hi,
ok. so i read the whole thing (with a few skips here and there) and collated the information which may be helpful to me before posting and here i am.
firstly i'll get a few things out the way... i'm not a guitarist (i play acoustic though for myself) and i'm not trying to build a sustainor. so why am i here?
i'm trying to build a string driver for a piano. i'm not interested in accuracy of pitch, phase or trying to get an infinitely long note... i'm trying to build a "resonant reverb" by using the piano itself as a speaker. there are two things i'd like to do with it:
1) play back pre-recorded and specifically composed music from my laptop and sounds generated and mangled by my own software i've built, through the piano by converting the audio/electronic signal into an (electro)magnetic one which will excite the strings that are at related frequencies and harmonics.
as you can probably tell i'm not trying to create a precision instrument, but indulge the serendipity of the process.
i'm ok with electronics... i've built a cv->midi concerter, two theremins, and so on... but it's the magnetic bit where i get stuck.
ok, a few problems:
1) piano strings have a far greater tension than guitar strings, so i'm probably limited to the mid-range strings because they are not too short (like the high ones) and not too fat (like the low ones).
2) i'll need a hefty amount of drive without overheating / melting etc.
and a few things i don't need to avoid:
1) my pickup is acoustic and so is the end result i require so no magnetic interference / coupling problems between pu and driver.
2) playing harmonics instead of / as well as fundamentals is fine.
3) the strings can be pushed and pulled, so don't need to move side to side.
4) i have plenty of room to position the drivers, so can be as big and ugly as needed... in fact i'd prefer them to be visible, along with the cabling.
so now for my questions, which i hope some of you can help me with...
1) should i run all the drivers in series? parallel? groups of serial?
2) is it possible to use a hifi amp... (wait!)... as long as i select the correct thickness of wire, strength of magnet etc?
3) which magnets, amount of coils etc would be suitable to drive these high tension strings?
4) maybe i should try relay coils or disected speakers (as i have room for them) ?
well that's enough to be going on with i think!
thanks and well done everyone!
~darkandspiky~
