SOT: Hollow wooden footbox (mike in box type)

[brett]

Hi.
I'm thinking about building one of those foot-tapping boxes the folk players use to accompany themselves.
I'm guessing that an electret mic and simple 9V amplifier inside a wooden or plywood box is what they use. ??
Does anybody know of a good design?  Any design??

thanks

[Nasse]

Maybe not what you want but maybe some ideas could find here

http://home.hccnet.nl/e.h.van.munster/cajon.htm
http://www.ocanartesania.com/V2/index-ingles.html
http://www.cajondg.com/musica_eng.htm

I was surfing on a local music forum and someone posted these interesting  links, about diy ing  a Cajon, cool wooden box that does snare and kick sounds. You sit on it and play with your hands... Maybe you could attach Speed King pedal on it...

[brett]

Hi.
Thanks Nasse.
The Cajon looks cool.  Local blues legend Ash Grunwald plays one of these with a bass drum pedal facing backwards.
Looks like this example uses plywood.  I build my speaker enclosures out of ply and they sound good, too.

But I was after the foot rest type.  About 15 inches square and 4 inches high. 

thanks

[fixr1984]

How about something like this. http://www.porchboard.com/
Ive seen the makers of this at a few guitar shows and its a pretty good design and a great idea.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

fixr1984, I wonder what is in a Porchboard.....? My thoughts range from just a piezo pickup (maybe with passive low pass filter) all the way to a chunk of iron that swings past a guitar pickup (possibly with a cap in parallel to make it resonate at 40Hz or so)!

[fixr1984]

I cant remember exactly what they told us they used but I think you are right about it being a piezo pickup. It was really neat to watch..for a demo they had one of the guys just sitting there playing and just tapping his foot as he played. It sounded like someone was hitting a kick drum to the beat he was playing at. All they did was plug into a small guitar amp with the Porchboard.  I pulled this off of their website, maybe it will explain better.

Using an special proximity sensor that does not depend on mechanical devices, integrated circuits, or power supply, the Porchboard Bass is able to produce clean bass rhythm without noise or feedback. An amplifier and speaker combination capable of reproducing low frequencies is all that is required.


Detailed Explanation

The proximity sensor (located on the base of the Porchboard Bass, underneath the suspended stepping rail) works by detecting the change of position of the transducer plate (located under the suspended stepping rail) and responds to that change by sending an electrical signal out to a bass amplifier through a standard guitar cord.

Simple Explanation

A single tap of the foot on the Porchboard Bass is all that's needed to create a rich, deep bass sound.

[brett]

Hi.
Thanks for the link to the porchboard.
I looked up their US patent (No 567336), and it seems to have expired on May 6 2005.
So I guess anyone can build one.
Here's the reference to the patents expiring on that date: http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/patog/week27/OG/TOC.htm
First, I'm going to try a plywood box with an electret mike.
thanks

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Brett, is there a digit missing in that patent number? Can't get a handle on it!

[soundcollage]

Going down the list, I found the closest one to his number, then looked it up to double check. The number is: 5,627,336
edit- Oh, and I guess its right under the picture at the sight fixr1984 posted (doh)-

[brett]

Hi.
The patent no, application number, and expiry date are:
5,627,336           08/444,408            05/06/97
cheers