Hey guys! I want to make a stringless electric ukulele. However, I can't figure out how to make the neck. I need to be able to read the positions of someone's fingers (making chords, etc) on 4 strings and 12-15 frets. How can I do this? Can it be done? I was thinking each string could be replaced with a sensor strip of some sort that could sense how far up the neck 'string' is being pressed?
Thanks!
Have you seen LEDs being used as light sensors? Maybe you could use that method.
How could a light sensor be used to achieve this?
Why stringless?? I believe that would be very awkward to play on.
There have been a multitude of approaches to this. The most successful ones i belive are these:
Lineage guitar
Yourock guitar
Essentially the same technology but in different shapes.
An other approach i have experimenting with is using kanthal wire and grounded frets and measure the resistance between the bridge and fret/ground to determine which position is fretted
I guess i should rephrase I need to be able to tell how far along a surface my finger is, how can I do this? It is a fretboard for a stringless ukulele.
I would use simulated strings of some kind. For two reasons:
- Playing on a bare fretboard would feel very awkward
- Simulated strings can be used to establish the fretted note. Either by using kanthal or NiCrome or any other resistance wire. Or by using capacitive sensing between the string and the fretboard. If you use a insolated wire as string and have each fret and some of the fretboard area behind it connected to a sensing input
If you still don't want to use strings you could use a softpot
