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is it possible to have a New Type of Automated Electric Guitar
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jonovid:
the Automatic Electric Guitar

if you're interested in DIY analog music synthesizers & electric guitars?
this is about a
microcontroller or self playing electric guitar! vs the manual played electric guitar we are all familiar with seeing.
 this discussion is about the hardware not the software. getting that organic sound of tuned string steel wires.
vs any thing that digital audio workstation software can emulate.
the idea came about when I was looking at analog audio delay line technology as part of a analog music synthesizer.
what if an electric guitar was used as a analog audio delay line or spring reverb?
is it possible to drive a tuned string steel guitar wire? as an input. & then use the electric guitar pickup as the output.
the idea is to use a transformer "E" set above the tuned steel wire. at with a winding of 8 ohms driven by a 3 or 5 watt audio amp.
to emulate plucking or strumming of the tuned string steel wire. only one channel shown here.
see the illustration of the hypothetical automatic electric guitar shown here-
an automatic electric guitar can in theory, emulate a violin or hurdy gurdy. as its plucking or strumming input
can be a audio frequency tone not just a pulse or plucking of the steel string by the varying magnetic flux of the drive input.
any audio frequency or pulse or plucking can be sent in to the drive. that no human musician can do plucking at this speed!
so this is a new type of musical instrument IMO. 

note- that I am not the classic definition of a musician or a guitar player.
I do not own a guitar  but I do have an interest in making music by whatever means necessary. as in by any technology, 
programming a piano roll one bit at a time
so before running out and buying a cheap electric guitar for the components or some no-name DIY electric guitar kit.
so before spending time and money on this oddball idea.
so I have posted this so musicians that do electronics, can take a look at the concept of the automatic electric guitar.
here it is see- only one channel shown here. if you can make this a work as a musical instrument, than you get to keep the $
the key to the design is the primary drive coils & the finger shuttle that emulate the hands of a human musician.
also if the finger shuttle has a movable fret on the fingerboard with the finger hammer then steel guitar glissando sweeps can be made.
the rest of the design is your familiar electronics & software that will be needed to control a bit of kit like this. see the illustration.
control inputs A B C & D can be any micro or ...........
have fun with this one.  ;D
Gregg:
This one is quite recent:

and


Maybe not the answer you expected, but clever nonetheless.   :-+  :-+
jonovid:
interesting how he uses pin ball technology to run the machine in the video.
back when I seen the 1st machine Wintergatan had made , I was somewhat skeptical that it wood! yes is made of bits of wood and wire  :o
that it is going to be a nightmare just keeping it in tune, nevermind stopping it falling apart on tour.  but I stand corrected  :palm:
Wintergatan has re-made his pin ball  :popcorn:  machine to be somewhat more robust.
so very Edward Scissorhands  :-+
like to know how to get that laser cut metal parts made to order. that is what I need.
I do note, how the standard configuration of the Wintergatan electric guitar body neck and head limit or make more complicated
the actuator design.  the musical instrument is a compromise between two competing ideas ,

I will just add a bit about testing my automatic electric guitar drive transducer.
if anyone is interested in my design. 
I spent the day researching this stuff so I might as well post all the text on this here!

testing a DIY input drive transducer on any electric guitar
without damaging or dismantling the musical instrument,
for a proof of concept, will it work? how much input power do you need?
how much magnetic flux bleed over is there to the guitar pickup coils?
vs magnetic flux from the guitar string.
reducing direct inductive coupling in-between the input drive transducer we may be adding for testing.
and the guitar own pickup coils, for the it be successful the guitar string signal must be higher then the drive transducer.
at the guitar pickup coils, as its the guitar string signal output we are seeking here , not the input drive.
so its input drive to guitar string then guitar string back to guitar pickup coils.
the goal here is to use the timbre of the guitar string to add an all new sound to the existing electric guitar
so any direct inductive coupling in-between the input drive transducer and the guitar pickup coils is to be avoided.
try testing with a magnet added to the input drive transducer.  or try using a high impedance drive coil.
what I was seeking was a magnetic grabbing hand that would instantly pulse or pluck the guitar string then instantly let go!
so the guitar string is free to resonate.  to emulate a violin or hurdy gurdy a tone maybe sent the input drive transducer.
this would emulate a violin bow or hurdy gurdy wheel on the guitar string. use a music synthesizer make the best wave form
for the input. 
one thing to consider with an automatic or self playing electric guitar design, is the string spacing is not limited by human fingers,
string spacing can now accommodate the drive transducers and the finger & fret shuttles.
so same type of slide bar or rod can be  between the strings.
even allowing for a toothed belt to move the finger fret shuttles.
one example of mounting a shuttle on twin rods is inside CD / DVD players.
DIY electric steel guitar is a good place to start, as the same wooden base construction
would be used in any automatic or self playing electric guitar.
however a lot more space under the guitar strings is needed to accommodate the fret shuttles, one every channel or string.
 
if play flexibility is your end goal. as fixed position finger hammers make the musical instrument play stiff and mechanical.
see how this poor sounding musical instrument is so complex. lots of moving parts.  in the Guitar-robot gv7 video.
as the guitar design is just an adapter  that sits on a standard guitar made for human hands.
IMO let the driving software do as much of the complex stuff as possible.
and let the hardware be as simple, flexible and reliable as possible.


Guitar-robot gv7 this set up is using hard mechanical plucking that lacks the softness & flexibility
of any inductive coupling that we are seeking .


that's it
Nerull:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBow
jonovid:
ah the EBow ........US Patent 4,075,921  and yt has a teardown of this, 
ok a lot less power is needed.  Wow, piece of cake.  8)
 no more exponentiation needed,
microcontrollers are not my strong point. so it looks like an arduino project idea...so when do I start.
world is a bit crazy at the moment, so shopping n shipping is a bit slow. wouldn't you know.
so when I get round to building a project is when I have all the parts do it  |O
& remember to post a video of it playing.  ::)
feel free to add anything your working on, EBow or steel string instrument related here.  :popcorn:
thank you for the feedback.
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