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• Exploring alternative Tunings with an illuminated Fretboard

  Frank Piesik • 03/21/2021 at 09:09 • 0 comments

  Alternative tunings can provide new perspectives on the instrument. I especially like open tunings because I like to play rhythmic patterns with open strings involved that move across the fretboard. But I rarely changed my tuning in the past, because it seemed hard enough to me to learn the fretboard as it is in standard tuning. This has changed since I implemented a polyphonic tuner function and the ability to change the root notes of each string with the corresponding encoders. See a first demo here:
  

  I really do enjoy the ease with which I can now discover foreign tunings and just play them immediately. I think using open tunings may now become an important aspect of my playing technique.

  Thinking one step further, I would be quite cool to utilize motor tuners to let the guitar completely tune itself. Since it has a Kickup, it could even excite the strings by itself. I actually already bought some motor tuners a while ago but I’m skeptical if the practical result will be worth the effort. It also would make the guitar even more top-heavy than it already tends to be. 

• ButtonsFaderSwitchesKnobsEncoderJoysticDisplay

  Frank Piesik • 02/02/2019 at 15:39 • 0 comments

  The title says it all: Here's a big update to my ElektroCaster!
  

  also, the project now has a home on github: https://github.com/fpiesik/ElektroCaster

  stay tuned for some music!
  

• Power

  Frank Piesik • 10/22/2018 at 12:59 • 1 comment

  One design goal I have for this project is to make it a standalone intrument, meaning tha you don't need to connect more cables than the audio cable to the amp, to play with it. The only thing missing to get there is an integrated battery. But for now, I focus on optimizing the powering over the RJ45 cable, since this has to work also and should be used to charge the battery too.
  

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• Application Ideas

  Frank Piesik • 10/22/2018 at 11:30 • 0 comments

  Firstly, the ElektroCaster can be played like a normal (baritone-)guitar, which in itself I'm quite proud of. It's neck is admittedly kind of thick and I whish there would be thinner v-slots available (15x15 would be nice). But all in all, I really do enjoy playing it. 

  Let's talk about what the ElektroCaster can do what others can't, by quickly sketch some possible applications. Some of them I allready have implemented and some are in the pipeline.
  

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• Designing the Control Interface

  Frank Piesik • 10/21/2018 at 17:47 • 0 comments

  Designing a control interface is arguably the most crititcal part when you develope a product. This may be especially true when designing instruments, with which you want to dive into sonic worlds and be in flow with the music. There is nothing more distracting if you have to think too much to achieve a certain effect. Thats why musicians have to practise so much.
  

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• The MultEBow

  Frank Piesik • 10/13/2018 at 07:42 • 0 comments

  "The EBow is a battery-powered electronic device for playing the electric guitar. The EBow uses a pickup – inductive string driver – feedback circuit, including a sensor coil, driver coil, and amplifier, to induce forced string vibrations. The EBow is monophonic, and drives one string at a time, producing a sound reminiscent of using a bow on the strings." (Wikipedia)

  The idea of the MultiBow, which I'm currently trying to realize, builds on this concept. It's essentially six EBows firmly installed under the strings. The allready installed hex-pickup serves as sensor coils and the driver coils are integrated with small class-d amplifiers into another pickup looking package. So the six signals from the pickup are going throug The Teensy-audio-board I use. It has 8 output-channels and I do only need one or two for the main output. One idea was to have additional discrete outputs for each string to process them externally. But using them as part of the MultiBow does make more sense to me, as it opens up the possebillity to modify the feedback signal to alter the effect on the strings (see moog guitar).
  

  Here is a little demo video to proof the concept:

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• The KickUp

  Frank Piesik • 10/10/2018 at 12:41 • 0 comments

  The KickUp is an actuator which includes 6 solenoids and a mosfet driver. It's used to hit the srtings from beneath - just the opposite of a pickup. Now the ElektroCaster can play semi-automatically (you still have to use the left hand). See the the KickUp in action in the sequencer video on the details page!  
  

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• Connection and Communication

  Frank Piesik • 10/08/2018 at 10:15 • 0 comments

  Since this guitar is intended to be used in an ectronic music environment, it has to communicate with the rest of the gear, at least to get a clock signal on which it can synchronise it's actions.
  

  
  

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• Body-Neck-Construction

  Frank Piesik • 10/08/2018 at 09:35 • 0 comments

  I used three different types of components to build the basic shape of the guitar: 3d-printed parts, 20*20 VSlot profiles and plywood.

  My printer (Creality CR10S4) has build volume of 40*40*40cm. Beeing able to print the shape of a guitar body was the main reason I went for this big printer.

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• Audio-Hardware

  Frank Piesik • 10/08/2018 at 09:31 • 0 comments

  Here are some design goals for the audio part:
  

  • Discrecete audio path for each string to allow for independent audio manipulation.
  • Audio processing happens within the guitar, not on an external computer.
  • Latency under 5 milliseconds.
  • low power consumption to allow for battery operation.

  Read more »

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