A Theremin inside a guitar...

Some of you could wonder: "What a strange title, why does he want to put a theremin inside his guitar?"

Don't ask, i just want to use the strange sound effects that you can get out of a theremin.. And without touching anything..

The circuit is not a problem, a pitch-only logic chips based design could be worth it, but my problems are about the antenna, and capacitances made by all the metallical parts (strings, pickups, and all the electronics inside..)

Do you think it's possible to get a directionnal EM field above the antenna on a straight collumn, but with a fewer impact on the sides.. Don't know if i'm very clear...

It's kind of a challenge, but i know that some ZVex Probe pedals (working with capacitance detection) were integrated in some guitars, close to the strings and the pickups, and it worked well..

Okay, technically, of no help... but I couldn't help recalling the Pagelli "Avantair" guitar, which incorporates an Alesis AirFX unit.

You can see photos here:

http://www.pagelli.com/e/4allerhand/news001.html

(scroll about halfway down the page... it's just after the jazz guitar covered in Swarovski crystals... really, I'm not making this up)

Hum, i don't really like the overall aspect lol..

To avoid undesired capacitances, the main thing is about the ground: i've got to have an output that is referrenced to the ground, but i need the antenna's capacitance to be calculated from an other potential (or a virtual ground)..

It means that i've got to use a 1:1 transformer to insulate the output ground from the circuit ground...

Here's a thought about theremins and guitars ...

Why not use a mic stand as the pitch "antenna"? When you come near it, or bring the neck of your guitar near it, it would act the same as if it were just your hand.

Yeah, not a bad idea, but the main idea was to have a small theremin with a small field range to put it inside the guitar and so to be able to use it everywhere..

Maybe a Korg Kaoss pad would be a better choice than a theremin. The singer out of Muse has one, it looks and sounds brilliant.

Korg has recently brought out mini version, the 'mini KP' which would be fantastic for this sort of thing. Ans they're great little machines.

http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?a_prod_no=MiniKP&category_id=2

Yeah, that's the idea of the kaoss pad that led me to the theremin..

Putting a kaoss in a guitar looks too much MUSEfan in my opinion..

I actually had an idea for a theremin-like "ether guitar." That's the reason I just registered, to get help and constructive criticism on it.

The goal would be to have it be played similarly to a guitar. The volume antenna would be near the bridge area, and by...I guess lifting your hand off of it...you'd allow sound to come through. The pitch would be controlled by a wire of sorts going up the neck. The closer your hand is on/near the wire to the bridge, the higher the pitch.

Now, I'm sure it's possible to achieve this with a one-antenna theremin design. But how might I be able to control the pitch by the hand position on the neck?

Isn't this latest idea a whole lot like Lev's theremin cello?

Maybe that is the place to start.

Are you wanting to finger this thing like a guitar?
Or would you rather it is just a theremin slung over your shoulder?

Don

"Isn't this latest idea a whole lot like Lev's theremin cello?"

I would love to look at that more, but I have no idea how the fingerboard works.

"Are you wanting to finger this thing like a guitar?"

I am. Not sure about the original poster, though.