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Topic: electronic tuner built into PSG, tone degradatio |
Lynn Kasdorf
From:
Waterford Virginia, USA
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Posted 10 Feb 2003 10:46 am |
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I have an interesting Williams D-11 (!) that I plan to rebuild this spring. It is a cool guitar, and was formerly owned by Carco Clave. He modified this thing quite a bit and installed the display from a Korg analog tuner on the plate between the necks.
He also has a switch that connects the pickups to the tuner or the amp.
The meter has gotten trashed, and the finish of the wood is pretty bad, so I plan to completely disassemble, refinish and rebuild.
This is a perfect test bed for ideas, since it has been hacked with already. I want to update his integrated tuner idea, but go with a solid state tuner, for ruggedness.
Does anybody have any suggestions as to a good, tiny tuner with LCD or LED display? It would have to be really tiny, and being for a PSG, it cannot be the "in tune/out of tune" type- I need to see how flat or sharp a string is.
A secondary question is, are there any tuners that you know of that you can leave in line with the steel without degrading the tone?
This may not be an issue, as I figured I'll also build-in a buffer amp (basically the same circuit as a match-box) while I'm at it. I can probably provide a special output just for the tuner that is completely isolated from the signal to the amp. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 10 Feb 2003 12:43 pm
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I used to leave a Boss tuner in line all the time and just switched it off when not in use. However, I found out that it DID effect the tone even when turned off. Now I use a foot volume control with two outlets and use one of the outlets to go to the tuner. This kind of arrangement does not affect the tone.
Erv |
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Michael Johnstone
From:
Sylmar,Ca. USA
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Posted 10 Feb 2003 12:45 pm
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| I've toyed with the idea of mounting one of those tiny stick-on tuners that standard guitarists use.They're not chromatic and the readout is primitive(L.E.D.s)but I only use a tuner for my root strings and tune the rest by ear anyhow.They don't need to be plugged in because they have a built-in transducer and get input off of body resonance and they use a tiny calculater battery.If they're accurate enough to give me a good "E" that would do in my case.Anybody tried that? -MJ- |
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Dave Van Allen
From:
Doylestown, PA , US , Earth
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Posted 10 Feb 2003 12:46 pm
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Lynn
there are a few small ones out there- I have a Fender one a little smaller than a cassette tape with LCD "meter" (simulated needle sharp or flat indicator)...approx 20 bux and fully chromatic. If you are planning to install it you could buy several as spares to swap in after you drop your bar on the display 
no backlite though so the lighting angle has to be just "so" to read it in a club. also no pass thru- so afecting the tone I can't give an opinion on....[This message was edited by Dave Van Allen on 10 February 2003 at 12:47 PM.] |
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Lynn Kasdorf
From:
Waterford Virginia, USA
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Posted 10 Feb 2003 1:26 pm
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At this point, I'm just going to assume that I'll have a buffered signal to drive the tuner, so I'll keep tone degradation out of the discussion.
Tiny is the key word here. I think I have about 1 1/2" x 2" to work with- maybe a little more if I remove the tone knob and switch (which I have never used anyway).
Dave- I'll look in to the fender- thanks. I actually have used the stick-on tuner on a lap steel before- it works well. But if I'm building something in, I want a full featured tuner. |
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Dan Dowd
From:
Paducah, KY, R.I.P.
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Posted 10 Feb 2003 6:20 pm
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| Why not add a single pole double throw( SPDT)switch and an additional jack under the guitar. this way all you have to do is throw the switch to the tuner position when you want it. It would also bypass your output jack to your foot pedal so the sound of you tuning the guitar is not heard. Just wire the pickup lead to the common or center terminal of the switch and the outside terminals to your guitar output jack and the outside terminal to your tuner. Mount it in a convient position and you have it made. I have this on my steel and mounted the SPDT switch on the right end plate. You can get this switch at Radio Shack for a couple bucks. |
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Lynn Kasdorf
From:
Waterford Virginia, USA
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Posted 10 Feb 2003 6:38 pm
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Dan- sure that is easy to do, and I may do it that way. That is how the former owner had it wired. However, it is another mechanical thing to go wrong, and I can see value in being able to hear a tone while the tuner measures it.
The big issue now is what tuner? I suspect I'll probably not be able to find a small enough tuner- I'll likely have to mount the lcd display by itself.
I think it would be very elegant to have no extra switches or controls- in between the necks will be a plate with the neck switch, and a little lcd tuning display. I would have one switch, probably mounted on the underside of the guitar, that turns on the tuner and the buffer amp. The tuner would always be listening to the output of the guitar.
I wonder why no steel mfrs are doing this? |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 10 Feb 2003 6:52 pm
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| Steels are high reliability mechanical products, meant to last a lifetime. Tuners now (especially the smaller ones) are essentially "throw-away" items. Mating the two would open up a whole new can of "warranty-worms" that I'm sure the buliders wouldn't want to take on right now. |
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Fred Shannon
From:
Rocking "S" Ranch, Comancheria, Texas, R.I.P.
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Posted 10 Feb 2003 7:53 pm
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[This message was edited by Fred Shannon on 06 December 2004 at 02:19 AM.] |
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