Radiotrib

Heya neighbours ... Thanks for mailing me the links BlackDog ... I'll drop into the office again soon You can't imagine how jealous I am of anyone who has the time and the nerve to get started on a project this ambitious ... I've been planning to do it for yhears and can never raise the courage to get started. These (both your projects) are great, but this one is beautiful!!

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/...pickupdiagrams/ - has most of the standard setups. Just look for coil split. Seymour Duncan's site also has wiring diagrams for most common uses of their pickups .. and there's a load of theory pages out there too .. try googling for "humbucker coil split wiring". In effect, with a 5 connector humbucker, the traditional "coil tap" isn't tapping at all but splitting ... "Tapping" is taking a connection off an existing coil at a different point (e.g. multi-voltage transformers have different taps - one for each voltage). What you are doing is splitting the two interconnected twin coil setup into two single coils. I set up a nice little board with 2x2 light bulbs and a 6 volt battery pack so I could test some wiring possibilities. For a few dollars worth of components screwed to a lump of wood it's given me hours of entertainment and a lot of valuable lessons/wiring diagrams.

Looking closely it all seems like 'armless fun to me ... tee hee ...

How about this for innovative ... http://www.littleguitarworks.com/torzal/

Hi again Unrealize. I'm having some kind of problem with my PM settings, so I don't know if you got my replies, but the magnets have been on the way for the last 6 days so you should get them pretty soon. Cheers, K

Have you considered a nice burst?? .. like, for example .. Tobacco Burst ??

There ya go .. shielding, strengthening and magnetic closure all in one

Here's a source in the UK/Europe http://emagnetsuk.com/index.asp?function=D...CAT&catid=9 - take a look at EP390 - 5 quid (E7.50) for 50 Here's a source in the US - http://www.kjmagnetics.com/products.asp?cat=10 - see D41 - $0.16 each (subject to a minimum order size)

Don't add screws. Buy a few 1/16 inch x 1/4 inch neodymium magnets (about 50c each) and glue them to the bottom of the cover where the screws would normally go. in the head, under where the magnets are fitted, make indentations, and glue in a disk of iron, or another magnet ... see this site for more info http://www.exit45.com/ttnp/MagneticCovers Cheers K4 PS I'm also in Europe and I got 200 of those magnets. If you haven't fitted the screws yet, email me and I'll post you 6 of them for free.

IMO a Whammy is made to wham .. if it can't then its defective. You shouldn't be able to put enough strain on a machined metal part with your bare hands to cause it to break - if anything should go it should be the strings first, then your hand .... Tske it back and complain thsty they rented you defective equipment. Don't yell, threaten or posture, just be straightforward, pleasant and businesslike. If they pull a face or get difficult, tell them that you aren't the type to argue and ask them if they would be prepared to allow your local customer protection agency arbitrate ... Remember, successful business with musicians depends a lot on word of mouth, good or bad.

Going back to my twin-plate, single core idea, I have to admit, wasn't really aiming at pairing it with a pickup. My eventual goal would be to mount it as the "last 2 frets" on a fretless bass fingerboard. Slightly protruding (1 mm or so) above the surface of the board. If it was sufficiently robust, it would double up as both a sustainer, and a place to pop'n'slap (something almost no fretless basses do well). I imagine wide, fairly deep "frets" with marrower parts passing through the main part of the fingerboard, and the coil/magnets buried in the body below. I'll try to get a concept drawing up when I get time at the weekend P.S. I just with couldn't help posting this - I hope you don't mind ... Here's what a sustained fretless bass can sound like - Michael Manring - a bass master, and a master of the e-bow -

Or these ... http://www.ritter-royals.com/detail-pictur...golden-seal.htm http://www.ritter-royals.com/detail-pictur...cept-golden.htm http://www.ritter-basses.com/ritter-basses...instruments.htm

Make your image on soft paper, and if its pastel, fix it well. find a sheet of steel, glass, or other absolutely smooth, shiny, impervious material (it should be at least 1 inch beyond the extent of the paper in every direction) Lay the paper, perfectly flat, face up on the sheet, so you can see your picture (you may need to dampen the back of it a little to make it stick flat) If you had to dampen it, leave it to dry completely (days!!) Once dry, spray the whole lot with 5 to 10 coats of clear lacquer (this needs to be fairly thick) Leave it for a day to go off Very carefully, starting at the corners, pick the lacquer off the sheet. it should come up in one, floppy piece lifting the picture with it. dampen the sheet and put the lifted film back onto it, this time, picture downwards (paper up) MAKE SURE ITS PERFECTLY FLAT!!! Slowly and VERY CAREFULLY, begin to rub the paper off the back of the picture with a wet cloth until the picture begins to appear If you do it right, you will end up with a sheet of transparent film "into" which is soaked your original picture put it somewhere safe and leave it to dry out. once it's dry, carefully cut out the shape you want to apply to the guitar spray your guitar body with a couple of really wet coats of clear and lay your picture film onto it while it's still tacky go over it all over, gently, with a soft rubber roller leave it to set spray with 4-5 coats of clear wet sand the cut edges with 600 or 1200 steps to feather down the "step" (You can also use this stage to "trim" or "fade in" your image by sanding, but be careful - you only get one shot) Finish with as many clear coats as it takes to smooth the profile and finish as for any clear coated guitar. ============= Or at least, thats how we used to transfer magazine pictures and poster images onto motor cycle tanks back in the 70s ....

Looks like 5-string fretless are becoming the in thing .. I'm planning one too .. and I'm hoping to make my own bridge ... Mine will be very slow coming, so I'll be interested to see how yours comes along.

An interesting point, although Graphtech, ABM, ETS, Floyd Rose and several others might disagree. They all use one piezo element per string. There again, they pick up the vibrations of the strings themselves, not the induced vibrations from the bridge or body. i always fancied the idea of mounting a small transducer under the body end of the fingerboard on my fretless basses so I could adjust the amount of Mwahh that was mixed into the overall sound .. Thanks for the comment and support Jozer.

Anyone wanting to get adventurous could also try using 6 piezo elements, one stuck to the bottom or each bridge saddle. I think Cafe Walter used to do a 6-input piezo preamp, and if I remember correctly, he made the design available for public use. He also makes them quite cheaply if you aren't into burning holes in yourself with scorching solder ... http://www.cafewalter.com/cafewalter/fetpre/index.htm http://www.cafewalter.com/cafewalter/fetpr...preii_schem.gif is the schematic Here are a few others http://www.scotthelmke.com/Mint-box-buffer.html http://my.execpc.com/0B/CC/fdeck/bass/quickand.htm http://www.cafewalter.com/cafewalter/piezopre/oppiezobuf.htm Sorry, couldn't find the 6-1 buffer, but I think it wolud be OK to connect them all in parallel and treat them as one input.

Sorry the site is in Dutch, but here's one of our semi-local builders. A lot of good Dutch musicians play Rikkers guitars/basses. K4

That's a very fine offer T/M but I think the restrictions apply throughout Europe. In fact, I realised that I could one of my pals in the US to buy one for me, and then dismantle it and just send a small box of bits over. Being left-handed, I don't need the body/neck/tuners/pickguard ... just the juicy bits, and a box of miscellaneous electronic items might well get past the tax authorities as "spare parts". Plus, I could offer the unused bits up again on e-bay and recover a few $$ to cover the shipping ... Hmmm ... where's that pocket calculator ..... Oh and good luck with the stag do. You certainly chose an interesting place to "let it all hang out one last time". It's not such a bas place to get handcuffed to a lamppost ... I originally only came over here to work on a 3 month contract ... and that was 20 years ago ... Be careful

That's a nice thought, but unfortunately they don't ship Line6 kit out of the USA ( http://mf.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/mf.cfg/php/...hp?p_faqid=1405 ) and on top of the shipping cost, the BTW (Sales Tax) would also put an additional 20% on the price. Maybe I'll ask an old friend to pick one up for me and bring it over next time he comes to Europe ... Cheers, Kevin

I see where they got the name Viper though ... That pickup looks like a Vindsceen Viper ...

I don't believe this!! http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Lin...itar?sku=511674 I wish I lived in the USA. At that price, the guts from one of those would make a perfect electronics basis for starting a great left-handed bass .. (Line 6 don't do lefty basses). Damn!! Ah well .. back to the drawing board and a lot of wishing!

My impression also ... I think it would need to be a fairly wide gap, but that doesn't affect the size of the goil IMO .. extending my fantasy one step further, it could be a thin-coil inducer, just like the current, successful designs, but wrapped around an extended core. The length of the core has little relevance. If its ferro-mag qualities are good enough it will contain the field fairly well until we hit an edge ... so ... If the original slim coil sustainer has already got a magnetic core, the plates and core extensions wouldn't be difficult to knock together, and the copper would have the twin function of spacing and shieldingf all in one go (though I have no idea what the eddy currents might get up to with that mass of copper in the mix). as for the "don't don't take this the wrong way" bit .. hehe ... I'm flattered to have caught anyone's attention, especially you guys who have picked up on my frivolity. In fact, I know nothing and I'm just dreaming out loud.

Let's hear it for Kenji Tumura ... Yaay !!! I just felt it that someone had done it before I thought of it ... OLG - Thanks for the links, on those two pages alone you can see that the big difference between sandwiched coils and humbuckers is the lateral (leakage) field. In a humbucker, each of the virtual magnets are oriented vertically, and radiate like two bar magnets in proximity. There is a strong field between the poles, but a siginficant (and unwanted) field looping around to the other pole on the same magnet (i.e. out into EMI land). On the other hand, the sandwiched coil is analogous to one bar magnet, with an incredibly distorted field which is almost completely concentrated in the gap between the pole plates, and with almost no (or very weak) extraneous side flux. Aside ... In the longer term, I am in the process of designing a bass which I intend to build over the next 12 months. It will have a piezo bridge in addition to a mag pickup of my own design, and if I manage to find a place to mount it, it will also have a sustainer. I will probably build a mock-up in cheap builders wood before I take to "real" wood, so I may be in a position to test some things sooner ... no promses, but a lot of hopes

Hoi Onelast .. Yes - I have seen Q-tuners - sexy pickups, but when I heard their bass models they just sounded way the too "crisp" for me ... Anyway, that isn't really the idea I was putting forward. My suggestion was based something I vaguely remember, that a ferro-magnetic plate with a large area to thickness ratio, in close proximity to a magnet, confines the magnetic field (i.e. shields) by sort of "sucking" the flux in towards it, but one which is actually in contact with the magnet causes the flux to stay within the plate, and exit only(ish) via its edges. If this was actually the case, my idea would work something like this (cross section) ... focusing and containing the field, but producing a strong flux between the edges of the plates, and very little stray field except that transmitted by induction in the guitar string. (which is also an iron core inside a coil ...) I think there's a magnetic field/interaction modeling tool .... I need to look around and see if I still have a link to it ... AHAAA ... Ansoft was the company ... http://www.ansoft.com/ and the tool is called Maxwell SV .. it's a free download for non-commercial use. Maybe some of you electronics gurus might be able to make sense of it .. I can't

Dag Jeroen, greetings from Den Haag. I think I've missed something here, because I was under the impression that the sustainer driver didn't have any inbuilt magnets, only a ferro-magnetic core, and it derived its magnetism from the a/c in the coil?? .. Did I miss a page or so ?? I can't find the time to make anything right now - just bought a new car that needs a lot of TLC - so I speculate a lot, and I've been toying with the concept of a tall thin driver instead of a short fat one .. like this ... Build a short fat one like the current designsd Fit the top/bottom of the driver with iron plates so the core is extended to cover the whole top/bottom of the driver turning the driver on its side so the edges of the plates point towards the strings (like a pair of blades) When excited, that should cause one plate to be positive and the other negative. It would still provide magnetic attraction with a very concentrated field across the small space between the plates, but with almost no peripheral field leakage, since the plates would shield the core, and only radiate/propagate a field from their sharp edges. I dunno, but this might help with the EMF issues. On the down-side, it would result in a sustainer driver which would need to be installed alongside, or in place of, a standard pickup rather than on top of it. Any comments? .. am I "barking up the wrong tree" again ???