Construction tips needed

[Nailhead]

Hello

i am startin my Tiptar-project and i have some things were i need someones opinions.

I haven't never played or even hold any touch-instrument so all my knowledge is from here or another internet-pages. (last June we have little email-conversation with Rockola about basic things of tiptars).

my plan is to buid 10-string instrument. Tuning will be "Daiss tuning" "1<5_bass_4ths_LH//5_mel_4ths_RH>10" seen from player. Reason for that is that i also play guitar and bass (not very professionally, but anyway.
I am so simple that i can't walk and chew chewing gum at the same time. :D )

Group spacing: I'm going to use these guitar bridges for this project. So string spacing will be 10.5mm.
In some touch-istruments there is some extra spacing between bass- and melody-strings. Should i left there some extra or is that 10.5mm enough?

Nut design: I have been been in guitar making course and our teacher(=luthier) give some "rule of thumb" that when you press string between 2nd and 3rd fret there should be (very little) gap between string and 1st fret. From this we can pressume that the bottom of the slot in the nut is above the fret level. In tiptars where the action is low, is there any need to lift more (compared to guitar) this "starting level" to make strings more parallel with fretboard?
(trying to make string action more equal along the neck)


Pickups:
This is a great black hole in my plans. I know something, how different pickups acts in guitars.
I have some vision that signal created by tapping is smaller than normally picked sound (guitar). I can amplify signal with preamp or lifting pickup closer to the strings. But pickup magnets affect to the tuning when placed too close.
String spacing that i'm planning to use, makes possible to use normal guitar pickups. i must only leave outermost pole "outside".
How directing is pickup magnetic field in guitar pickups? I mean that how much pickups catch signal from closest string of another group? is that problem at all?

I'm not sure that Rockola mentionend something about using some active bass-pickups for his project. is there any problems to use bass pickups for melody side. i've never looked bass-pickup specs so carefully and thinking frequency response.

Actual "tuning":
This is not problem yet, because i have to get instrument ready made before this is topical.
From www.clicmusic.be i got those 12- and 14-string Daiss tunings. What you recommend for 10-string for a start? I know that this is so personal thing that i should find my own way.
But, because i'm really beginner, i need your 2 cents.


Regards,
Jukka

[James]

Hello

I have been using Wolfgang's tuning on my 12-string Warr Guitar for a few months now and like it. As well as the mirrored arrangement of strings, the interval difference of a minor 3rd allows for some good close-voiced chords, plus highest three bass strings are in unison with the lowest three melody strings

If you did away with the outer strings for your 10-string instrument there wouldn't be that much of a difference. It would still work effectively

Another common uncrossed tuning is to have the melody strings ascending towards the middle of the instrument creating a double-guitar effect. I think this is suitable if you have been used to tapping six-string guitar or you have come from a crossed tuning

[rjgoos]

There must be something in the air! So many people trying to make their own tap instruments!

I am also trying to make my own tap instrument. I also realize that my construction talents are so limited, that it would be unreasonable that my first instrument would be a success. It is my hope that my third instrument will actually be presentable in public.

Regarding the nut, you might consider using a "zero fret". The early Chapman Stick instruments had this, the Megatar uses it, as does the Box Guitar (I think). With a zero fret, the nut only needs to be a slot to guide the string over the zero fret. Otherwise, the nut needs to be more accurate, not only with regards to string spacing, but height also.

I was skeptical about using a zero fret, but it worked well with my first prototype.

Some comments on your other questions:

String spacing. The original Stick had a string spacing of about 8.1 mm, so it seems to me that a spacing of 10 mm is generous, in general. The only question is whether 10 mm is enough between the two "sets" of strings. I don't know. Most tap guitars tuned in two sets of strings (a melody side and a bass side) have more than 10 mm as a spacing between the two sets.

Pickups...I don't know the answer to your question. In my prototypes, I am just using the cheapest pickups available, and waiting until I make the final instrument before I pay for good pickups.

Regarding using bass pickups for the melody side, all I can say is my current prototype uses a J-type single coil pickup ($20 from www.guitarpartsusa.com), and it sounds fine with melody strings.


R. Jay Goos