Collaborate Disseminate
If you like the look and feel of a Les Paul but would rather have the tone of a Strat, you could try messing around with the electronics, play pickup roulette or plug into digital emulations. But guitars that come with modularity built into the design … Continue reading Phoenix guitar will host pop-in tonewood modules
It’s no secret that we have a soft spot for musical instruments here at Hackaday, especially for the weird and unusual ones. An instrument that definitely fits the unusual category is the four-string tenor guitar, which — as legend has it — originated back in the 1920s by frankensteining a …read more
Continue reading Some Strings Attached: Electric Tenor Guitar Built From Scratch
Since the first of our ancestors discovered that banging a stick on a hollow log makes a jolly sound, we hominids have been finding new and unusual ways to make music. We haven’t come close to tapping out the potential for novel instruments, but then again it’s not every day …read more
Continue reading Unique Musical Instrument Defies Description
Rather than use magnets and coils to convert string motion into an analog voltage for amplified output, the ōPik uses infrared light to capture the vibrations of the strings above it. It first appeared online in 2017, and after much tweaking, testing a… Continue reading Optical guitar pickup can be programmed with a smartphone app
Rather than haul around lots of amp heads and cabinets on tour, the Kemper Profiler Amp allowed guitarists to take thousands of accurately modeled amp sounds in one unit. Players were then offered tone switching control at their feet with the Remote, a… Continue reading Kemper releases a cabinet specifically designed for its Profiler Amp
Back in January, Fender hit California’s National Association of Music Merchants show with a bunch of stunning Custom Shop guitars, and new models dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Broadcaster. Now these birthday boys have gone on sale.Continue … Continue reading Fender celebrates 70th anniversary of the Broadcaster
A visit to the hardware hacking area of the recent Hacker Hotel hacker camp in the Netherlands would bring plenty of interesting pieces of hardware to delight the eye. Among them though was one to delight the ear, and on hearing it we asked whether its creator could put it …read more
He’s transformed an old bike into a rolling synth, smashed up a microwave to make a sparky drum, and more recently turned a games console into a music machine. Now Sam Battle of Look Mum No Computer goes back in time to revisit one of his earliest buil… Continue reading Synth hacker helps Gibson Les Paul go MIDI mad
Back in 2014, guitarist Andy Alt launched a Kickstarter for an electric guitar pickup that added a separate drop-octave signal to the instrument’s lowest strings, The crowdfunding campaign was successful and A Little Thunder started shipping mid-2015. … Continue reading Thunderous guitar pickup brings out a guitarist’s inner bass player
One of our favorite things about the rise of hobbyist development ecosystems such as the Arduino is that it’s now possible to make a MIDI controller out of almost anything, as long as you have the the shields and the dedication. We’re glad that [James Bruton] takes the occasional break …read more