, I've just built the Tillman preamp (and it seems to work). I've used a 10k trimpot instead of the 2.2 k resistor (R2) as suggested by Paul (diyguitarist.com). Now reading this thread, Lovekraft has suggested using that trimpot instead of R3 , not R2 . Which one's true? And it's also suggested that the voltage at the FET drain should be 4.5 volts. I'm guessing that i should measure the voltage between the source and the drain, right? (is it AC or DC voltage?) Thanks in advance... ... emre

Well, apart from commenting on it, i will also include a sound sample as soon as i record it... Biohazard: Yep, that site is a bit confusing. I'll try to explain: Get a small speaker, cut & remove the black paper cone around the middle circle (is it called a voice coil?). Don't remove the middle circle and be careful not to damage or move the two wires there (On some speakers, wires are attached to the paper cone, in that case don't remove that part of the cone.) Once you're done, superglue a dime onto the middle circle. Now all you have to do is attach the speaker to the guitar body, as close as possible to the bridge (attach it with the cone facing up). Be sure that it's attached firmly that it will transfer the vibrations to the guitar body. You can use strong double-sided tape for that. Use a small low-power amp to feed the transducer with the guitar signal. That's it. It works, but not very well. Some notes sustain, while others don't. This problem seems to be phase related, so the transducer should be close to the bridge. Psw has suggested that it also could be mounted in the spring cavity. Another problem is, it buzzes loudly while working, and it surely can be disturbing Thanks Tim. I like your design too. Not surprised that Psw chose yours, as mine would be really hard for him to make because of all those curves involved ... emre

Here's the whole system. On the previous pics, the box looked bigger than it really is... ... emre

Well, here's my design, finally I probably will do some more improvements, but this is the basic shape. I may post more shots of it in the next few hours... The leds are red, as psw wanted (though they look a bit orange-ish). For the box color, i wanted to try something different than black and silver, so here it is. I can paint it in some other color if you have suggestions. About the size, i've not paid much attention to psw's circuit-board dimensions as this thing is circular shaped. So i don't know if the circuitry would fit in it, or if the box is too big. I can adjust the size at psw's request though. (by the way, i haven't modeled the guitar by measuring its original dimensions, so it probably isn't right either ) ... emre

Plastic B&W box (as psw suggested), red leds, on a black guitar: I think i would prefer to have the box completely black. Anyway, that's all for today ... emre

Here's the black plastic version: ... emre

I finally modeled psw's box design. Here's the silver version: The box is illuminated by the driver leds, that's why it looks so blue. another shot box with the driver leds off Talking 'bout leds, did you wonder what the guitar might look like in a dark room? Well i did. I'll also post pics of black-plastic and colored-metal versions of the box, following shortly. Next, i'll model my own box design. I have a few ideas, we'll see how it turns out... ... emre

Well, i've done a simple modeling of my guitar (it doesn't even have a neck ), together with the driver... Now i can start working on the box. Thanks for the drawing psw, it now gives me an idea of what you want. By the way, it's not badly drawn at all Tim's surely been working hard, good job Using car designs is really a good idea, psw. However, i think that it shouldn't be an old looking design. This is a completely new device, not a vintage item. Maybe it needs the look of a modern car Will the box be chrome as Tim modeled? I think there should be two versions, chrome and black. My guitar is completely black (though i modeled it blue), and a chrome looking box wouldn't look good on it. ... emre

Ok, i'll see what i can do. The one thing i don't understand is the last sentence: ...to about 45mm back from the bridge end. Do you mean that it reaches its highest (2mm) at 45mm further from the bridge? It would be great if you could make a hand-drawn pic of what you want (or propose) and scan it... By the way, the body of my guitar only extends to about 100mm distance from the bridge, so a 110mm box would be too big. About closing the thread, if you think that you've given clues about how the system works anywhere in this thread (and i don't think you did), you could close it down. Or you could simply edit your potentially dangerous posts, which i think would be better. ... emre

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 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

Yep we want recordings I have a custom made guitar, with the body shape of an ibanez. Tomorrow i'll be doing some circuit rewiring on the guitar (i had installed a super switch a few months ago, and it seems i couldn't do the solderings right, as some switch positions has no sound anymore ), i'll take a look at how much space there is in the control cavity and let you know... ... emre

That surely looks complicated The pic's a bit small though, would be better if it was a 'lil bigger. It's hard to read the yellow writings... I actually liked the momentary switch idea, it would really be useful, however the diagram doesn't include it, does it? By the way, when you finally come up with a name, i could design a logo for you, if it will be of any help... ... emre

Hi... I've been watching this topic for a few months now. There isn't a particular reason for this post, i just wanted to show up There probably are a lot of people besides me, that are just watching the thread instead of posting. You're doing a great job psw, keep it up ... emre