DanielHulbert
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2010
- Messages
- 357
- Reaction score
- 1
What should you do when microphone, piezo, and wound pickups become passé? Try an optical pickup.
This rudimentary Infrared String Bass from MAKE Magazine gave me the idea to make a ukulele with an optical pickup.
The heart of this instrument is a normal cigar box ukulele. I opted to go with untraditional tuner placement to go along with the overall funky stylings of this ukulele.
One 9 volt battery supplies the power for the green power indicator LED, as well as the 4 infrared emitter and 4 infrared collector diodes.
The pickup works when the vibrating strings interrupt the signal between the emitter and the collector diodes.
This was a fun project, but in the end this is an overly complicated alternative to using a piezo element.
See it in action!
This rudimentary Infrared String Bass from MAKE Magazine gave me the idea to make a ukulele with an optical pickup.
The heart of this instrument is a normal cigar box ukulele. I opted to go with untraditional tuner placement to go along with the overall funky stylings of this ukulele.
One 9 volt battery supplies the power for the green power indicator LED, as well as the 4 infrared emitter and 4 infrared collector diodes.
The pickup works when the vibrating strings interrupt the signal between the emitter and the collector diodes.
This was a fun project, but in the end this is an overly complicated alternative to using a piezo element.
See it in action!