Finally finished my guitar! - well, almost

[CapriRS302]

Here are some pics of the guitar I've been working on for the past few weeks.





I was able to buy a used Kmart First Act Strat copy for $25 at a local flea market, and after much sanding, painting, soldering, screaming, yelling, throwing things, more soldering, I have an almost finished (just a few minor details) working guitar.


I originally purchased a brand new logitech dual action controller for this project, but the bastards at logitech put some sort of protective coating over their card and solder would not stick to it, so I disected my first frankentar which I made out of an old logitech wingman rumblepad and a toy Wal-Mart guitar (it wirked EXTREMELY well, I was sad to see it go) and reused the wingman for this guitar. Most of the electronics went into the back panel.


I used some buttons from radio shack and a toggle switch from a local electronics store for the fret buttons and strum button.

[CapriRS302]

All in all it works great. My scores improved the instant I used it. It is comfortable, and much easier to play than my previous toy guitar or the keyboard. In fact, because of where I placed the buttons, I find this even easier to play than the X-Box 360 guitar. (see dork with a guitar)



All yours for the small sum of $999.99!!!!!!!

[Micicle]

Why didnt you just use the pieces out of a GH controller?

[CapriRS302]

I could have, but I couldn't find one used anywhere, and I didn't feel like investing in one to tear apart. I did have full intentions of using an XBOX 360 regular controller so that the guitar could be used on my PC or an XBOX, but then I found out that GHII doesn't let you STRUM with a regular controller, so that was that. I had the wingman laying around, so it was cheap.

[lnkk]

thats f****** cool, nice job.

[yogsothoth]

All yours for the small sum of $999.99!!!!!!!

I'll take it!

good job on that guitar.

[gebbss]

Awesome guitar.

[warhol]

I'd rather buy just the guitar, not the controller part xD

[radar]

Hey dude, that thing has a floating bridge, and I know you don't care about it's ability to be a guitar anymore, but I've seen where guitars snap where the floating bridge is if the bridge is that high, buy a spring for it or something

[raptor jesus]

Does that switch go up and down? It looks like you can only go down from the angles you showed. Anyway, nice job. Methinks it would have been nicer to have the buttons drilled into the fretboard instead of as high up as you have it. If you did do taht, you could take the bolt that goes all the way through the neck and put the wires through there.

[Nightmare JG]

Hey dude, that thing has a floating bridge, and I know you don't care about it's ability to be a guitar anymore, but I've seen where guitars snap where the floating bridge is if the bridge is that high, buy a spring for it or something

Yeah man, I just bought a strat copy with a floating bridge for $8 because it had snapped due to that, I'd watch it, It might be a good idea to remove the strings, seeing as you can't put the trem assembly in the back.

[CapriRS302]

I'll check it again for sturdiness. The springs are gone from the back, but the strings aren't really tight, they're not even snug really, just there for looks and tight enough to hold on.

And yes, the toggle switch goes up and down (which is necessary for some of the faster notes)

As for the fret buttons, this was the SECOND incarnation. At first, they were designed to be right on the fret, and I had bought some little circular black buttons from radio shack, had them all set up and ready to go, plugged in the controller and found that the damn thing was unplayable. I had to mash the buttons down to even get them to register and playing many notes in succession just killed my hand, so I ripped them out and replaced them with "soft touch" buttons, but by now I had torn up the fret board so I needed some reinforcement.

[radar]

Oh okay, if you can really bend those strings and they're not tight, then the only thing you'd have to worry about with that bridge is that it looks tacky floating that high.

[crazymew]

wow... what an interesting concoction you've made, it looks awsome!, i'd SO get a job and beg you to make me one but... $999.99 is abit much don't you think?

[CapriRS302]

for you, I'll give you the forum discount, only $999.98.

Keep that on the DL.....