Donovan

I had installed an aftermarket one on my American Std back in 2000 or so. It has since been removed and you can just barely see the edges of the holes I drilled for the Floyd beneath the replacement pick guard. If I recall correctly, I think they come with a template printed on a sheet of paper. No dimensions, just cut it out, tape it on and drill. If they still do this, maybe some kind store owner might allow you to open a package and take a photocopy?

So it sounds like you are running your LED's in parallel, which will be good if one dies, they all won't. However, tif there are variations in the forward voltage drop of each LED, there will be noticeable variation in brightness or some may not light because the current will take the path of least resistance (the LED with the lowest forward voltage drop. What our designers tend to do is, on a light with 24 individual LED's for example, make 3 parallel strings of 8 series LED's. Each of the 3 parallel strings needs only 1 resistor for current limiting. This would be your most uniform setup IMO and reduces part count. Regardless, it sounds like your setup is coming along very nicely and it will be interesting to see some pics when it is all set, maybe even some video? If you don't mind me asking, where did you come across that variable timer circuit?

Well, I guess I was looking for a methodical reason as to why. Perhaps at one point they were all going to be on a slant. There hasn't been one provided yet. It seems like the configuration is not ideal and another question is how would we know if it makes no big difference without something test bed to immediately compare/contrast? I am not suggesting anyone go rip a guitar apart for the sake of answering this simple question, but I am beginning to think maybe it came down to something like manufacturing cost savings in creating one set spacing and using for all 3 positions. The second part of this question is, does any manufacturer put OEM pickups in their guitars where the pole spaces DO line up with the strings? It really is not of consequence for playing, as has been commented repeatedly, so I should explain why I asked. The question came about after attempts at turning a single coil pickup into a sustainer driver. In that configuration, the pole spacing is VERY critical, hence a lot of the DIY stuff in the sustainer ideas thread is based around a blade design to distribute the field.

Certainly did! nice clips and well recorded. You are getting a nice full acoustic tine from the ghost system. cheers John Thanks, John. I am getting better acquainted with the system the last few days. I recorded a short 2 min demo song yesterday, in case this might help anyone teetering on whether or not to try the Ghost system. The new clip is entitled "2009-03-08 DJS" and is available from the link in my sig. Cheers.

Why are you soldering a resistor to each LED. One current limiting resistor per LED string would be fine, no?

Hmmm...I don't think anything electromechanical is a good idea...all those coils fire of EMI...a colck circuit will work and is better...perhaps some filter caps to ramp up the power so it is less of a dramatic on/off effect and some kind of metal shield around the circuits and wiring...but it might work out ok anyway. With christmas crap about who knows there may be some LED array displays about that have flashing circuit or at least a lot of salvagable LED's cheap! Pete is right... a clock circuit in astable mode will work better and it will be very easy to set up with a just 1 cap and 2 resistors, or for controllable speed, swap the resistors for a pot. The sum of the value of the two resistors, in conjunction with the cap, is the total cycle time, while the ratio of one resistor to the total resistance is the duty cycle, or percent of the whole cycle that is actual on time. We use these all the time at my workplace for flashing circuits for anticollision lights on aircraft. The NE555 timer (available at any Radio Shack) costs about $1.00 each. One of these chips can output 200mA plenty to light your guitar, up to 200 LED's at 1 mA a piece. I know this current seems very low, but even high power LED's (the ones that will blind you if you look at them directly) can give off a decently bright light with this amount of current. If that is not enough, the simplest way to give them more power is to run the output from the timer chip into the base of an NPN transistor and run the LED string off the collector. You can cascade timing circuits as well, so one string would have one timing and another a different timing, so what you'd end up with is a bunch of random blinking, much like the old computer stations on old TV shows like the 70's Star Trek. I used the NE555 in a recent experiment with audio, where the timer switches the guitar signal on/off very quickly, and the duty cycle is controlled via a 100K pot. If interested, click on the link in my sig and check out "helicopter Concept Experiments 2". Obviously not exactly the same application, but it goes to show that this chip is extremely versatile. At any rate, google the NE555 and you will find literally hundreds of tutorials on its use.

I've considered them, but I want to use a battery for this project. The extra op-amp and two resistors that are needed to setup a virtual ground, and the very few extra components elsewhere are a bargain to pay for being able to use a single 9v battery IMO. The LM324 in the upper left of your schematic (this one) is the virtual ground, correct? It looks like you referenced the input signal to this after the 220nF cap, right? It is OK to reference as many other op amp inputs as you want to this as well? I thought they would interfere with one another somehow and so what I've been doing is referencing each op amp to half supply using the two resistors and two caps where you've used the one to send transients to ground. The results are LOTS of components, which is why I inquired about using two batteries. Space issues aside, if you were to use two 9V batteries instead of the op amp virtual ground, then theoretically, doesn't it become possible to remove not only the signal biasing, but the input and output capacitors as well, alleviating most of the circuit-induced phase issues? I'm a little hung up about understanding the difference between a virtual ground setup at 4.5V vs what I've read can be called a "true" AC when you tap the center of two seris-connect 4.5V supplies, whether they be batteries or whatever. I have trouble seeing the midpoint of two series-connected 9V batteries as being somehow different than tapping one 9V battery using a resistor network. The sources I believe are trying to say that the center point of 2 batteries is actually 0V, where intuitively I would see it as 9V. Can you comment/enlighten on any of this?

A hex version with MIDI capability?

Yes, I do like the versatility that uber-switching makes possible. I would like to learn more about them, any online site suggestions? I would like to read a simple site that goes into basic guitar wiring, especially switching and tone/volume controls. Uou seem to be the switch-king around here. The S-1 switch on my strat is intimidating to say the least and I would like to rewire everything neater than stock, but am at a complete loss... and yes, I've looked at the drawings on the fender.com site, but they are mfg drawings, not really a good schematic/dwg mix... sorry to get OT. Col- Have you played with dual power supplies at all to get rid of all the half power supply biasing and most of the capacitors that a single supply makes necessary?

OK, here is what I think is the best I am going to get for my knowledge level... it is basically the same circuit as before only this time, substituting an Omron miniature relay for the NPN transistor, which is a bit cleaner in the switching as I can move the singnal to ground during the timer's off cycle, and this also allowed me to move the point of signal interruption to an AC only portion. Take a listen and see what you think. I think it is a bit cleaner than before, though it could still be better if someone were willing to invest more time in it. Anyway, I'll draw up both versions in the next couple of days. As before, just click on my sig and listen to the copter experiments #2.

I'm still checking in regularly. I have concluded I need a better driver and so I picked up a bunch of tiny neodymium and ceramic magnets the other night to experient with. I have some steel flatstock to use for a blade and I am in-process with making a nice bobbin, but I am ditching the whole "use a pickup" idea for good. I did do some testing last week injecting lots of different effects, one by one, into the signal chain to feed the LM386 circuit and see if anything positive would happen. I fed reverb, delay, compression, chorus, phaser, flanger, tremolo, rotary, wah, auto-ya, and envelope filter in, but nothing at all got positive results. Chorus did give a pulsing effect to the strength of the sustain, but nothing useful really.

Great, glad you liked it. Give me a few days to see if I can make it a little better. I want to try using a relay to switch the signal circuit to see if it improves the clicking/noise issues. If not, I'll draw it up after that. So far, it is really only just a few parts, all available at Radio Shack.

I put together a timer circuit today with the intention of trying the helicopter idea. It is variable via a 100K pot, in the hopes of having a control to vary "engine idle/throttle". What the pot does is vary what's called the "duty cycle". Imagine that within 1 seconds time, you flick a light on then off, so it is on for 0.5 seconds and off for the other 0.5, but repeat over and over. If the light is on for 50% of the time, then you have a 50% duty cycle. If it is on for only 0.2 seconds, then off for 0.8, then you have a 20% duty cycle. The pot (supposing you have an accurate one witch goes to 0 Ohms on both ends, which I didn't) goves you infinite control in duty cycle, from 0 to 100% duty cycle, 0 being full of and 100% being full on. This timer switches a transistor in the signal chain just after a booster circuit I made, turning the entire signal on and off, over and over as if you had a kill switch you were operating manually and repeatedly. You can get a 555 timer from Radio Shack for $1.00 and change. Anyway, there is a bit of noise still, these are simple power cleanliness issues as I use a 9V adapter for this type of experimentation as not to run through batteries like mad, but the copter concept is worth looking into further IMO. Admittedly, I have never hardwired a kill switch, but I know if that is done wrong, then a popping will be heard. In this case it's more of a click, but the concept is similar. Perhaps PSW (switch-master) can give some clues as to how hardwired kill switches are best wired to give no "popping" effect, then I might try to apply this analogously to the analog circuit to make it more clean and click-free. Take a listen to the clip entitled "Helicopter Concept Experiments" after going to www.soundclick.com/donovansclips. This could be a lot more interesting, but having to mess with a mini-pot and pluck strings left no free hand for fretting. There are a bunch of different settings played in succession, all with different effects, so don't give up after the first 20 to 30 seconds, unless you think it just $ucks that bad, which I hope you don't! Anyway, they are all played through a cheap Squier Strat, out to the effect, and then a Digitech RP250, then finally, straight into the PC. I am only playing a low E note and messing with effects and the potentiometer that controls the timer. I hope you enjoy.

I run my pickups at tone = 10. I like a mid-boost, so, my amp is set at Lows = 5, Mids = 8, Highs = 6.5'ish. All fine EQ'ing is handled within pedal presets. I was surprised to see how many do not seem to do this, or maybe it just isn't what is considered most important in the chain.

Yes! Audacity works without the annoying chorus thing... and I registered for soundclick as well. The clips can be accessed from my signature, but the link is www.soundclick.com/donovansclips All clips are run through my Digitech RP250 and straight into my soundcard and recorded with Audacity. The clean clips have a very low amount of added reverb and delay. The distorted tones have a bit more. Clean Mag-Ghost This is my improv of a tune you may recognize if you're a Zep fan. The first iteration is the bridge Duncan JB. Second is the Ghost system. Both iterations are finger-picked. Clean Mag-Ghost-Mix This is just some noodling with open chords. The first iteration is the bridge Duncan JB. Second is the Ghost system. Third is the mix mode, which may sound closer to the ghost side than the electric side, but both volumes were maxed... the ghost overtakes as I have yet to adjust the gain pot on the PCB. This will happen next time I remove the pickguard for a battery change... not critical for the moment as I can adjust mix down with the volume knobs as necessary. Distorted Mag-Ghost-Mix This is higher gain distortion through the Digitech RP250. The first iteration is the bridge Duncan JB. Second is the Ghost system, and third is again the mix mode. Note how you can make out the abrasion of the strings against the frets very clearly in the Ghost and mix modes during the vibratos as the sustain dies. However, there is not the stereotypical "sounds like $hit", at least IMHO, as compared to a real acoustic with distortion, which seems to turn to complete mud. I would not think that forgetting to exit the Ghost mode in a gigging scenario would be the worst thing that could happen! Please excuse the quality as these are my first clips. I do hope you enjoy them.

Thanks, John. I am working on the sound clips. I am having a problem... can't seem to sort it through any web searches. When I pump sound in to my soundcard via my pedal's USB interface or straight into the Aux jack on the soundcard, I am getting a pronounced chorus effect. I have no idea why and this is not a nice chorus, it is like a strong vhorus with depth and rate mid to high = eeeew. This occurs with both my 3rd party recording software and Windows sound recorder, so I am fairly certain it is a hardware issue. Drivers are new, though. Anyway, when I get it sorted, I will be adding clips here for sure.

Have a look/lend an ear to David Gillmore. He does those 2 1/2 note bends and he probably cross several poles during those bends and you newer hear any volume drop or anything like that wehen he gets going. I think you missed my meaning or I didn't phrase it properly. I was referring to the high and low E strings (where the bulk of the misalignment is), that one can only bend a very small amount (to the edges) before rolloing over the fret edges, meaning the edge of the fingerboard, where pitch usually jumps up some ridiculous amount, depending on what becomes the new magic fret surface when you lose the intended fret surface. I do realize the only way to get more than the 1/8 bend on these string is to bend them inward toward the center strings or center of the fretboard. For this reason, I would venture (and yes, this is totally speculative) that most players bend the high and low E strings toward the center of the fretboard, not toward the edges, except maybe for vibrato effect, if nothing else to avoid running out of fretboard. So, that being the case, it just seemed it would make more sense to place the poles for the E's where the strings most likely will be, not outside of them, on the fretboard edge, where most players do not want to go anyway (for me, out of fear of dreadful upward pitch shift upon fretboard rolloff).

So it is a standard thing to do (have the poles wider/shifted? Does any well-known manufacturer Not do this? What you said makes sense about the bending, but I guess it didn't occur to me since you can't really bend more than an eighth or quarter step before the strings roll over the fret edges. I just noticed my bridge position JB is afflicted with this in the opposite (poles misaligned smaller than the string width)... is this because it was originally designed for something non-Fender? ...I am hoping there aren't several flavors of JB and I got the wrong one.

V'ish, yet slightly more graceful and a whole lot more functional (you can sit and play it) is the Gibson Moderne. Though I have never seen one in real life, I really appreciate the simplicity of the design, seen here.

I only own Fender/Squier guitars, so I am not familiar with pickups for non-Fender'ish guitars. The question is, why are the mag poles set as to not lie directly beneath the strings on the outer strings? All my fender pickups seem like in the neck and middle positions, the pickups were designed to fit under the bridge, but in the neck and middle positions, anything other than the D and G strings has an offset which becomes most pronounced on both of the E strings. Is there a logical reason for this? Further, are there aftermarket pole pickups that have pole pieces that WILL align directly beneath the strings? Thanks.

For the helicopter idea, a 555 timer switching signal at a pot-controlled variable rate and/or duty cycle might work... if this is not already being done. I imagine it would be something similar to the toggle kill switch effect used in a alot of 80's rock, but more electronically controlled. This is something I could cook up pretty quickly and report back, as 555 timers are commonly used in applications at my workplace and I have been learning how to set them up recently. Anyone know if this is being done already somewhere? Put an envelope filter on top of this and it could be really cool.

After playing with it quite a bit during practice on Saturday, I am very happy with the system and feel like I am getting the best of both worlds acoustic and electric. Band members were impressed with the tone quality as well. The ghost pickups do sound convincingly like an acoustic guitar, adding just enough to the attack to make the tone very natural and real, even through my Fender hot rod DeVille 2X12. The mix mode is superb and allows infinite variability. Clean, I could not decide on what I liked best as all the mix levels sounded very nice. I can now tap on the guitar body or the bridge and get some cool percussive effects. I was also presently surprised that the system even sounds good with overdrive and high-gain distortion, which I have found horrible with acoustic-electric guitars. At this point, I am not left wanting for anything more as far as the ghost system goes. If anything, I need only slight tweaking of the action and intonation as 1) the saddles are set lower and I am thinking I need to lower my trem screws in order to be able to rais the saddles a bit more and 2) I will be removing and clipping about 1/2 of the spring on the low E saddle, since there is a distinct difference in the contact point of the string to the saddle, much closer to the nut than a stock Fender American saddle and I need to move this saddle back toward the bridge end for better intonation. I find the overall quality to be excellent and the aesthetics, to me, are pleasing with the matte black finish, though I had a really hard time capturing the real look of the system in poor unnatural light. Still, the only thing that is even somewhat a negative is that I did not go uber stealth with the signal wires. As already discussed, this may be easily overcome with some drilling, but that may diminish the strength of the trem plate, and so I'll not be doing this unless I upgrade the plate at some point in the future. See photo below, where depending on angle and proximity, the wires are visible, though minimally so. The 2nd volume control is now the ghost volume and the toggle switch between the volume and tone controls is the 3-way mode switch (mag-mix-ghost). How this works: in mag mode, you get magnetic controls only, and the ghost volume does nothing (ghost signal output is off), in mix mode, both the mag volume and ghost volume controls are active, mixing the signal in any configuration you like, any mag pickup combination + ghost, and in ghost mode, the mag volume has no function as the mag signal output is switched off and the piezos alone comprise the signal, which again is controlled by the ghost (previously tone) volume control.

Col- What do the little red X's mean on your schematic with regard to the power input/outputs on the opamps? I assume you are connecting power to them in those locations, or do you not have to?

Thanks for the comments, all. Update... I removed all the electronics from the guitar last night and attempted shuffling everything around in hopes of shoe-horning it all in without having to mill out any portion of the guitar's body. After about 15 different configurations, this was just not going to happen, so I gave up and suffered pre-gear-install jitters for the rest of the night... So, I brought the disassembled guitar into work this morning and a coworker in our plant's machine shop milled out a nice pocket to contain the battery and PCB assembly adjacent to the controls cavity. Pete, like you said, a whole new instrument if MIDI is installed. Some of the youtube demos show this and WOW! Not that I don't like the idea of MIDI capability, but again, I find it overly complex (not to mention expensive) for me to implement any time soon. The DIY sustainer and this project are plenty! Anyway, I had the pocket milled deep enough for the "just in case" scenario of someday deciding to install the hexaphonic MIDI PCB with the 13-pin connector. So, I should mention for later readers, the acoustiphonic preamp is NOT hexaphonic. It mixes the signals in parallel from each saddle right into one input connector. I thought this strange, as from what I have read, this is not how one would typically "mix" or "sum" AC signals in a preamp circuit. I am NOT installing a battery cover, so I hope the claimed 500 hour battery life is at least close to a reality. After checking out that Ibanez install thread six_stringer posted I was excited, but decided to err on the side of caution and kept it simple as erikbojerik's and Paul's comments made sense and 1) I felt a bit of anxiety about weakening my tremolo plate and 2) I felt movement of the tremolo would have the potential to over time chafe and degrade the teflon insulation over these tiny wires if the holes were not perfectly deburred. The instruction manual mentions creating channels for the wires to run across the back of the pickguard near the bridge. I opted not to do this step either as I had no way to accurately create these tiny channels. Regardless, the pickguard does not appear at all bowed or stressed and there is sufficient slack in the wires for bidirectional tremolo movement. Also, once I strung it all up with a new set of .012" Boomers, I adjusted the wire layout to coincide with the strings, so it is not an eyesore unless you are looking really close. I can not see them from 3 or 4 feet away. I utilized the stock 2nd tone control as the piezo volume. This was fairly straight forward in the instruction manual, but I think I should mention the instruction manual is poorly laid out, IMHO. It really is all over the place and I found at least one instance where a wiring diagram was not what it claimed to be, causing me to have to flip back and forth through pages to decipher the color codes (lots of colors, lots of wires in the kit) for the stereo jack setup. I also installed the "quick switch", which basically allows you to switch from mag to piezo or mix mode. This works nicely, but now that I see what it is (about $10.00 worth of parts, it was overpriced and I would have liked a more aesthetically pleasing switch for the money, but oh well. The contact point on the saddles is drastically forward in comparison with the Fender saddles, so after setting the action, I had to run through the intonation procedure for 3 iterations to get it all back to normal, and I found that I still didn't have enough squeeze room between the back of the saddle and the bridge plate for the low E to get it just right. On the next string change, I'll be clipping the spring down to half size to see if that is enough as I am very **** about intonation. Unfortunately, my amp setup is at work (band practices there on Saturdays), so I only had my pedalboard and some Philips amplified desktop speakers to try it out on. My thoughts at this point are that the sound quality is striking and very acoustic-like, and this is going to make my playing much more versatile as well as offering a nice mix tone, but the tone is not AS acoustic-like as I had hoped. The sound is very crisp and surprisingly (at least to me knowing not much at all about piezo systems) sounds very nice with overdrive/distortion as well. I would have expected it to sound crappy like an acoustic does with overdrive/distortion, but this is not the case. Will post a couple of pics and some more comments tomorrow after I get to try it out loud on the Fender amp. Until then, thanks for the helpful comments. I believe they helped me make the right decisions.

I have on order a set of Graph Tech Ghost piezo saddles, which should be arriving by the end of the week. I ordered only the saddles, the pre-wired mode switch, and the acoustiphonic preamp, NOT the hexaphonic MIDI preamp, though I may at a later date decide to install the hexaphinc as well... I have just not been exposed to MIDI enough for it to interest me and I find its (at least to me) perceived complexity to be intimidating. The host guitar is a 2008 Fender American Special Mahogany Strat HSS which has been modified with an SD-JB in the bridge, SD-HR in the middle, and SD-VR in the neck. The hope is this will sound really nice with the mahogany body and the .012-.056 strings I play. Anyone have any experience installing this system in my or similar configuration? From what I have looked at and understood so far, my magnetic pickup configuration or switching (this guitar has the S-1 switching system) should not be of concern as the signals from the 2 systems mix at a point in the chain after the pickup switching? Also, what about routing. I'll do this myself if there is a slick way to get around routing and I don't think I'd mind installing the battery under the pickguard sans a battery access panel since the battery life is claimed to be about 500 hours and I play <10 hours per week. If it can't be done, I will be paying a shop tech to do it as I am not known for my woodworking talents! What about running the wires from the saddles to the cavity? I have read about drilling holes in the bridge plate, but on the GT website, it shows wires actually visible (eeeewww) running over the tremolo fulcrum, totally not stealth. I had not considered this until I saw this post-order, but to me, this needs to be stealth as I want this guitar to maintain a very clean look. I am interested in hearing any and all experience/comments anyone is willing to share on this piezo system, including opinions regarding tonal quality. Thanks.