Touch Switch>Guitar>Mute...Need help (lots...)

[BAM]

I'm sure some of you saw my previous thread asking about touch switches. This time around, i just need some help on where to being. I want to install a touch switch on my guitar, and wire it up as a kill switch. In terms of wiring, I know what I'm doing, but as for finding the switch itself, and learning all the information behind them, I'm completely lost. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks

[H4T]

Whoa freaky! This is EXACTLY the same project that I've been thinking about for a long time.

I took apart my guitar, and maybe its just my guitar, but I have a live wire and a ground wire coming from the pickup assembly. So in that case, all you should need to do is get a very simple momentary off style SPST switch and wire it up on the hot wire. So, when you hold the switch down, the signal is cut ("kills" the signal); leave the switch alone, the signal simply goes through the switch completely and nothing is changed.

The problem I've been having implementing this on my guitar is getting a sexy momentary-off switch; my dream is to have an arcade style button to do the job, but I may end up going with a toggle switch. Whichever I can flip the fastest I think will be best.

[nelson]

H4T, I think BAM wants some sort of touch sensitive capacitance switch.......I have no idea what they are but will watch this thread for neato switching ideas.

Could be a nice idea for momentary switching on some "palmtop" effects....

[aron]

http://www.djandassoc.com/Faraday/faraday.html

it _sounds_ easy???

[tatems]

This might be useful as a simple touch switch. I'm planning on building one myself for some crazy projects.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/earthstandstill/touchcontrol.gif

It's from this post

http://www.diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=32488&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=proximity+switch&start=15

[BAM]

This might be useful as a simple touch switch. I'm planning on building one myself for some crazy projects.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y64/earthstandstill/touchcontrol.gif

It's from this post

http://www.diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=32488&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=proximity+switch&start=15

The only thing is that I would have to reverse this process, because by touching this, it turns on the LED. But I'm sure I can work from it and learn from it. Thank you. anything is appreciated.

And H4T, we are talking about two different things, but the same things at the same time. First, what kind of guitar do you have? I might have a diagram that can help you out in terms of wiring it and debugging it. Second, it can be done with an arcade style switch. They sell them at radioshack I think, if not try mouser; I know they have them if you want to do that. I've talked to a few people who have done that method, (Radiohead guitarists being one, but I haven’t talked to him, just from research) and it’s easy to do. But what I want to do is take it one step further, I want to install a metal disk on my guitar that is touch-sensitive, so when I touch it with my finger, it will mute the signal, allowing me to have very fast muting action.

Which leads me back on topic.....


First, for all of you to get a better idea of what I’m looking for, I'd like to refer you to my previous thread. Though it’s unclear and messy, you can get a general idea of what I’m looking for.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/sboxforum/viewtopic.php?t=34192&highlight=kill+switch

The link that aron posted is somewhere around what I need, but not quite. I know there’s an easier method.
This is some additional information I have compiled as well on what needs to be done.

First, generally they need to be active, so therefore need an independent power source. HOWEVER, I know there is a way around this so it’s simply powered through your signal/guitar. Again, need to find out how to do this as well, which will be difficult. But there is a way. If all else fails, then I can live with switching a battery every once in a while internally

Second, I asked a fellow DIYer about it, and this was the reply I got:

Basically what you do, is you activate it with a jfet, bias the jfet to its off position to the pos power supply with a very large resistance and maybe a capacitor so that its not too biased towards the positive supply.... then when you touch the metal pad attached to the jfet gate, it biases to ground turning the jfet on... you use the jfet not as the actual switch but to toggle your circuit that you are using.

And as of now, this is all I know.

Now going back to my original issue: where can I find a metal pad to use for this project? And above all, instructions on how to wire up the metal pad properly/building the switch itself.

So in conclusion, if anyone has any information that can help me out, please provide. Thank you very much in advance. If anyone would like to try this out with me, let me know, two minds usually work better than one. But until then, thanks for all your help guys, and wish me luck.

[puretube]

nobody mentioned a FSR yet?...

[BAM]

nobody mentioned a FSR yet?...

no....elaborate? :lol:

[puretube]

http://www.electrade.com/html/produkte/sensorik_fsr.htm
http://www.phidgetsusa.com/cat/viewproduct.asp?category=5000&subcategory=5210&SKU=91011
http://www.sequencer.de/forumsynth/forumodular/modular_forumsynth_fsr.html

used here for wah-purposes... :

[R.G.]

Touch switches are... touchy.

The most reliable kind of touch switches are ones that are arranged with a  clock running all the time. They continuously reset themselves. You touching the sensitive panel slows down the reset pulse so they instead set themselves.

This usually takes a CMOS flipflop and an oscillator, some Rs and Cs. The CD4013 and a hex inverter package make two touch switches.

This kind is far more reliable than the kind that trip only when you touch them.

Are you sure you want to put a touch switch mute on your guitar? Touch it wrong during some on-stage gymnastics and you are suddenly playing air-guitar. Also, a drop of sweat on most touch switches continuously activates them.

[waldo041]

Are you sure you want to put a touch switch mute on your guitar? Touch it wrong during some on-stage gymnastics and you are suddenly playing air-guitar. Also, a drop of sweat on most touch switches continuously activates them.

R.G. is right on! that would not be good on stage. He actually has a project that can be adapted for this, outside the guitar. i tested my first one with the guitar and it worked pretty good. you just need to adjust the capacitor for instant off. if you put the tuner before the mike muter and then the rest of the chain you can have silence while tuning your guitar.
ie..  guitar>tuner>mike muter> pedals*> amp.  it may be what your after. just a thought.

mike muter:
http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/automike/automike.htm

i got my burglar pad(pressure mat) at spytown:
http://www.spytown.com/902.html

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

If you did have a touch switch that turned on a led, you could make a voltage divider (resistor at top, LDR at bottom) so that, when the led was on, the guitar signal dropped a lot. Doesn't get simpler, if you want to use an already existing switch.

[NaBo]

stm posted this in a thread about muting the crackle ok knob on zvex's SHO...  I'd just link to the thread but the link there doesn't lead to the drawing anymore.