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New string technology: would you buy these strings?


araspadecia

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Hello everyone,

 

This is my first post here. I'm asking around to see what the community thinks about an idea I have. I'm making strings that have a unique piezoelectric winding in them, which means that the string can sense its own vibration and convert it to an electrical signal. These strings could replace conventional pickup systems and possibly produce a sound that is more 'acoustic' than current technology can create.

 

What do you think of this idea? Would you buy a set and use them? One opinion I have noted is that a lot of players may think that a novel technology such as this could not hope to compete with the traditional acoustic sound, or may think that current strings and pickup systems do the job just fine. With this in mind they may be hesitant to invest in a set of these new strings.

 

Thoughts? Whatever you may think of this idea, I'm eager to hear it. All of your thoughts are valuable and can only help me make a better product.

 

Thanks in advance - I'm looking forwards to the discussion!

 

Luke

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Hello everyone,

 

This is my first post here. I'm asking around to see what the community thinks about an idea I have. I'm making strings that have a unique piezoelectric winding in them, which means that the string can sense its own vibration and convert it to an electrical signal. These strings could replace conventional pickup systems and possibly produce a sound that is more 'acoustic' than current technology can create.

 

What do you think of this idea? 

 

The better you pick up the string vibrations the less "acoustic" it'll sound. That's because there is a lot of garbage on the string which gets filtered by the bridge / violin body. "Piezoelectric" winding might be a bit of a stretch. I'm not current with these things anymore but "piezo" used to mean crystals. However something on the lines your are thinking exists. The interfacing electronics is costly and it doesn't sound "acoustic" at all.

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A couple of potential problems that I see:

 

What would your wireing scheme be? Probably one of the last things that players want is some kind of wiring harness on the top of the fiddle.

 

Strings wear out! Peizos in the body or bridge don't wear out (very often). Could you make a quality peizo string that would be comparable in price to regular strings?

String manufacturers spend big bucks developing new strings. Can you afford that kind of initial outlay?

 

Different strings sound, and play differently on different fiddles, even electric fiddles. Can your proposed strings compete with that?

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Interesting concept! I would think a modified tailpiece could be used as a harness . I do think generating an 'acoustic' response might be hard to accomplish as noted above because of the fact that what we hear is not the strings vibrating at all , we hear the violin responding to the strings . This response is layered with resonance and wave reflection in a very quantum way, unique to each instrument

  What price point ? if it is $4,000 dollars a set it might be a hard sell..

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You would need to have a very high input impedance buffer for every string, leading to weight and bulk. The strings would be very prone to reproducing "thump" from the fingers contacting the strings. I do believe the bowed tone would be very shrill and sterile.

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It seems to me that you will be sensing string bending.  That would see high frequency more than low.

The string is already producing a lot of unpleasant high frequency, most of which is removed by the bridge.

So this would require a lot of electronic filtering.  Filtering that luthiers cannot adjust.

 

After the bridge sensing, at the bass bridge foot, really seems like the best place to put a sensor. 

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