Electric Guitar To Electric Sitar Conversion

Electric sitars are so cool. Evoking an amazing mixture of indian and 70s pop/
soul sounds, there's also nothing like
their full-on low string gritty twang...

I had to have one, so I bought a
fixed-bridge electric guitar second
hand, and replaced the bridge with
a carefully shaped block of hard wood,
that gently curves to make a fulcrum
which the strings rest on (instead
of the usual knife-edge). I didn't worry
about the usual resonating strings
an electric sitar has, just sawed the
original bridge in half length-wise
and made a tailpiece out of it.

Then came lots of patient sanding
until finally the 'zwinggg!' appeared.

Adjusting for intonation was a whole
other thing; the wooden 'bridge' has
to slope so that as you play higher
up the neck it's still in tune as much
as possible. Three screws change
its angle - adjusted through holes
in the block.

Then I went and bought
a bunch of minicab dashboard-
style stickers for decoration.

Have a listen to the result by clicking here, and see a 1/6th
scale model of it in action - made specially for this video.

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Gobo, the solar-powered robot insect
Gobo is made with help from a Make Magazine
article on solar powered robot insects, using
some parts from Solarbotics (like the solar panel
and the huge capacitor needed that stores up the
charge). It's a one-off project.

When standing under a 60W light bulb it takes
about 10 minutes to build up for run of about 2
metres. Or about 40 seconds in bright sunlight.
No on/off switch - he just goes when he goes!

To see him in spectacular action click here.

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The Rockpick
This is my way of adding a slight pinched-harmonic squeal-ness to every note you play. Feels like a regular pick, use it with a high-
gain distortion (like El Distorto) to hear the excitement and life it brings to a lead part. Chunks up chords too.

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12-String Attack Pick
This is thicker version of the Rockpick that
gives your 6 string strum more 'zzinggg!'
Use on a nashville-strung guitar for more
12 string-ness. Or buy a 12 string guitar.

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'The Short But Astonishing Electro-Scratch Guitar World Of David Rainger'
Oh yes - I've got an album out! An astonishing but short thing, available
to buy on Try And Make Me Records through iTunes UK. It's a bunch of instrumental tracks, with distinctive vibe and sounds throughout. And only one guitar solo. (That's a good thing).

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Extra Fret
Have you noticed that middle
eastern scales often have their
b2nd note noticeably sharp (F
in an E minor scale)? The Extra
Fret converts the guitar to do this;
it slips across the fretboard under
the strings just above (pitch-wise)
the first fret, and stands slightly
higher than that one, in effect replacing it. Made for one particular guitar (mine), it sounds best around that lower part of the fretboard (re-tune for different keys). Sounds appalling (pitch-wise) for a minute when you take it off and re-adjust your ear to more western tonality.

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Dogs
Rainger FX currently looking after Guide Dogs
for the Blind that are in the middle of their training.
This is Nessie.

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Neck Pickup
This one-off project is
a pickup mounted on a clip that slides under the strings to grip the neck, the pole pieces suspended over the strings and fretboard.
The strings ring out as usual, but with the Neck Pickup nearer the nut,
a hint of randomness between the notes played can be blended into the usual pickup's signal.

Or maybe panned hard left and right for ultra tight stereo picking (one side clipped single note funk, the other its atonal twin...). Listening to the signal on its own when playing gently shows only the unplayed strings vibrating in resonance; like seeing the sun's corona during an eclipse (kind of).

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