Anyone build effects directly into guitar?

[alfafalfa]

Years ago I replaced the tonecitcuit in my Les Paul custom with Craig Anderton's Clarifier , an active citcuit . I chose to build it with a symetric powersupply : two 9 volt batteries.  I added a switch to bypass it completely but then I don't use any tonecaps at all.
What I like most about it is that it gives extra gain and is low impedance out. It does a great job straight into the fx loop of my small amp. It's dead quiet then , for me a big advantage when recording and still having the benefit of a poweramp and speaker choice and colouring.

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Alf

[R.G.]

Yep - there are some real advantages to having a buffer inside the guitar in all but a few cases.

That's why I designed this buffer:http://www.geofex.com/FX_images/Onboard_Preamp.pdf

It has high input impedance, low output impedance, and quite small current drain as well as working from two lithium coin cells for a long, long time.

[alfafalfa]

Thanks RG for the suggestion or pointing it out.
I haven't seen this one yet and it might be better than what I use right now because of the much smaller battery coin cells. With two 9Volt blocks  it takes up most of the available space in the pot cavity in the guitar.
I wil, try it soon. Is there a pcb available ?

What do you mean by "magic loading if applicable " ?

[R.G.]

I wil, try it soon. Is there a pcb available ?

No, no PCB. It does lend itself to "cordwood" style construction on pad-per-hole perfboard, though.

What do you mean by "magic loading if applicable " ?

As the article says:

Magic Loading
Some pickups require a certain loading to get a particularly good tone. Most guitarists have a favorite setting of tone and volume controls for the guitar's tone. This buffer is essentially non-
loading to a pickup, so it will not provide the "magic loading". It lets you do this in a fixed fashion by including Rs and Cs in the indicated box to get your pickups to be properly loaded
to your ears. Once you have your pickups loaded the way you like them, the buffer keeps that tonal balance from changing due to loading.

[alfafalfa]

As the article says:

Sorry , hadn't had time to read the article yet . That explains it all.

Alf

[Philippe]

the added weight plus any necessary control knobs/switches would make for a pretty klunky/cluttered guitar...a les paul might end up weighing close to 20 pounds.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

The rhythm circuit section of a Fender Jazzmaster or Jaguar is a perfect place to add a fuzz, boost or distortion. Just a simple, small circuit.
The 2 rollers & switch lend themselves perfectly to something like a Fuzz Face or ToneBender.

On the subject of Vox guitars, I'm the proud owner of this...



The built in circuits are incredible, particularly the combination of Treble Boost & Distortion (a silicon ToneBender).
The repeater is a pretty unique lo-fi tremolo-type of affair.
The Wah is odd. It sounds great but, as people have gathered, it's quite clumsy to use. A foot pedal makes much more sense.
I'm actually in the process of building a 3-in-1 pedal based around the Vox circuit that a friend reverse engineered (Boost, Distortion & Repeater).

[amptramp]

It could certainly be cheaper to put the effects in the guitar.  No enclosure, no etching or painting, no additional jacks.  You may need shielding, but that can be done unartistically to the internals of the guitar.  You could use phantom power or carrier current or industrial 4-20 mA current loop riding on the DC input so the power could be outboard and supplied from a power supply so there would be no need for batteries.  Anybody here doing a fibre-optic guitar cord?  You would need power, but you would never get interference.  Or put an RF link in the guitar and never have a cable or jack again - except maybe for a battery charger.

I still support the split Tillman preamp as a start - the gate resistor, source resistor and JFET of a Tillman in the guitar and the drain resistor, coupling capacitor and ground refernce resistor in an outboard box at the end of the cable that also has the battery or power supply.  Or you could put the whole thing in the cable with the same split at input and output.

I have an electric toothbrush that is charged through a split transformer that has the primary and its magnetics in the base and the secondary and its magnetics in the toothbrush itself.  Someone should adapt that idea to a guitar so you can have a cordless recharge function for the internal battery.  Not a bad idea for individual stompboxes, either.

I don't see many people trying revolutionary things here - maybe we should shake up the usual setup of passive guitar, daisy-chained stompboxes and the amp.  It may lead to one of those "why did we put up with this for so long?" revelations.

[Jdansti]

I just installed a Tillman in my Squire Tele.  I like the idea of the phantom ps, but I wanted to eliminate any kind of external paraphernalia other than the guitar cable going to my first effect.  I used a stereo jack to disconnect the battery when the cable is unplugged from the guitar. I had read somewhere that the Tillman current draw is extremely tiny, so a battery should last a year or more even if you didn't switch it off between playing.

At first I tried placing three 3V CR2032 coin cells together in series in a homemade battery case made by wrapping the three cells with paper and gluing the paper with superglue using an accelerator. The glue turned the paper into a hard shell.  I stripped and coiled about 2" of wire for the leads and folded the paper over the coils.  I must not have squeezed the whole mess together enough before the ends cured because I had an intermittent open circuit. I resorted to using a standard 9V battery and made a bigger hole in the guitar for the battery.  Fortunately, there's a lot of room under the Tele pick guard.  The Tillman perf is about the size of a quarter.  I found that
unshielded wire doesn't create any noise, but I'll install shielded cable if I start having problems or if I ever use it to play a gig.

Here are some photos:

Failed 3-coin cell holder:



Butcher work:



Padding to keep parts from moving:



Pick guard back on. The bypass toggle switch is mounted between the volume and tone pots:

[Jaicen_solo]

I've put several circuits into guitars over the years. I build them, so it's fairly easy to add if you plan for them from the beginning.
My current project will have a Piezo pre-amp with TMB tone controls, GK pickup, Phase 90 and a Fuzz Factory. Some people may recognise that list

[amptramp]

I just installed a Tillman in my Squire Tele.  I like the idea of the phantom ps, but I wanted to eliminate any kind of external paraphernalia other than the guitar cable going to my first effect.  I used a stereo jack to disconnect the battery when the cable is unplugged from the guitar. I had read somewhere that the Tillman current draw is extremely tiny, so a battery should last a year or more even if you didn't switch it off between playing.

At first I tried placing three 3V CR2032 coin cells together in series in a homemade battery case made by wrapping the three cells with paper and gluing the paper with superglue using an accelerator. The glue turned the paper into a hard shell.  I stripped and coiled about 2" of wire for the leads and folded the paper over the coils.  I must not have squeezed the whole mess together enough before the ends cured because I had an intermittent open circuit. I resorted to using a standard 9V battery and made a bigger hole in the guitar for the battery.  Fortunately, there's a lot of room under the Tele pick guard.  The Tillman perf is about the size of a quarter.  I found that
unshielded wire doesn't create any noise, but I'll install shielded cable if I start having problems or if I ever use it to play a gig.

Which is why I mentioned a split Tillman - gate resistor, JFET and source ressitor in the guitar; drain resistor, battery, coupling cap and grounded resistor in an outboard box which would always be the first box in your signal chain (or could be built into the first box you use).  The cable carries the drain current but it is operated at the 6.8K impedance of the drain resistor, even though it is on the other end.  The board in the guitar could be the size of a dime.  BTW, car keys that contain a door lock / unlock function use a tiny 12-volt battery you can get for $2.  The giant 9-volt battery is not necessary.

[Jdansti]

>BTW, car keys that contain a door lock / unlock function use a tiny 12-volt battery you can get for $2.  The giant 9-volt battery is not necessary.

Duh! I didn't even think about running the Tillman off of a small 12V battery!  I'm glad I learned this before I hacked up another guitar!  Thanks!

[Jaicen_solo]

Whilst I applaud the creative use of batteries like those, you really need to question if there's any need to such lengths.
Take for example the Telecaster above. It really doesn't matter what size cavity you have under the pickguard, you can't see it.

If you were looking for a reason to use the tiny 12v batteries, the only one I can see is if you had a really novel way of making them easily replaceable, like some sort of tiny aperture on the bottom of the guitar by the jack socket.
If you're having to remove pickguards or rear cavities, there's no advantage.

[Jdansti]

^True. I guess there's a psychological thing about carving out craters in your guitar, even if they're hidden.  For me, the value of the guitar determines how willing I am to hack into it.

[R.G.]

If you were looking for a reason to use the tiny 12v batteries, the only one I can see is if you had a really novel way of making them easily replaceable, like some sort of tiny aperture on the bottom of the guitar by the jack socket.

That was the thinking behind using coin batteries for the onboard buffer - make a 'coin slot' that they can be inserted into. There are actually battery holders that would do that.

The other thing I can think of that might work is a tube of button cells, like a laser pointer, but with just batteries. The end cap would screw on and could be unobtrusive by being almost flush.

[amptramp]

The sort of thing I was thinking of for a key fob battery:

http://www.gpbatteries.com/INT/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=368&Itemid=508

These things are tiny - they fit in a key fob and I can get them locally for $2 each.  The 27A might fit a screw-in fuse holder.  But seriously, a split Tillman, a 4 - 20 mA current loop or phantom power / carrier current would do the job without any batteries in the guitar and you still have the option of adding a switch to return the guitar to normal operation.  My daughter has an acoustic guitar with a 3-band equalizer and a standard output jack and there is a 9-volt battery door built into the guitar.  She has the option of using it as an electric or an acoustic guitar.  Me, I only play air guitar.

[Jdansti]

I think I have a spare one of those little 12V batteries.  I use them in a remote that controls some lights where I couldn't run wiring to a regular switch without a lot of effort. I think I'd have to bias the Tilman with a different resistance to accommodate 12V.

[amptramp]

For a Tillman preamp, you only need two resistors and the JFET to be inside the guitar.  The drain resistor and battery can be on the other end of the cable, along with the coupling capacitor and the ground reference resistor.  You could build that into a 1590A with the battery, a power jack and the input and output jacks.  Unplug the guitar cable at either end and the power shuts off.



Only R1, R2 and Q1 need to be in the guitar.  The rest of the circuit can be in a box at the other end of the guitar cable or incorporated in the first box you use, if you always have the same one connected.  R3, R4, C1 and C2 can go elsewhere and the power can be provided by a battery or a regulated power supply.

[Jdansti]

Thanks.

I guess every option has pros and cons.

Tillman in a stompbox:
Pros:
-Provides a clean boost.
-No guitar surgery necessary.
-Easy to maintain

Cons:
-Doesn't make up for cable losses in the cable from the guitar.
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Tillman in guitar with remote power:
Pros:
-Helps overcome cable losses.
-Small footprint in guitar. Probably will not require an additional cavity.
-You don't have to open the guitar to change the battery.
-Great option if you always plug into the same first pedal or always use the same cable (with a battery).

Cons:
-There has to be a box or cable with a battery for it to work.
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Tillman in guitar with onboard battery:
Pros:
-Helps overcome cable losses.
-Self contained.
-Works with any setup.
-Battery changes can be made easy with a battery compartment that has a door.

Cons:
-May require an additional cavity in the guitar (not recommended if you are squeamish about hacking into your guitar ).
-May require disassembling part of the guitar to change the battery.

I might not have caught every pro and con, so if anyone would like to, please feel free to add to the lists.

[amptramp]

There is another option:

Tillman in the cable.

Pros:

Works with every guitar you have so you only need one
No guitar surgery necessary
Makes up for cable losses

Cons:

Needs cable surgery
Cable has an input and an output side
Works best with surface mount