Turning Electric Gtrs into Acoustic Gtrs, Resonators & Esraj

[gongchime]

Some of you may remember how I gave my electric guitar a sitar sound with a chopstick. This is a video showing ongoing modifications of the instrument. Now I've added resonators to make my electric guitar more acoustic. It will probably sound really good with contact microphones on the resonators.

In America resonators normally went inside an acoustic guitar under the bridge to make them louder but after the invention of amplification, the feature was redundant although many players liked the sound of their Dobros and Nationals so the modification stuck around.

On sitar there is a gourd resonator on the back of the headstock which is where I've put my metal resonators in a seemingly obvious variation to an acoustic guitar that, as far as I know, hasn't been done before.

I never played my electric, I play this thing all the time. The tone I get is exactly what I'm looking for which is akin to the Afghani Rubab now it's louder without the need for electricity. Woohoo!!!

The pick guard has been cut in advance of a cut going through the body of this guitar so it can be bowed at a comfortable angle when held like a cello in which case it will be similar to the bowed sitar known as esraj.

I hope to finish that up fairly soon.

The video plays back too fast so my voice sounds nasally. Who knows why?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzBKAyHMHFs

[t4mh]

Gongchime

Interesting idea. So do you just mic the guitar like you would an acoustic or does the sound work through the pickups adequately? The resonators on the head make sense but I don't get the "chopsticks" thing. Could you show us a closeup of your bridge please?

Thanks
Keith

[gongchime]

Someone tried to mic the resonators and it didn't quite work out so well. That's why I believe contact mic on the resonators would be better or in combination. As far as the bridge goes just slide a chopstick under the strings at the bridge. You can angle it however you want or even sand/shave it in a parabolic shape to create sitar buzz. Afghani Rebab which is what I'm shooting for sound wise. Its more percussive so although it has a bit of a buzz the sound dies more quickly than either sitar or electric guitar.

[gongchime]

I forgot I used to make the bridge differently and show that in this video. I don't do that now because the resonance I got from the springs inside the guitar is fairly insignificant and the way it was set up created unusual motion in the guitar strings that I decided I didn't like. Electric guitar bridges are optimized for sustain. But using a bamboo bridge modification helps tone quality non-electronically in my opinion.