Stereo system for my 7 string

[variedstyles]

Dunno if this is the correct sub-forum to post this in, but anyway.

I tap on an Ibanez RG7321, in the style of 'sound like two guitars', like Adam Fulara.

For specific reasons, I don't want to buy a dedicated touchstyle instrument. This 7 string, and maybe an 8 string in the future (but even that's pushing it, for me). For like the next ten years, I cannot and don't even want to buy a new guitar.

I had been considering a mod to it to make it a stereo guitar (two mono outs) where I can select which string goes to what channel, through 7 toggle buttons (the kind you get on microwave ovens) which are located on the body of the guitar.

This will involve
1. Getting piezoelectric saddle pickups (like Graphtech's Ghost system)
2. Routing a preamp in the guitar so that I get a sound similar to magnetic pickups
3. Adding the 7-button selector (which will have to be custom built by a luthier/amp-and-FX tweaker)
4. Adding an extra mono out.
5. Making it such that if I jack into the original output and switch to magnetic pickups, I get a normal guitar, and if I jack into the second output and switch to piezoelectric pickups, the 7-button selector device comes on and I get the string-selective-stereo functionality.
6. Getting a stereo amp, and then the effect pedals I wish to apply.

This should give me the possibility of using different effects for different strings. The 7 string selector is for deciding which string will go through which output.

For example, I push the buttons for strings 1-3 once , they're underlit red, those strings will go through output 1 where I can have, say, a good OD lead pedal. The remaining 4 buttons will be underlit blue, showing that they're going through output 2, where I could have a clean sound along with a delay pedal for a clean rhythm.

Or I could have different distortions on two channels. Or even one going through a laptop, giving it a sound which I can customize in software modellers or even soft-synths (just had this idea today, the mod idea has been on my mind since months). I hope you get the picture.

I'll buy a Roland Cube Street for amplification (it's stereo, I believe.). And the possibilities in between can be crazy.

How do you tapheads find this proposition? How feasible is it, any design flaws/possible shortcomings, leaky hulls, and so on - I need your feedback. I'd also like to know if there are people/luthiers who may have done something like this in the past. This idea and it's development is critically important to me.

Thanks.

[rjgoos]

I enjoy tapping a 7-string guitar as well. The extra bass string is really helpful in putting together two-handed parts. Unfortunately, I am of no help when it comes to electronics. I use the same amp and effects pedal that I had before I was into tapping.

[K Rex]

Hi Variedstyles,

Just curious: what are the specific reasons you are avoiding a dedicated tap instrument?

There are lots of tappers out there who prefer using traditional guitar for tapping, but I think you're going to encounter quite a bit of crosstalk if you plan to route the signal from that pickup into 7 different channels. Left and right is bad enough, even for instruments with lots of spacing between regions, like the Warr Phalanx.

The cross-channel noise is going to pose a big problem for you. I'd be very interested in seeing someone overcome it, but so far the major manufacturers haven't.

My advice: do some research, and get a tapper that most closely matches your needs.

K

[teknoman]

:eek:Yoy solved a great dilemma for me. I wondered why my Phalanx would crosstalk whether i used t my gutar synth either on the bass or guitar side? so crosstalk is normal? Thanks for the info

[teknoman]

Ten years, i,m in that same 10 year plan myself....

[variedstyles]

@rjgoos - Heh, I'm lucky to have picked a 7 string for my first electric...and lucky to have it when I switched from fingerstyle to touchstyle.

@K Rex
I think I didn't make the idea clear...

The strings will be transduced individually (7 individual piezo pickups), but after they will be 'sorted' into 2 channels (this 'sorting' is to be controlled by the 7 toggle buttons).

So it really is two channels, but you can select which string goes to which channel. (so that it's not a fixed configuration like 4+3 or something, but flexible, and switchable in between a song if you time it right.)

- - -

On the crosstalk thing, I don't know much about it. But seeing that those piezoelectric pickups are also used for pitch to MIDI convertors - I don't feel there should be a problem...and yet, teknoman says he has problems with the 13 pin out, which which means my previous statement is practically proved to be bunk. I will have to research crosstalk more before I can formulate further ideas - any links you guys could give me before I go Googling? Thank ye.

@teknoman, K Rex - And electric guitars are expensive (and all the more so for me), and I don't play them particularly. Half the reason I took up touchstyle was so that my electric wouldn't rust in a corner (I'm more of a classical guitar player, and do Reason and Ableton in my spare time.). Besides, I live in a country where buying and maintaining them will be hellishly expensive, lol. Besides, I want to make this style more popular and far-reaching in this place (I'm probably the first from here to take up tapping). That would involve being as close to the 6 string format as possible - call it good or call it bad, but my first was a 7 string, and it gives me something that is close to 6 strings, and yet, given that I perfect my technique, it will allow me to do a fair amount of good quality tapping.

Thanks for the prompt replies =D

[K Rex]

I wonder if it's possible to gate each individual piezo pickup, so that only the attack of a tapped string would sound out... that would certainly minimize the crosstalk, if not eliminate it altogether. Just a thought.

k

[Noobie]

Among other 8-strings I own, I use an ESP LTD FM408 guitar as a guitar/bass hybrid, tuned low to high E1 A1 D2 G2 C3 F3 A3 D4. I use it as a guitar downtuned one whole step, as an extended bass, and as both (imagine the work of Leo Nocentelli), and play standard and am getting into touchstyle.

Although I like the idea of individual pickups for each string, I don't have time or money to work out an experimental system. However, I've been looking into getting pickups which, although not immediately switchable in terms of bass/guitar balance, will let me dial in the kind of balance I want. (In terms of tone, I'm normally a set-and-forget type.)

I'm now looking into replacing the stock EMG808 active pickups with passive BL6 Q-tuners, and replacing the wiring/pots at the same time. Q-tuners allow you to raise and lower the individual pole pieces with a hex wrench, so I can completely remove whatever strings I want from the output of either the neck or bridge pickup.

If I do this, I'll also be changing the wiring to give me dual volume and tone pots, either sending both to the same output, or wiring the output for stereo. I'm torn about this, because I know it would be good to have dual outputs, but my other thought is to wire in dual tone controls, along with a balance and a master volume knob, in order to easily set up with minimal fuss when playing out.

----

And, for any who want to ask me, why not just buy a dedicated tapper?, it's because I don't want to dedicate the instrument, or even myself, to only tapping. I understand that the OP put this in the wrong place, otherwise I'd have kept this in the guitar area. Mods should feel free to move this if appropriate.

[warrplayer]

I had a custom pickup built for my Warr by Kent Armstrong which has individual pole pieces adjustable with allen wrench (two for each string). I doubt that you could remove a string from a signal path just by lowering the pole piece all the way. You'd probably be able to lower the volume enough so that the string sound was insignificant in a loud piece of music, but in quieter passages you'd most likely still hear it.

[Noobie]

Interesting. Although the pole-piece adjustability on the Q-tuners is one reason I'm considering them, there's actually a few reasons I want to try the Q-tuners. Q-tuners are amazingly quiet (some claim that they rival piezo saddles, although I doubt it). They are incredibly transparent. The Q-tuner is a drop-in replacement for the EMG808 active pickups used on many of the eight-string guitars. Since I'm pretty happy with the stock Cepheus passive pickups on my Agile Intrepid Pro, I figured I'd swap in the Q-tuners on at least one of my ERGs.

http://www.q-tuner.com/images/BL-6-Red.jpg

Since one of the configurations I've been considering is the mono path, a certain amount of bleedthrough would be irrelevant. It's not like I'll be running it through some sort of Roland hexfuzz. (My MIDI needs have been pretty satisfied by my old Yamaha G10, which also has tap mode. For 20-year-old technology, I'm surprised at how well it does in terms of MIDI conversion. If I didn't have that to fall back on, I might be considering what the OP is speculating about... but I hate to have to buy two converters to get more than six strings.)

I took a look at the Kent Armstrong site, and was trying to figure out what might be close to the Q-tuner. Which stock pickup would you say is closest to what you had him wind you?

[warrplayer]

I took a look at the Kent Armstrong site, and was trying to figure out what might be close to the Q-tuner. Which stock pickup would you say is closest to what you had him wind you?

Actually, I went through a luthier who built a mock pickup out of a block of wood and placed dowels exactly where the pole pieces would go. Shipped it of to Armstrong along with notes on string thickness, tone desired, etc. He custom built the housing too. Nothing on his site looks very similar. It replaced two Barts that sat side by side in my Raptor. I've attached a jpeg