AndyDenyer
Member
I have just bought an old les paul copy from a friend, and I want to adapt one of the humbuckers into a hexaphonic pickup so I can turn it into a midi guitar. Does anybody have any ideas as to how to do this?
My plans to build a midi guitar
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AndyDenyer
Member
I don't want to buy one, I want to adapt a humbucker pickup into a hexaphonic pickup.
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
You CAN'T adapt a humbucker into a hexophonic p'up.
There's no way to get a separate signal from each string out of a regular humbucking p'up .............. period.
Basically the only parts of the humbucker you could use would be the magnets.
So you'll have to remove everything except the magnets and wrap wire individually around each pole piece making essentially 6 separate pickups. And if the 'bucker has a bar magnet then they'll are interact so in that case I'm not sure that even wrapping each magnet separately would totally isolate each string.
May as well just buy 6 magnets and not ruin the humbucker.
MUCH easier to just buy one.
DIY to save a considerable amount of money is often hard to do, these days. Hard for us who have mortgages and bills to pay, to compete with the poor in China working for pennies a day.
Hard to complete, but worth it. DIY gets you better workmanship, and better karma.
Hard to complete, but worth it. DIY gets you better workmanship, and better karma.
AndyDenyer
Member
Yes, that was my plan. Use the magnets and the casing and wrap each magnet separately. I didn't understand that bar magnet part though. Besides, I would rather recycle the humbucker that will be removed from the guitar and never used again.
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
ok .... well you can do that. Sounds like an interesting project if you have the time.
As for the bar magnets.
Many 'buckers don't have separate magnets for each pole. Sometimes there'll be a single long magnet running the length of the 'bucker and the pole pieces themselves aren't even magnets at all. They just magnetize from being in contact with the bar.
I don't know how interactive that might make the pole pieces.
If that means that the disturbance of the magnetic field runs to all the pole pieces since it's just a single magnet, the strings might not be isolated enough from each other.
I'm not saying they will or won't ...... I don't know. I'm just speculating on a possibility.
Let us know how it goes ..... I'm a little curious.
AndyDenyer
Member
Wow I just found this by doing in image search for "humbucker":
My hexaphonic pickup project
My hexaphonic pickup project
AndyDenyer
Member
AndyDenyer
Member
We've finished our first single string test pickup. Used a neodymium magnet and 950 turns of 42AWG copper wire, separated with a plastic PCB stand-off filed down to 4mm diameter bobbin, and opened out the hole in the stand-off to 3mm to take the magnet.
Here's an audio sample of the magnet held next to each guitar string in turn, playing the notes of the A minor chord to show how much bleed there is with just the one magnet:
MIDI pickup test 1.wav - 4shared.com - music and mp3 sharing - download
Here's an audio sample of the magnet held next to each guitar string in turn, playing the notes of the A minor chord to show how much bleed there is with just the one magnet:
MIDI pickup test 1.wav - 4shared.com - music and mp3 sharing - download
arcadeko
Illuminatius Overlordious
I have never heard any midi guitar (that I am aware of) but it doesn't seem like a very good midi controller and midi doesn't seem versatile enough to reproduce guitar. So I am just wondering why you want to do this. Is it just for fun or an experiment or something?
AndyDenyer
Member
We haven't got the MIDI part yet, we'll cross that bridge when we get there, but ideally I'd be able to set each string to either a midi sound or analogue (possible with effects) independently. For example, making the E and A strings into bass strings using MIDI, while the others go though clean. I might also want to make the whole thing a synth pad, or a saxophone, or a rock organ. I saw someone connect their MIDI guitar into a tesla coil and play some Sabbath on Youtube. The possibilities are endless.
TetraFish
Well-known member
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
I'm glad someone posted that correction of the idea that a MIDI guitar can't work well.
impressive for sure ...... I've long wanted one of those.
But does it MAKE you sway back and forth and make ridiculous faces while you play?
I'd like to opt out of that feature.
TetraFish
Well-known member
Yeah no shit. They maybe should have zoomed in a little tighter on the guitar. Mind you I've met lots of people that make funny faces when they play. I know one dude that makes weird faces so distracting that he's impossible to look at when he plays.
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
ya' know ..... I actually have no problem with that except when you're in a room by yourself standing in front of a sheet!
beezelbubba
Shitty Buddhist
LOL. The goober in the vid notwithstanding, I have one of those on order(backorder
) and cannot fucking wait to get it!
Lt. Bob
Spread the Daf!
LOL. The goober in the vid notwithstanding, I have one of those on order(backorder
oh you bastard ....
.... I wanted one of those!Seriously ... a friend in B.R. had an earlier version and it was amazing. I'm sure this one is better so you're gonna probably disappear for a few weeks when you get it!
