Microphony in magnetic pickups

This is just a musing really...

A guitarist friend of mine is having a guitar built for him by another friend of mine, and was interested in having some out-of-the-ordinary functionality.

We have already toyed with a momentary 'kill switch' on his board and so thought it might be useful to have one on the guitar too/ instead, and then he decided it might be fun to have a Boss Delay pedal built in behind the bridge, so he could manipulate the controls without having to bend down like he does at the moment.

While my mind was meandering along the road of odd-things-to-put-on-a-guitar I wondered how easy it might be to create a microphonic pickup type effect, that could be switched in and out.

The first thought was to just get a smallish dynamic capsule and see where that took me. Mount it somewhere below the scratchplate and experiment.

Any wise words before I begin carving up mics, would be gratefully received...!

chef

If you're going for trashy,
you could try the earpiece-element of an old telephone.

[quote author="ward"]...you could try the earpiece-element of an old telephone.[/quote]

Good point! I'll see if I can find one at work...

Cheers

chef

Some of the new acoustic guitars have both a piezo bridge pickup, and a built in dynamic mini mic.
This mini mic might be perfect for what you want.
But sound from the amp will bleed more sound in than the acoustic sound from the guitar.

Might lead to feedback, which could be good.

OK, here it is, run the mini mic into the delay, then you can vary the feedback by phasing the mic signal.

Things are getting complicated quickly here.
Haul ass, the economy sucks, you might need your own startup pretty soon.

Interesting point on the phase varying feedback!
I'll report back when I have lashed it all up...

chef

Leave that guitar alone.

When the boy with the chequebook says 'carve', I ask 'where, and how deep?' :grin:

scx

Well, I can't argue with that. :thumb:

Some years ago a friend had a SG they could talk at the pickups and their voice could be heard coming from the amp. It had a cool EQed messed up sound.

was the SG made to do that by modding or did it just have funky pickups to begin with?

chef

Some pickups (unpotted?) are pretty microphonic by themselves, I've seen crappy humbuckers in which you could talk...
I installed piezo pickups on guitars both under the bridge and between neck and body, you can get interesting sound color from these (plywood sound). You can use piezo elements from like phones, toys, alarm clock, etc, those round ones that produce sound... I made a number of pickups for double basses out of those, I like their sound better than expensive industry double bass pickups...

Pickups were stock.
I have been thinking maybe a loose fitting cover with a mechanical damper that can be level or something activated.

yep. all my mustang pickups are microphonic as anything. They sound super cool but don't get too close to a loud amp... :wink:

Gus, that IS an interesting thought...!


chef

You could put in a small slot car motor next to one of the pickups, carve out a cavity for the motor and a 9 volt, wire it to a momentary, insta Pound Cake.
The freaks in the audience will be going WTF, over?-which is what you wants.

CJ

I think part of the sound is the drill speed control waveform the inertia and the motor's radiated field.

OK, I will add that and throw it on a pot.
How sick would that be?
Guitar with an inertial navigation system on it?

Howabout a built in gyro, so that when you toss it Pete Townsend style, it does not move?