Player Guitar Sounds Wonderful; Makes Us Drool Because Of The Complexity

It becomes obvious when you listen to this player guitar that it’s not a human being playing. But the only reason for that is the unrelenting precision with which the songs are played. In addition to that accuracy, it’s interesting to note that this tune is normally played by a group of guitarists but here the machine manages to do it on one instrument. And we think it sounds fantastic!

This comes from [Vladimir Demin], a maker who previously built an automatic Bayan (like an accordion but with buttons where the keyboard is normally found). This time around it’s the six strings and many frets of a guitar that have been outfitted with one solenoid each. In the image above you can see the strumming mechanism mounted near the tone hole. Six picks are held in place, and it appears that each has two solenoids. From what we can observe in the video, one of the solenoids is used to strum the sting, the other tilts the pick mount so that there won’t be a second strumming when the pick is returned to its starting position.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu0-i3-IG5o

23 thoughts on “Player Guitar Sounds Wonderful; Makes Us Drool Because Of The Complexity

  1. Nice, he’s made his first instrument for a wurlitzer :) Violins next plz, thx ;)

    Lovely bit of work interfacing it all up to midi, apart from the midi side of things this is entirely how it’s done with theatre organs (full size multiple instruments, not a casio job).

    I seem to remember with violins, they seemed to have 1 violin per note and spin the violins to tap onto the bow at the appropriate point, although spinning doesn’t sound right :D

    1. You are right,but only for left side.
      Left part keep very good silent from working
      solenoids.
      But right part of the guitar have big noise,
      when any string ‘pick-up’.
      OK! In Next version I delete this noise and
      make ‘..piano…..forte..’
      So like Human/

  2. Very nice project.

    May I suggest 6 more actuators, each with a cussion, for stopping the string so you can modify the length of each note played.

    Just a little contribution ;)

    Really cool

  3. As one of the representatives of the Musicians Union Local 369 I can tell you, we’re not happy, not happy at all.

    Expect a visit some night soon so we can “discuss” this matter.

    //I kid, it’s a joke. The visitors will be from the Союз композиторов СССР//

  4. I love it! I’ve dreamed of making something like this, and this does not disappoint. However, I would prefer it to be on an electric guitar, because the percussive mechanical movement detracts from the music, and an electric guitar can isolate the sound and instrument.

    I wonder what the maximum note speed is, and if it would be possible to implement bends. He could cheat and turn the tuning pegs while playing a note, but then it would never be in tune.

  5. It neeeeeds a drum kit :)And some ranks. Nice big pipes. I’m guessing it’s midi based, so to get rid of the mechanical feel to the music, get the midi file into an editor, set the snap really high so that the resolution is fine and start nudging notes around a little, they’ll be imperceptable as ‘mistakes’ but will give it a more human feel.

  6. Nearly right, the Phonlizst-Violina developed by the Hupfeld company of Leipzig had the rotating bow and one string on each Violin. The Mills Violano-Virtuoso had one violin, also a 44 note piano and even the tuning was automatic.

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