| Title: | GUITARnotes - Where Every Note has Emotion |
| Notice: | Discussion of the finer stringed instruments |
| Moderator: | KDX200::COOPER |
| Created: | Thu Aug 14 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 3280 |
| Total number of notes: | 61432 |
Any Hexaphonic pickup users out there?
That Kramer guitar, the one endorsed by EVH, has one with six volume
controls. Supposedly offers better control over "tonal balance"....
What else can you do with it?
Well, there's something called "hex fuzz" that was part of the ARP
AVATAR guitar synth - which of course used a hex pickup. Seems that
this never caught on...perhaps it was the sound of ARP's particular
distortion...location of that hex pickup (*right* by the bridge)...
or that you had to truck this big synth around, deal with it's special
cable - for a fuzz box.
So, I'll let my imagination run wild and hook up a hex pickup to six
Boogies! What would that sound like? Oh well, Back to Earth...
Seriously, it seems that to get the greatest sonic variety out of
an electric guitar - without going to a synth - a hex pickup and
associated processor is in order. I've heard that musicians have
complained about the "pitch detection time lag" inherant in most
guitar to MIDI converters and also the quantized or stepped nature
of the pitch as it tracks a note bend. These problems are avoided
by sticking with active analog processing - phases, chorus, filter,
clipper, compressor, delay, attack delay, noise-gate, etc - only
6X the electronics of what is currently in your effects string.
What this does is isolate the strings, so each circuit can be optimized
for the string it's connected to. For example, the distortion circuit
can be "tuned" to respond best according to what string it will
be hooked into. Also, the sonic envelopes of each string would not
interfere with each other - this string's filter would only sweep
when this string is plucked etc. And talk about fat sound - a chorus
on each string - when you put it all together!
I'm interested in what the system would look like - what things
would you want as far as processing? From what I hear, most guitarist's
effects consist of the minimum "Compressor-distortion-chorus-delay".
To this I'd add a envelope-swept filter of some sort, for a processing
"circuit" to be used with a hex pickup. Any other ideas or experience
you'd like to share here would be wonderful!
Joe Jas
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1007.1 | Hex Fuzz | AQUA::ROST | Hum-dum-dinger from Dingersville | Tue Dec 06 1988 19:33 | 19 |
One supposed advantage to hex pickups, and one that was utilized
in the ARP "hex fuzz" sound, is that by ditorting each string
separately you can have much more distortion on the guitar before
intermodulation byproducts make it unlistenable.
This is theoreticaly due to the fact that in a hex system, each
fuzz sees only one string, therefore generates upper harmonics only
for consonant frequencies; in a single pickup system, the fuzz will
also generate higher harmonics of the intermodulation frequencies.
Craig Anderton used to rave about the power chord sound through
a hex fuzz.
I think the Roland guitar synths that preceded the GR-700 (was that
the GR-300 ???) also had hex fuzz.
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| 1007.2 | Why advantage only supposed? | ELESYS::JASNIEWSKI | Ah, the road within without | Wed Dec 07 1988 11:45 | 15 |
Then the intermodulation by-products of distorting all six strings
together must be desirable, for some reason; the idea has been around
long enough to "catch" certainly. Perhaps playing thru a hex-disto
system gives a very "dry" feel. Perhaps you have trouble now with
muffing unwanted string vibes or something. I'm curious - anyone shed
some light on why this hasnt caught on? Possibly in terms of how
it plays?
I realize it's complexity times 6! That hasnt stopped anyone
who really wants it - didnt stop Moog from building a "synth for
each key" to make a polyphonic keyboard.
Joe Jas
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| 1007.3 | Results awful | RAINBO::WEBER | Wed Dec 07 1988 12:02 | 11 | |
Having once been stupid enough to own an Avatar, I have to say the
fuzz sound was terrible, despite the hex pickup. Rather than use
it, I would run the regular pickups into a processing system (an
Ibanez 400?, 405?, something like that) and blend it with the synth
sound.
I think the distortion sound of almost any decent modern amp sounds
a lot better. And I agree--I think the interaction between the
strings is more interesting than six separate buzzes.
Danny W
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| 1007.4 | 6 fuzzes + 6 amps = divorce | WIOVAX::TROMBLEY | Vanna White whom I've seen naked! | Mon Dec 12 1988 18:37 | 16 |
Hex pickups and hex fuzzes, what will they think of next.
Is it possible to buy a hex pickup, maybe for the home hardware
hacker who likes to do his own modifications. If anyone knows the
cost or where I could get one, I would be interested to know.
Let's see, a hex pickup feeding six pre-amps each feeding its own
fuzz. Six fuzz outputs going into a 6 in - 1 or 2 out mixer feeding
into an amp or two. Yea, I like that! Better yet, modify my Casio
MT520 for a guitar signal input and using the factory preset patches,
(heaven forbid) assign a different sound to each string. Or,...
Thanx in advance for any info.
Brad
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