Greetings! I have a crazy guitar with 2 pickups that each have 3 different voicings/outputs (passive voice, active voice, and single coil voice). Providing all of the MANY possible combinations of these pickups is something that is not even possible with any of the provided wiring diagrams. This has been frustrating since buying them a few years ago, and ive always wanted to find a way to make that possible with relays and an arduino.
While i know this is certainly possible, I have very little idea where to start.
Im aware that i need to be careful considering the current of the guitar signal is particularly low compared to most signals would be relayed.
Id ideally like to replace the 5 way switch + push pull potentiometer with a relay system that allowed for all possible combinations of each pickup's 3 voicings.
Would this be feasable at all, considering my lack of experience? Or should i stick to soldering pots according to their diagrams and let my dreams perish?
Let me know
I should also note I have 0 worry about providing myself with the classic volume and tone controls on a normal guitar. Im all about getting those pickup options! Thank you
Probably best to show what wiring diagrams you are referring to and where you require the changes.
People here are not mind readers.
From what you have explained so far it seems any Arduino may/may not be required.
It's feasible if you can figure-out the switching/wiring.
Have you ever done any programming? You'll also have to figure-out the logic and how you want to control or sequence-through the various combinations.
As a starting-point you might want to wire-up some LEDs to the Arduino to represent relays.
The Arduino can't directly drive a relay coil but you can buy a relay board with one or more relays and associated driver circuits. Then you just need one I/O pin for each relay.
A relay is just an electrically-operated and electrically-isolated switch so maybe you can just use some switches? Or maybe mock-up the Arduino/relays with switches and try them out first.
That's not a problem BUT the high-impedance does make everything noise-sensitive (as you probably know). When you have lots of wires "running all over the place" you are more likely to pick-up noise.
Id like to ideally replace the 5 way switch with a relay system that allows for any individual voicing to be selected, in addition to any combination of the voicings
I will do some research on the relay driver circuits and how id need those all configured. Happy to hear the current isnt an issue, and ill be sure to be very careful isolating everything from interference!
I have some coding experience, enough to follow along with guides for what i need as i go along. Im excited to learn more throughout this project.
Google "Robojax" on Pootube, 16 channel relay he goes through at some length a demo for a 16 channel mechanical relay board, so that might give you some interesting combinations. There are also some links to code. (take note of his warning about voltages, my relay board has exactly the same quirk) . There are also some 16ch solid state relay boards knocking around with I2C addressing (using a PCF8575 16ch i2c i/o), so much less wiring and not so clickity, see [Solid state 16 ch I2C](YouTube? v=kDtXxwT4d4k&ab_channel=KRIDAElectronics). you can also daisy chain a few of these together . If you dont mind coding, you can also have a play at writing a nice computer GUI or phone app in Processing to control it.
First step is to redraw that "wiring diagram" as an actual schematic. I looked at it, but there are some things that don't make sense. A schematic diagram is a standard description of how a circuit is wired.
Once you do that, it should be pretty trivial to control the switching logic. If possible, instead of relays, I'd use signal multiplexers like the (very old) 4051. Four of them in parallel will provide the 5-way, 4-pole switching you need and probably cost less than a single reed relay and give you good enough performance while only using 3 arduino pins to control.
