Topic: LASER GUITAR! (Read 23918 times)

rawrXskittles · « **on:** 03 Jun 2006, 16:12 »

Quote from: Komodo

Recently, I got an idea for a new design of guitar. I don't know if this has already been done before ( I probably should have researched) but the thougth just came to me and I couldn't get rid of it.

With my guitar, sometimes it's awkward becase the resistance of the strings can really slow down your thumb/pick while you're trying to play a really fast guitar rift/solo. The thought occured to me; what if there were no strings, but beams of light! Like lazer pointers!

Here's my diagram:

And here's how this is supposed to work.

Naturally, you can't hold down beams of light to pluck them at different lengths resulting in higher/lower frequencies. Nor can you pluck them at all.

But- when the frets end, you see the 'light-sensitive receiver'. When you move your thumb/pick across the beams of light, (so it's blocked and THEN revealed again) the six receivers will notice the breif lack of light, and transmit the information.

Along the neck of the guitar, the surface where you would normally hold down the strings has been replaced by sections of pressure-sensitive materials. When you press on an area of the neck of the guitar, it notices, and transmits the information. Like buttons, only more hard-core, and buttons would be weird.

For instance, let's say ou wanted to play the note 'a' on the lowest 'e' string. You'd place your finger on the area of the neck that the 'e' string would normally occupy, on the fifth fret. No slipping your finger off the strings by accident! No icky twangy noises! There's also another transmitter (fancy lightbulbs >_<.) on the end of the neck where the tuning thingies are (these can work like the volume controll on your computer speakers- they don't have to be connected to strings to send the information via twisting) . It doesn't send any information to the receivers, but it's there to tell where the 'strings' are- where you have to push down on the neck.

The information of where pressure is applied on the neck combined with the information of whether or not the receivers are getting the light can tell you what sound the guitar will make and when!

This, of course, would be very expensive to make, and not very practical in comparison to good old-fashioned strings. You'd need a computing device to put all of the information together. This might fit in a guitar, maybe not. In synopsis; Only rich rock stars could use it as a 'look, I'm awesome' thing. It really has no great use other than just a 'hey, cool' factor.

What's your opinion? Has this been done? Would you buy one if you were rich? Would it be that hard to make? Is there a flaw in the design?

Just a random idea I had.

This is why I love my best friend. She has awesome ideas.

rawrXskittles · « **Reply #1 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 16:16 »

I cannot tell if you are being sarcastic or not, so I will just go ahead and assume you are.

Kai · « **Reply #2 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 16:27 »

Haha, your friend sucks enough at the guitar that she needs lasers so the "strings don't get in the way. "

It's fun to laugh when someone else is worse than you.

rawrXskittles · « **Reply #3 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 16:28 »

Making fun of somebody doesn't make you better than they are.

And she's actually pretty good.

Misereatur · « **Reply #4 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 16:29 »

A. Kai and Spin are right
B. This belongs in the music forum
C. I would never buy a bass with lasers for strings. Nor would I replace my current strings with lasers.

Kai · « **Reply #5 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 16:31 »

First off: I am pretty sure that I am the best at everything. I know I'm better than her.

No she's not.

Also, I've never had an issue with my strings getting in the way of me playing something enough to actually come up with any idea involving lasers.

I personally will just stick with the plan of "suck up the problem I have, keep practicing till it's not a problem".

weeee

Misereatur · « **Reply #6 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 16:36 »

Yeah, laser strings is like going for the easy way insted of working on a problam. Bad enough we have shit-loads of kids that think that they can play guitar and dont even know how to read notes all over the place. We dont need kids that think that laser strings are cool too.

Kai · « **Reply #7 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 16:37 »

Yeah, I prefer my amateur teenage guitar players to learn half of Time Of Your Life, and then realize they are not amazingly gifted and talented at the guitar and quit.

onewheelwizzard · « **Reply #8 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 16:38 »

I play mainly bass and I wouldn't get a laser bass, but I might get a laser guitar just so I could tell people I owned a laser guitar. That's some Buckaroo Banzai and his Adventures in the 8th Dimension shit right there.

Also, since it relies on light signals instead of actual physical vibration, couldn't you just use a comb or something as a pick, and play incredibly, inhumanly fast?

Kai · « **Reply #9 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 16:39 »

Quote from: Spinless

What about fretless guitar/bass? I think those are pretty nasty too.

fretless instruments wouldn't make it easier like laser things. Just opens up a whole different style to play (Not to mention they are absurdly cool and I totally want them)

stevethepirate · « **Reply #10 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 17:39 »

I was at this one show where this shitty metal band had a bass player with what looked like a homemade bass. It had like, the strings screwed into the end of the neck, and had pickups that slid along this sort of rail setup where the sort of guitar body should be. Anyways, it was ugly as sin, and sounded terrible.

ForteBass · « **Reply #11 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 18:01 »

Man. Adding lasers to the guitar seems like the hella expensive solution to a problem that can be easily solved with some work.

"I can't play this solo!"
"Quick! Throw money at it!"

rawrXskittles · « **Reply #12 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 18:05 »

But there are lasers involved. Even if it costs a lot... LASERS!

KharBevNor · « **Reply #13 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 18:08 »

There are some big problems with this anyway:

One, it would just be a guitar shaped guitar synth. A mere glorified keytar. You wouldn't be able to bend notes (though you could probably rig up a whammy bar), you wouldn't be able to do proper tapping, slap bass would be out, and it wouldn't sound as good as a normal guitar/bass anyway, because guitar synths just don't. The strings actually generate the sound.

The only crazy high-tech innovation I can think of wanting for a guitar, which I'm sure has been done or at least attempted, is to replace all the machine-heads with a motor/gear assembly so I could change tunings at the touch of a button. I'd also maybe want to build a multi-effects pedal and drum machine into the guitar. And some scrolling LCD displays. And make it look ridiculous.

Here's my conception of a laser guitar: Everytime I hit a big fat B flat power chord, a laser beam capable of cutting diamonds is emitted from the neck, killing anything in front of me.

When the cops came for me, I'd go down full of bullets, playing War Pigs.

ForteBass · « **Reply #14 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 18:32 »

I think what herr metal head is trying to say is you'll just end up with a really fancy one of these

Also he's saying his death would be a proud thing for metal heads and evil scientists bent on world domination everywhere.

rawrXskittles · « **Reply #15 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 18:34 »

My mom's best friend has one of those. But it doesn't have lasers.

Kai · « **Reply #16 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 18:34 »

I'm so buying that.

TrueNeutral · « **Reply #17 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 18:43 »

This thread is so full of people being dicks for the sake of being dicks.

I, for one, think it's a great idea because after a year and a half of playing putting my fingers on the strings still gives me blisters after repeated guitar playing.

Maybe my skin is just bad.

Kai · « **Reply #18 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 18:46 »

Kepp working with it and blisters be gone. Seriously.

Guitars are fine the way they are and the only way to overcome any problems is to keep working with it. That's what all this dickery is about.

ForteBass · « **Reply #19 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 18:47 »

calluses are a good thing. They keep your fingers from being all hurty all the time.

Johnny C · « **Reply #20 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 18:49 »

Quote from: dicks

shit

I think the failing point in your arguments can be summed up thusly:

LASER GUITARS

I am a good guitarist. My fingers don't hurt. I'm able to play without the "strings getting in the way." BUT I STILL LIKE THIS IDEA. Yes, maybe it's for juvenile reasons. But frankly a laser guitar sounds completely awesome.

Cerulaetas · « **Reply #21 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 18:59 »

It would be better if you were playing in a mirrorized room, had left the end of the guitar off (so the lasers would be shooting out the end of the guitar), and filled the room with fog, and then played some insanely awesome guitar. It would be like a musical laser-light show, except more awesome, because the artist is actually making the light show, instead of some wanker with a computer.

Also Khar, I think there was a music video someone did like that, except instead of lasers shooting out the end of their guitars it was lightning. Can't remember who it was though...

Johnny C · « **Reply #22 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 19:02 »

The Backstreet Boys.

EDIT: Except they made chicks' clothes evaporate.

Kai · « **Reply #23 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 19:08 »

classy.

Aneurhythmia · « **Reply #24 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 19:13 »

So, uh, how do you play chords with muted strings on this thing?

KharBevNor · « **Reply #25 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 19:16 »

I'm thinking more like about 1:30 into this AMV.

Trollstormur · « **Reply #26 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 19:18 »

Wasn't that a Bass?

E. Spaceman · « **Reply #27 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 19:25 »

Quote from: Johnny C

The Backstreet Boys.

EDIT: Except they made chicks' clothes evaporate.

And The Darkness

Regarding the guitar, I can see it becoming useful in allowing people who have lost a hand to play guitar, thus bringing Pirate Rock one step closer to existing.

KharBevNor · « **Reply #28 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 19:27 »

Quote from: Trollstormur

Wasn't that a Bass?

Aye, but its a concept that deserves replicating.

Endlessly.

Aneurhythmia · « **Reply #29 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 19:32 »

I'm just gonna play an Ewi.

McTaggart · « **Reply #30 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 21:03 »

The problem with the whole lasers for strings thing is that you can't do wanky stuff like taping your bass to a washing machine and recording whatever a full wash cycle would sound like (I haven't tried this, but I'd like to). Something like this would only really be able to be played the way it's supposed to.

Also, lasers aren't that expensive.

Kai · « **Reply #31 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 21:09 »

Ones that make things explode are.

Fortnight · « **Reply #32 on:** 03 Jun 2006, 23:47 »

I'm not satisfied until the ENTIRE thing is made of lasers

ruyi · « **Reply #33 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 01:53 »

haaaah ilike your friend's diagram of the laser guitar.

i think is good idea! i'm not sure i get the reasoning behind the people who've been saying that you shouldn't try to innovate the guitar, you should just practice it more...'cause i mean think about it. if it'd become incredibly easy to play the current kind of regular-guitar solos on this laser guitar, then that'd mean musicians using the laser guitar could compose stuff that'd be even more awesome and eventually too complex to play on regular guitars.

imagine if after the first piano was created, somebody went "LOL how lame!! you don't have to worry about making the right pitch like you do on violin [[or whatever other instrument]], clearly you are teh suxorz at violin, now shut up and just learn to play violin right" (okay so i suppose there are factual errors in this...perhaps the violin was invented after the piano? and i'm ignoring the instruments that the piano evolved from. but anyways. too lazy to look it up.) but do you see what i'm saying? i don't think there's ever a good reason not to innovate musical instruments.

Spartan Pho3nix · « **Reply #34 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 02:01 »

This is dumb. You can't control the volume or ANYTHING about teh picking of the strings.

Secondly, you can't bent the notes. You can't really slide the notes. There's no textile feel.

AND the sound it makes would be artificial, not real. It's like a keyboard. Anything your laser guitar can do, I can play better on a keyboard.

ForteBass · « **Reply #35 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 02:30 »

Quote from: ruyi

imagine if after the first piano was created, somebody went "LOL how lame!! you don't have to worry about making the right pitch like you do on violin [[or whatever other instrument]], clearly you are teh suxorz at violin, now shut up and just learn to play violin right" (okay so i suppose there are factual errors in this...perhaps the violin was invented after the piano? and i'm ignoring the instruments that the piano evolved from. but anyways. too lazy to look it up.) but do you see what i'm saying? i don't think there's ever a good reason not to innovate musical instruments.

Factual errors in spades, little friend. See, while the violin had been around a good time before the piano, there were still harpsichords, clavicords, and pipe organs. Also, this reaction is common, as when the piano was made, they brought in Bach to test it out and he kinda didn't like it.

Barring that, as we've established this isn't a new idea. It's been done. They're available on the market. They're also not guitars, as it is a synthesized sound. Thus it is a synthesizer. Finally, the problem is not directly with the idea as it is with why the idea came to be. The person who came up with it claims the strings get in her way. As a guitarist this is just a silly thing to say. Ever.

ruyi · « **Reply #36 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 02:38 »

ah. well. i suppose i should have clarified - that was my point, the fact that a lot of people had that initial reaction to the piano but then as we can see today, you can do all kinds of things that are unique to piano. but anyways. about the synthesizer thing - oh. i get it now. still, laser guitar could be profitable as a novelty item? also, i don't see where she says that the strings get in the way - i only see her saying "the resistance of the strings can really slow down your thumb/pick." that sounds...kinda valid to me. but then again i'm a newb at guitar.

Aneurhythmia · « **Reply #37 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 03:25 »

Quote from: Spartan Pho3nix

There's no textile feel.

I've always hypothesized that velvet would make a better fingerboard than rosewood.

Kai · « **Reply #38 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 05:55 »

Quote from: ruyi

only see her saying "the resistance of the strings can really slow down your thumb/pick." that sounds...kinda valid to me. but then again i'm a newb at guitar.

Exactly.

Practice guys and you won't suck, come on.

Lummer · « **Reply #39 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 06:33 »

Quote from: Kai

Quote from: ruyi
only see her saying "the resistance of the strings can really slow down your thumb/pick." that sounds...kinda valid to me. but then again i'm a newb at guitar.

Exactly.

Practice guys and you won't suck, come on.

Exactly.

Use heavy gauge strings, and build finger strength. I like my strings to fight backa little

Kai · « **Reply #40 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 06:39 »

I like my strings to snap off and slit my throat.*

*Note: Apparently this happened to some guy. I don't think he died though, just like, a scratch.

Thrillho · « **Reply #41 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 06:56 »

Quote from: rawrXskittles

With my guitar, sometimes it's awkward becase the resistance of the strings can really slow down your thumb/pick while you're trying to play a really fast guitar rift/solo.

Can you hear my eyes rolling?

Just learn to play a theremin instead of bastardising a beautiful instrument.

Lummer · « **Reply #42 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 06:56 »

Quote from: Kai

I like my strings to snap off and slit my throat.*

*Note: Apparently this happened to some guy. I don't think he died though, just like, a scratch.

That is just SO Death Metal!!

Kai · « **Reply #43 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 06:59 »

Totally krieg.

Lummer · « **Reply #44 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 07:23 »

Quote from: Kai

Totally krieg.

kvlt tr00 necrodeth and so on and so forth

Kai · « **Reply #45 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 07:27 »

I've gotten cut by my strings a few times on like, my wrist and stuff. Hurts like a mother.

This thread actually reminds me that I should probably change my strings. It's been since like, January. :/

Hat · « **Reply #46 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 08:49 »

Quote from: E. Spaceman

Regarding the guitar, I can see it becoming useful in allowing people who have lost a hand to play guitar, thus bringing Pirate Rock one step closer to existing.

Personally, I'm of the school of thought that pirates who lose limbs are the inferior pirates, putting them barely above the people who claim to play pirate rock without ever having really plundered.

ASturge · « **Reply #47 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 09:10 »

I thought this might be about Guitars that shoot lazers and cause deep burns...

Lazer strings? What about controlling your bends? You sort of need strings to do that.

Misereatur · « **Reply #48 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 09:22 »

Quote from: Awkward Silence

I've whipped myself with my bass's E string when it broke off

HOW THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT?
Its a godamn E string, they dont do that.

What kind of strings were you using and what size?

Thrillho · « **Reply #49 on:** 04 Jun 2006, 10:11 »

A string on my guitar once snapped off at the ball and flew out of the saddle because it was at such tension and whipped me right across the shoulder and chest.

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: LASER GUITAR! (Read 23918 times)

stevethepirate

TrueNeutral

Cerulaetas

Fortnight

Spartan Pho3nix

ASturge