MIDI-guitar (was: Touch Switches/TS instruments )

[Tom May]

"Theo" <t.hogers at home.nl> writes:

> Tought about that too.
> Srtings have to handel a lot of tention and are subject to mechanical wear.
> All in all resistive wire strings seems not so easy.
> 
> Maybe resistive frets could be a possibility.
> Some one knows about a hard reststive material?

Any resistive solution will require the player to wear non-conductive
gloves on both hands unless you think it's cool to vary the pitch with
playing pressure, sweat, right-hand damping, etc.  Sounds like it's
bordering on the theremin in terms of playability.

fTom.

> Cheers Theo
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ingo Debus <debus at cityweb.de>
> To: <synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl>
> Sent: Monday, May 15, 2000 3:53 PM
> Subject: Re: MIDI-guitar (was: Touch Switches/TS instruments )
> 
> 
> >
> >
> > Harry Bissell wrote:
> >
> > > Other people have tried the resistance of the string, constant current,
> etc.
> >
> > Why doesn't this work? Seems quite simple to me: make strings of
> > resistive wire (Konstantan etc.), connect all frets to ground, insulate
> > the strings from each other and measure the resistance between end of
> > the string (at the bridge) and ground. Maybe problems with bad contact
> > between frets and strings?
> >
> > Paul Perry wrote:
> >
> > >Yeah, but, since the two frets are adjacent, you just need a bit of
> > logic to
> > >say, 'hey the 3rd string touches fret n and n+1, that means n'
> > >Now, you're going to come up with a counter example where there are more
> > >than one
> > >touching the same fret.. but, given that there are only 6 strings &
> > they are
> > >only being fretted at a maximum of two adjacent points..
> >
> > Like for a conventional switch matrix, this would require a diode in
> > series with each "switch". Maybe the strings and frets can be made of
> > semiconductor, strings p-doped and frets n-doped? ;-)
> >
> > Ingo
> >