Instagram: @franklylectric Twitter: @fpiesik
“How cool would it be to have a guitar that displays music information right on the fret-board itself?” – A question that took me quite a built-effort to put me into the position to answer it. But now here I am: A proud owner of a guitar that features an illuminated fret-board.
As you might know, the instruments I present here on my blog do have actual use in my band “Die Stadt der Zukunft”. This band has dedicated itsself to explore new ways of improvising live elekronic music with (semi-)robotic instruments.
Continue reading “How To Improvise With Robots? – Die Stadt der Zukunft @Studio Nord Bremen 2020-10-21”
Greg’s Harp is a new string robot I made for my friend Gregor. After the Pythagotron which is a single stringed bass roboter, this is my first attempt to combine three string units to make a polyphonic instrument.
I’m making a new version of the ElektroCaster and want to share some insights into the process. This post is about the new LEF (light emitting fretboard).
Continue reading “ElektroCasterV2: Making a new light emitting fretboard”
I used optical fiber to build a flash extension for doing macro-photos.
Continue reading “My flash extension for doing macro-photografy”
“The EBow is a battery-powered electronic device for playing the electric guitar. The EBow uses a pickup – inductive string driver – feedback circuit, including a sensor coil, driver coil, and amplifier, to induce forced string vibrations. The EBow is monophonic, and drives one string at a time, producing a sound reminiscent of using a bow on the strings.” (Wikipedia)
Back in 2015 I made the Pythagotron, a one-string-bass-robot which turned out to be a really nice sound mashine. Now I’m doing a polyphonic version of it. To achieve this, I had to find a more elegnat way to build a single string-unit and combine multiple ones of them into one unit.
Continue reading “A v-slot based pitch actuator”
I’m working a new instrument for a fellow band colleague – my first comissional work.
After six weeks of intense work, this self-built guitar with a led-fretboard is ready for action. Continue reading “There she hangs!”
Pythagoras of Samos was a man with many hobbys. I know him for his experiments with strings and their musical properties. Thats why I call this robotic string instrument “Pythagotron”.
It features:
-2 octaves of pitch range
-fast and precise intonation
-4 actuators for striking, muting, punshing, damping and shorten the string
-modular and parametric design (OpenScad)
-most parts are 3D-printed or easy to gather
-open source
more information on my website: http://frankpiesik.org/2016/01/14/pythagotron/
and here is a video: http://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=b9-54RTwk_M
