It's a working day and I've a deadline looming, so thought the obvious thing to do is start documenting a build that I began planning in July, and began building in August.
The main thing I was aiming for was versatility
- Both magnetic and piezo pickups
- Onboard active three-band EQ preamp for the magnetic pickups
- ~31" scale length for tuning to C#, providing Eb, D and E tunings by moving a capo, whilst ensuring that E standard is my preferred ~26" scale length.
- LED fretmarkers to support the changeable tunings
- Drop D tuner
- Fanned fret (a relatively mild fan, a-la Strandberg). For the E scale length, this is about 26 - 26.5" with a neutral (i.e. perpendicular) zero fret
Then from a styling point of view, I'd gained a real liking of Padauk as a wood (and not as a chocolate bar) - it's a lovely red hue that changes with age. I decided to make the guitar from a single block of Padauk, and use that opportunity to carve a more 3D body than is normal for guitars - most are essentially 2D.
These requirements took a bit of thinking about, so led to some experiments with the bridge and markers first and foremost - there's no commonly available headless bridge that has Piezo saddles (certainly not at sensible money), so I would need to make my own. The dot markers have been a bit of an experiment for me in the past, with little success. This time programmable LED markers felt like the natural step, but would require a micro controller, and careful integration with the neck.
A lot more to come - I have something relatively guitar shaped at the moment. For now, here's the preliminary sketch of the body:
Comments
Instagram
Instagram
Good luck with the LEDs and soldering.
I put LED's in a neck - bloody difficult job! No controls for mine but I wired them to follow your hand up and down the fretboard.
@axisus, that sounds really cool - proper lightshow. How do they work? Completing a circuit when fretting or sensors or?
I have a status bass with amazing LEDs, run by a GB basses circuit. There are various flashing programmes.
But mostly I just can't get over how orange that wood is
Don’t think of the capo as a transposing device. Think of it as an extra finger for barring.
I very rarely use a capo - it's mostly because somebody gives me a chord sheet in C and says "we sing this in G" (I do a bit of playing for an "old folks singalong" and it's amazing how many songs they come up with that I've never heard). So for me it's literally a transposing device and my brain is "thinking" the written key. I probably shouldn't be thinking this way - and I do sometimes find it easier just to transpose in my head if it's not too complicated a tune. The only thing I actually play that uses a capo other than just for transposing is the Detectorists theme (partial capo on all but bottom E).
My daughter's more of a "singer songwriter" type and hardly ever plays _without_ a capo - doesn't bother her at all.