[wretchedspawn]

Just a thought....but could it be done with quality results?

[Nik]

I can't see the final result looking good without a ton of routing/filling in gaps with epoxy or whatever

It'd be a much wiser move (although still not great) to take a 6-string bass and convert it. All you'd have to do is get a custom 8-string neck built for it (one that fits nicely into the neck joint), as well as a new bridge. New pick-ups would be optional

[wretchedspawn]

I would never try to do it myslef as I would be to afraid of permanantly damaging one of my guitars. I just thought it would be cool to see it done. I really want to get into making my own project guitars but I don't have the spare cash for it since I'm still in highschool and without a job until after graduation in June. I'm actually saving for an 8 from Sherman Guitars. And an OT question? Do they make blend knobs for guitars like they do for basses?

[skinhead]

Man i think that it's easier to do an 8 that to reform a guitar. And think that if you fuck up the guitar, it's not going to play well anymore. I vote that you make a new one.

[Durero]

I think the blend knob thing is just a wiring issue, I'm sure it could be done. Bartolini comes to mind.

[JBroll]

If you want to have a blend knob on the guitar just get a dual-ganged pot at a reasonable ohm rating (500k to 2M should work) and wire the two pin sets as if they were volume knobs.

Something I'd like to try doing is having a frequency-dependent blend of the two pickups, like setting up a crossover circuit so that the two pickups handled different frequency ranges. That's another day, though.

Jeff

[wretchedspawn]

Something I'd like to try doing is having a frequency-dependent blend of the two pickups, like setting up a crossover circuit so that the two pickups handled different frequency ranges. That's another day, though.

I've actually thought about that before. The other guitarist in my band and I actually had a conversation about it this past weekeend. Would you like to indulge on how this could be done?

[Cool711]

I'm interested in this too.
I never thought about it too much though.

[JBroll]

You know how with a stereo system equipped with a subwoofer you have a crossover circuit that sends signal below a certain point to the subwoofer and signal above that point to the tweeters? Same thing. Basically, if you can shunt the lows from one pickup and the highs from another you have that same principle working but for input instead of output - one pickup will provide lows, the other will provide highs. The problem will, of course, be in actually putting together a good enough crossover circuit that's small enough for a control cavity or a strap-mounted box.

Jeff

[wretchedspawn]

Is it even possible to make one small enough without causing inductive coupling?

[eleven59]

Originally Posted by JBroll

You know how with a stereo system equipped with a subwoofer you have a crossover circuit that sends signal below a certain point to the subwoofer and signal above that point to the tweeters? Same thing. Basically, if you can shunt the lows from one pickup and the highs from another you have that same principle working but for input instead of output - one pickup will provide lows, the other will provide highs. The problem will, of course, be in actually putting together a good enough crossover circuit that's small enough for a control cavity or a strap-mounted box.

Jeff

How 'bout a 2-humbucker guitar with a stereo jack, each pickup getting it's own side of the stereo cable, and then running into a blending pedal of some sort (with options for frequency split, simple plending, and even choosing to send/blend each pickup between separate amps)?

Like, a few different settings:

-blending between two pickups into one amp
-blending between two pickups with their own amps (i.e. be able to fade from a clean neck-pickup tone to a heavy bridge pickup tone)
-blending one pickup between two amps
-blending with crossover with separate amps
-blending with crossover with one amp
-blending one pickup through two amps with crossover
(and have the option to control frequency with the expression pedal, cuz I get the feeling that'd sound incredible )

A simple way to set up a crossover for guitar between two amps (or two pickups if they have their own outputs) would be to split the signal and use two graphic EQs (or hi/lo-pass filters preferably) before sending to their destinations.

[JBroll]

That stereo jack thing would work, but (1) I like cutting down on outboard gear because I'm lazy and (2) if it fit inside a guitar I could charge another $50 for it because of the 'holy shit that's AWESOME!' factor. It also kills the idea of anything active in the guitar itself, and that's a pretty popular thing with the people I'd be handing this out to as my guinea pigs.

I thought about the expression pedal thing, but there's a lot of tweaking needed to make a crossover circuit more or less flat - I would likely have a several-position switch, dual ganged, set up to go between different pairs of transistors and capacitors in the frequency selection part of the circuit; although that wouldn't 'blend' well I'd be able to get a feel for what frequency ranges are most popular for blending and then maybe I could set up an expression pedal optimized around that frequency range if it turned out to be one.

A simpler way to set up the crossover is to have a low-pass in the guitar for each pickup, with the individual pickups getting their own circuit (of course) and switches to enable/disable the frequencies individually - that way you could get neck/high and bridge/low, or vice versa, and all bridge and all neck, and then neck with bridge highs, and so on and so forth. Passive circuits, however, might not keep the fidelity necessary so it'll probably be active, and seeing as how guinea pig candidate number one already has his poor Strat set up with two extra switches and will be putting in an EMG boost I have to accommodate him first. I also have to keep in mind that most guitarists don't have a hell of a lot of room in their cavities, and that a lot of them already have active electronics - including the bass players I know, who would have even more fun with this (especially the ones who use distortion - send the lows straight to a clean amp or a PA, send the highs to a 5150 and never worry about exploding it again) and would likely be the first to jump on it. Graphic EQs aren't always as consistent as the things we can build ourselves considering that we need one band and we need that one band done really fucking well, but I have considered it.

I may wind up going with two separate jacks on my own toy, but that'll be hard to convince other people to do. That said, when I get circuits up and running I'll gladly toss them around to people here with a Paypal payment for the parts - at least in the development stage.

Jeff

[Pablo]

I really like the concept, that's for sure! Personally, I think the best solution for an electric guitar would be a 3-way lever switch, where neck and bridge positions yeld the traditional results and where the middle postion activates a low pass filter on the bridge PU and a high pass filter on the neck (the two PUs would be wired in parallel, obviously). This would give you a middle position with the tightness of a bridge PU on the lows and the warmth of a neck PU on the highs.

Cheers

Eske

[JBroll]

I prefer to have knobs all over the fucking place - hell, I may have just figured out a way to make the filter frequency knob-adjustable - but I'll keep that in mind. It'll likely be a while before any of that gets done, though.

Jeff