Saltwater Pedal?!?

[Paul Marossy]

Might be kind of an interesting exercise to build this one:
http://home.earthlink.net/~lenyr/alsounds.htm

I think this is literally "the sound of electrolysis", or some kind of chemical interaction... All you would need is a little saltwater receptacle and a way to replace the aluminum plate and copper wire which I assume would get eaten up over time. It doesn't even require a battery, either. Makes some very interesting noises.  

Would be interesting if you could combine that with the guitar's signal. It ought to make all kinds of weird, random noises...

[Paul Marossy]

So, does anyone think this is possible? I'm just not sure about how you would combine the guitar signal with the effect of the saltwater on aluminum and copper...

[casey]

i wonder if you could mix the 2 and gate the wierd sounds ....  then put
the guitar signal to key the sounds off the gate........then you would
only here the mixed sounds with the guitar

[strungout]

Oy.

Well, since it's what I've been messing with, I'd try an EF to control the "level of activity" with a guitar, mixed with either a dry signal or something like the green ringer Dunno. Somebody else take a guess.

BTW, maybe I should know this, but can salt water just be water with table salt in it?

Ciao.

[Paul Marossy]

Ordinary table salt should work just fine.

[petemoore]

..and that experiment does make some interesting noises
 so use the voltage output of the reaction to control the sweep of a phaser or envelope filter V input for the VCA [whatever you call the widget that reads the amplitude or voltage of at the input to control the range on the Q filter...] VCF...
 Thing is for live use you'd have to add salt and water [I would think the violence of the reaction would subside after a fresh set of reactive chemicals had reacted for a time]...neither of which are 'friendly' to stompbox innards...perhaps a small 'outdoor' area for the reactor...soem type of containment...also you'd need to store reserves of the reactive substances.
 You could name it "the Reactor"... :lol:
 Perhaps a little more chemistry could uncover different elements to combine for the reaction.

[Ry]

How about creating a tube (like PVC or similar) or some sort of watertight vessel inside of a wah rocker, then placing the copper at one end...say the toe for purposes of this explanation.  Fill the vessel up maybe 1/4 of the way, put the end on with the copper contact and leads going to cicuitry to amplify it and then out to an amp.  You would be able to get varying amounts of saltwater on the contact and the agitation factor of rocking it back and forth may have some interesting implications.

Ry

[Elektrojänis]

Hmmm... There was also something about home made rectifiers on that site: http://home.earthlink.net/~lenyr/borax.htm

How about some weird clipping diodes for some distortion pedals.

[Paul Marossy]

pete-

Yeah, I thought about the effect diminishing over time. I know it would, I just don't know how long it would take before the effect is lost. Interesting thoughts on how to use that. Cool name, too.  

Ry-

I like the idea of a rocker pedal. That ought to make some great sounds by agitating the solution around. The tube idea is a good one, too. That would make things very tidy. All you would have to do is drain out the tube and refill it.


These are some good ideas that y'all have. I'm still not sure about how to combine that noise from the saltwater with the guitar signal. I guess the next step would be to find out the voltage created by the saltwater "reactor core" relative to a typical electric guitar signal. For that matter, I guess you would just amplify the slatwater noise and then combine it with the guitar signal. If this could be made to work, it could truly create sounds that no one else has ever made...

[Paul Marossy]

OK, I think I have an idea. Take this circuit here http://www.aaroncake.net/circuits/mixer1.htm and have one input be your guitar and the other one from the saltwater reservoir. Then, in theory, both signals could be blended together to taste. Or for that matter, the salt water side could be a momentary switch that you step on to get the effect for a second or two. Something like that...
Sounds like a weekend project. I am also curious to see what kind of waveforms this makes, too.

Gee, I never noticed that Tim Escobedo had posted a link to this saltwater thing a few days before I did.  :oops:
I only found this out doing a search...

EDIT: On second thought, it would probably be better for it to track the guitar signal, I suppose. I think I am just going to have to conduct a few experiments...