And by string I mean any kind of instrument string...
I'm just curious... :?:
Any metal string will conduct current.
If you have a voltage difference between two points, you have a potential for current flow between those points. How fast the current flows is decided by how much resistance is in its path between voltage differences. But like gez said, metals are good conductor *Edit* Because they offer little resistance.
And don't forget, any current flowing through the string of an instrument, also has the possibility of flowing through the human touching it. That can be unpleasant... or deadly.
a wet string
vintage valve amps are especially prone to that.
i came very close to being dead from this once
ever since then im afraid ive rather lost my liking for vintage tube equipment
The old and discontinued synth guitar the "Synth Ax" put a signal through the guitar string on the fretting neck. When the string was pressed against a fret the computer register the connection allowing it to know which note was being played. Hate to imagine the wiring for that beast.
Andrew
:o I think some Guitorgans use this kind of tech, nowadays it´s done with hex pickups and MIDI
Quote from: The Tone GodThe old and discontinued synth guitar the "Synth Ax" put a signal through the guitar string on the fretting neck. When the string was pressed against a fret the computer register the connection allowing it to know which note was being played. Hate to imagine the wiring for that beast.
Andrew
That's a great idea... it'd be hard to get the connections accurate because of fret buzz and whatnot.
-Colin
QuoteThe old and discontinued synth guitar the "Synth Ax" put a signal through the guitar string on the fretting neck. When the string was pressed against a fret the computer register the connection allowing it to know which note was being played. Hate to imagine the wiring for that beast.
It might not have been that hard. I don't know about the synth ax, but at least one guitar synth grounded the strings and used resistors behind the fret board. Pressing the string on a fret grounded that fret and the resulting voltage/current was read as the result on that string.
The frets had to be made in six sections though 8-)
There is at least one guitar with fiber optic strings that senses the change in light transmission from light down the strings.
Quote from: SoundTechAnd don't forget, any current flowing through the string of an instrument, also has the possibility of flowing through the human touching it. That can be unpleasant... or deadly.
but that is only if there is alot of voltage going through the string, right?
current _will_ flow through any conductor (aka metal string) as long as there is voltage applied. This is the same way as water will travel though a pipe, as long as there is pressure on the end to push the water. the defenition of a conductor is that current will flow through it, as long as voltage is applied.
if there is no voltage present, it doesn't make a differance if the string is a conductor or insulator.
Quote from: R.G.It might not have been that hard. I don't know about the synth ax, but at least one guitar synth grounded the strings and used resistors behind the fret board. Pressing the string on a fret grounded that fret and the resulting voltage/current was read as the result on that string.
The frets had to be made in six sections though 8-)
There is at least one guitar with fiber optic strings that senses the change in light transmission from light down the strings.
I belive the Synth Ax didn't use split frets. Each string had a different signal going through it. The computer determined the pitch by what signals were coming through which frets. That way you could still bend strings.
I haven't heard of the fiber optic guitar but it sounds cool.
QuoteThat's a great idea... it'd be hard to get the connections accurate because of fret buzz and whatnot.
The Synth Ax had two sections to it in a slightly L shape. A fretboard which you use to pitch your notes and a picking section which you could use to accent the notes similar to picking a guitar. You could actually play just with one hand all the notes and not pick. There were also piano-like keys that you could play on it with your picking hand for more effects.
Andrew
Quote from: The Tone GodThe old and discontinued synth guitar the "Synth Ax" put a signal through the guitar string on the fretting neck. When the string was pressed against a fret the computer register the connection allowing it to know which note was being played. Hate to imagine the wiring for that beast.
Andrew
lol i had thought i came up with something new in college until i had been in electronics for a while. lol i was sending a control signal down the strings tied to different points on the fretboard so depending on where your hand was on the fret board would select you pickups used a lot of logic gates or and nor gates. and a few relays and stuff for the pickups.
Quote from: O'malley's Alleybut that is only if there is alot of voltage going through the string, right?
Voltage doesn't kill ya, current does. A small 9-volt battery won't do serious damage to you because there isn't a lot of available power there. On the other hand, a 12-volt car battery CAN do serious damage because there's a lot more stored power. So, voltage makes electrons move. Current is the amount of electrons moving. More voltage makes more electrons move. More electrons=more hurt. Electric shocks of significant magnitude can cause health issues, even if it doesn't kill you. Very low current exposure is pretty safe. Very low.
if you think about it, a set of strings and a set of frets are a perfect matrix. if you have all of the electrically isolated and have access to each of them as a contact point, you can identify any particular fretted note. but you might not know as much as much as you need to, to make things interesting. the idea of sending a signal down a string rather than a simple voltage is quite interesting too.
the difficulty of all of this with respect to a conventional guitar and the construction techniques typically employed makes the idea of wiring all frets individually (and worse, splitting them and wiring them) daunting.
The ability to drive a current through a conducting body (yours) is proportional to the voltage, irrespective of the maximum available current. Connecting yourself across a twelve-volt car battery will not generally cause harm, but holding a screwdriver blade across the terminals will lead to serious burns (or possibly shrapnel damage). It is generally accepted that supplies of 40V and above are potentially lethal. It only takes about 20mA through the heart to run a serious risk of stopping it. Incidentally, Edison's sales pitch was right, although misguided - volt-for-volt, AC is considerably more dangerous than DC.
Quote from: Ge_WhizThe ability to drive a current through a conducting body (yours) is proportional to the voltage, irrespective of the maximum available current.
Of course, since the human is the resistor value in Ohm's law. But the point was, if the string has a voltage applied to it, depending upon how it's hooked up and what voltage is applied to it, there may be very little current flow, until a person touches it and becomes a better conductor path than the original circuit.
Quote from: Ge_Whiz- volt-for-volt, AC is considerably more dangerous than DC.
Well, depends on the frequency, as Tesla adequately demonstrated. I would't want to be in the middle of a 10,000 VDC circuit.
nor would you want to be in the firing line of Teslas "earth resonance" experiments that supposedly caused the Tunguska explosion!
...in fact, you probably wouldn't have wanted to live in his home town!
On days when he was running his equipment up, people could draw long arcs from door handles and fire hydrants, the grass glowed blue all night and devices connected to Washingtons generators would explode thanks to the incredible inductive kicks coming from Tesla Colorado Springs labs!
Quote from: niftydognor would you want to be in the firing line of Teslas "earth resonance" experiments that supposedly caused the Tunguska explosion!
I don't think this is supposed by any reputable scientists. :lol:
Kerry M
What Tesla did was big.... but not THAT big. 50 foot arcs were all over his largest coils and he did succeed in burning out a generating station in Colorado Springs, but what he did is dwarfed every second of every day by common thunderstorms.
He is still a hero to me! :o
Take care,
-Peter
Quote from: bwanasonicI don't think this is supposed by any reputable scientists.
no, but boy it's fun to imagine!
Quote from: Peter Snowbergbut what he did is dwarfed every second of every day by common thunderstorms
That's very true; But there aren't many people out there trying to replicate a small thunderstorm in their workshop! And few would claim that they could "split the earth like an apple."
I think the best thing he did (in some ways) was to practically give away the rights to AC generators to Westinghouse in order to "defeat" Edison.
hmm, seems we might have hyjacked this thread... getting slightly back on topic;
anyone heard the urban myth about the navy guy who killed himself with a 9V battery whilst trying to measure his "internal resistance" with a multimeter? :shock:
Quote from: niftydog...in fact, you probably wouldn't have wanted to live in his home town!
Are you kidding!! I'd
love to have been in NY when he was just starting out and making history. That would've been magnificent.
Quote from: niftydogI think the best thing he did (in some ways) was to practically give away the rights to AC generators to Westinghouse in order to "defeat" Edison.
Well, he did it more to make sure AC was developed and available to the world then to spite Edison, but the rivalry was there, for sure. I think Edison took it more to heart then Tesla did.
Getting back alittle bit on topic, not that I didn't enjoy the side line conversation, I belive the wiring issue of the Synth Ax was part of it's demise and should be a lesson to us.
From my understanding the problem, well one of them, was that the company could not afford the inital investment of automating the wiring of the neck so they did it by hand. While this lowered the cost of manufacturing the parts the labour costs were much higher making the whole product more expensive thus a higher retail price. Because of the retail price they couldn't sell enough to be able to afford to automate the wiring which would have lowered the labour costs and the final retail price. The loss of labour to do the wiring also resulted in lack of support for the product.
Couldn't afford to automate to make it cheaper and couldn't sell enough to automate. It was a vicious cycle. One that should learned and observered by some DIYers who maybe thinking of getting into the biz...like me arrg.
Andrew
Apologies, Mr SoundTech, for not making my definitions of AC and DC clearer. In the context of the original post, it didn't occur to me that anyone might be proposing to power a guitar effect with a 10,000 VDC supply. Careless of me.
To clarify, therefore, (a) I would prefer to accidentally receive a 110 VDC shock than a 100 VAC shock, and (b) I am prepared to bet anyone $100 that I could grasp the terminals of a 12V car battery and survive the experience. With the engine not running.
Quote from: Ge_WhizApologies, Mr SoundTech, for not making my definitions of AC and DC clearer.
No apologies, my friend (and the "Mr" sounds WAY to formal for me). I freely admit that some of my comments were beyond the scope of the original question (and therefore, I was probably very unhelpful). I was simply pushing on the boundaries of how we tend to typically thing of problems, because we are use to certain "constants" in our experimental endeavors. I fully enjoyed this thread, and the comments of everyone who participated, whether they were posting on the original topic, or the tangent topic.
Quote from: Ge_WhizApologies, Mr SoundTech, for not making my definitions of AC and DC clearer. In the context of the original post, it didn't occur to me that anyone might be proposing to power a guitar effect with a 10,000 VDC supply. Careless of me.
To clarify, therefore, (a) I would prefer to accidentally receive a 110 VDC shock than a 100 VAC shock, and (b) I am prepared to bet anyone $100 that I could grasp the terminals of a 12V car battery and survive the experience. With the engine not running.
I donno, I worked as a mechanic for a good number of years and after seeing firsthand someone ground a wedding ring from a positive terminal to chassis ground.. The guy still has a circular scar on his hand haha.. (my brother, what a dope...hehe...) Lots of amperage running or not.. but merely grabbing the terminals, yeah no problem, its that whole ground the two terminals together that gets your attention quick... ;)
Regards,
Lone
i'm building a big variable resistor in the shape of a guitar right now (for bass synth style sounds). it's a raw design but should work fine: one audio oscillator sending signal trough one big guitar string pressing copper frets (nailed (!) on home-made neck), each of them connected to resistor(s) (value=note) then goes back from a coper wire to out jack.
Safety = fetish rubber glove :wink: