Megatar Mods/Impressions

[tgilton]

I have had my Megatar MaxTapper for a bit now. You can see a pic of her at http://myweb.cableone.net/gilton/megatar.jpg where you will notice some differences from what you see on Traktor's web site. First my thoughts on the instrument.

The Megatar is a fine instrument. It is quite well made and an amazing value. The tone is fantastic. I like the look of the instrument a lot and I am very impressed with the strap implementation.

I have my instrument in inverted fifths tuning. I got rid of the volume and tone knobs and moved the jack to the side of the instrument. I put a Stereo/Mono switch on it so I could play with a standard cable if I wanted to (and I often do). I went to a different type of string damping that works well with how I play; I did this purely for looks, since the damping that it came with works very well. I plan on making a cool wood "pickguard" in the near future.

The biggest mod is the addition of the Roland GK-2A pickup to the melody side. It is easy enough to remove the GK housing to expose the pickups and eliminate the radius that is built in. However, to mount it the way I did, you have to re-wire the pickups so that string 1 on the pickup is actually string 6 etc. If this is confusing and you don't have good soldering iron skills, don't even think about doing this! I am happy to report that with this mod, it tracks incredibly well with my GR-09, my VG-88 and by GI-20.

I set up the jack so that if you put in a standard guitar cable and the Stereo/Mono switch is on Stereo, the Bass Side is the only one that comes out. That way I can run a cable to my Boss ME-50B, and run the GK cable to the synth and have a great time tapping.

I am, in short, very happy with my MaxTapper.

[rjgoos]

An odd question....if you lay down a ruler, how many inches (or cm) from the tip of your index finger, to the tip of your pinkie, when you stretch your hand out (but not uncomfortably)?

I ask, because I am curious how big of a set of hands it takes to play a Megatar in a cross-handed tuning.

My pinkie to index measurement is only 5.0 inches, and I can barely play a 10-string Stick cross-handed. I was just curious what kind of hand size it takes to play a Megatar cross-handed.

Jay

[traktor]

My left-hand index-tip to pinkie-tip is 4 1/4", and I find it easy to play any of the touch-style instruments in the normal ("crossed") position.

However, I don't think fingertip to fingertip has much to do with this ability. I think the positioning to obtain a straight left wrist both promotes wrist health, and also with your wrist straight, your reach goes from your fingertips to the deep web of your thumb, which on my hands is 5 3/4", more than needed to reach across a megatar neck (bass area width 4", and melody area width 4 1/2").

The problem, with any touch-style instrument, comes when you accept a posture that has your left wrist bent. In that case, the distance you can reach across a fretboard is reduced to the distance from your fingertips to your palm at the knuckle. For me that reduced distance is 3 3/4", and in that position I can't reach across any of the instruments.

When your palm and your fingers are straight you can reach far, across any fretboard, easily. When your palm and your fingers are at right angles, you can't reach across any of them.

If you must play with a bent wrist, better get an uncrossed instrument. But straight wrist is better for your wrist health, in my opinion. I think this tendency to play with bent wrist largely comes from trying to watch the fretboard, which is just lousy posture. Watch master tappists. They don't watch the fretboard.

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Now, back to Terry Gilton's thread ...

Terry, thanks for documenting the mods you made. In the very first prototype, I installed the jack coming out of the side. I later moved to the face of the pickups array, so that the entire array (including the jack) could be removed without any de-soldering.

However, I also had a concern that the side-extending jack might have a tendency to unplug itself. Have you experienced any problem with unpluggery?

[tgilton]

1. Index finger to pinkie as described is a tad over 7". My pinkie is actually short, relative to the others, and tends to lock, but I have no issues making long stretches. I have watched Greg Howard play stick (during a lesson) and his hands are MUCH smaller than mine. However Greg seems to have NO issues going all over the place, and he tends to play three fingered most of the time.

2. I use a 90 degree right angle plug. No unplugging issues. I think the plug as it was makes perfect sense, I just like the side plug better for asthetics.