The Journey of Learning to Play Guitar and Experimenting with Electronics

Hi there, so long story short I started learning playing guitar around 4 months ago and here is how it sounded back then. Yikes, let’s just say it was a difficult start but now after 4 months I can even play a complete song which sounds like this. Now you might be wondering what does playing guitar has to do with electronics, well the thing is I got a second guitar which not only comes with a built-in tuner but also with a 6.3mm output jack. So by using a suitable cable I can hook up this guitar to an amplifier and thus I can easily annoy my neighbors with loud music, brilliant. But not only that, since we are now basically working with an electrical signal I started wondering how easy it would be to modify it to get the sound I want.

I began experimenting with different effects and modifying the circuitry of my guitar amplifier. I used a 555 timer circuit to change the frequency of the square wave and apply an amplified guitar signal to it. However, this idea didn't quite work out as I had hoped for, which means that all my analog ideas were pretty useless. Luckily, I found a site called ParasitStudio where you can find synth projects that use a small microcontroller to read in the guitar signal and apply their own little effects. Pretty smart I would say, but I didn't feel like using an ATtiny for that, I rather wanted to use one of my Arduino Nanos I got lying around.

I quickly found the Arduino Uno pedal shield, which is an open-source project from the site electrosmash. It is a great resource and can be ordered as a kit to support their efforts. However, I didn’t feel like waiting for such a shipment, so I checked what components I had on hand and started altering their schematic to make a poor man's version of the pedal shield. First off, I removed pretty much all of the filter components since I want to keep it super simple. It was also important that the input amp only outputs a maximum of 1.1V since the code of the project defines that the ADC will use its internal reference voltage of 1.1V.

What I ended up with was this bare-bones schematic of the circuit that should still work. Next, I brought in a small and big enclosure for the project that I had lying around but sadly the small enclosure was way too small for what I had in mind. So, I guess I will have to use the overkill big box onto which I firstly marked spots for all of the externally hooked up components. Then I used a drill press to create all the holes, hot glued the status LED in place and secured the rest of the components in place through the help of nuts.

As soon as that was done, I created a smaller piece of perfboard onto which I soldered the female header socket for my Arduino Nano. Then I added the IC holder for the OpAmp and continued by adding and soldering all of the components to the board and to one another according to my previously shown schematic. As soon as the perfboard circuit was complete, I hooked up the 9V battery connector to the power switch and the circuit and soldered wires to all of the external components.

Afterwards, all I had to do was to use the screw terminals to hook up the external components to the correct pins of the Arduino Nano. And after that, adding a battery we are basically done. So, I headed over to electrosmash once again in order to choose an example code and as soon as I read Daft Punk, I quickly went for it. And after uploading the code, closing everything up and connecting my guitar and amplifier, we can finally go for a test ride.

Now in the upper position of the foot switch, the guitar signal is basically passed through to the amplifier without any modifications. But as soon as we flip the switch, the effect kicks in which sounds rather awesome I would say. Now all in all my experiments were quite a big fail but I am rather happy with this pedal shield since you can easily extend or swap out effects and needless to say, they do sound quite awesome. With that being said, thanks for watching. Don’t forget to like, share, subscribe and hit the notification bell. Stay creative and I will see you next time.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHi there, so long story short I started learningplaying guitar around 4 months ago and hereis how it sounded back then.Yikes, let’s just say it was a difficultstart but now after 4 months I can even playa complete song which sounds like this.Now you might be wondering what does playingguitar has to do with electronics, well thething is I got a second guitar which not onlycomes with a built in tuner but also witha 6.3mm output jack.So by using a suitable cable I can hook upthis guitar to an amplifier and thus I caneasily annoy my neighbors with loud music,brilliant.But not only that, since we are now basicallyworking with an electrical signal I startedwondering how easy it would be to modify itin order to create all kinds of differentsound effects for my guitar.So in this video I will not only be experimentingwith a signal generator and a simple 555 timercircuit but I will also built a poor man’sversion of an open source guitar effects boardto find out how it sounds!Let’s get started!This video is sponsored by Skillshare whichis an online learning community for creatives,where millions come together to take the nextstep in their creative journey.Now I said before that Skillshare offers veryinteresting classes about electronics, butfor today’s video I instead had a look atclasses about synthesizers.I watched one called how to use synthesizersfor music production, created by Mikael Baggströmand that is actually the best thing aboutSkillshare in my opinion, no matter what subjectyou look for, you always find something useful.So why not try it out for yourself, you canget access to Skillshare for less than $10a month with an annual subscription and thefirst 1000 people who sign up via my linkin the video description will get a free trialof Skillshare premium membership.The first thing that came to my mind whenthinking about electronic music was a synthesizerwhich was how I started the research for thisproject but oh boy there is so much confusinginformation about guitar synthesizers on theinternet.After around 3 hours of research I was onlycertain of one thing, I needed some kind ofoscillator that can create a sine, triangleand square wave with variable frequency.By then either mixing this oscillator signalwith the guitar signal or letting the guitarsignal control the oscillator signal, we shouldbe able to get some interesting sound effects,at least in my theory.So let’s find an oscillator for which Iluckily had this assembled function generatorkit lying around based around the XR2206 ICwhich can output square, triangle and sinevoltages.By powering it up with 9V and connecting itsoutput to an oscilloscope we can see thatit can spit out all the desired waveformswith variable amplitude and frequency.The only problem was that the max peak topeak voltage was around 5.4V while the maximumvoltage of my guitar audio signal was onlyaround 0.5V.To mix them perfectly though we need themto be at the same voltage level which is whywe have to add such a voltage divider in orderto decrease the maximum voltage.After doing just that we can see that thevoltage is now ready for mixing.Before doing that though I hooked the functiongenerator signal up to my amplifier in orderto hear how it sounds and I actually kindof liked hearing the changing frequencies.So to mix them I will be using such a summingamplifier which like the name implies willcreate the sum of the individual voltages.After building it up and hooking everythingup, we can do a sound test, listen:As some of you might already have guessedsince we are just summing both voltages webasically hear both signals combined whichis not what I was looking for.So this idea was a fail and thus I moved onto the idea of influencing the oscillatorssignal trough the guitar signal.In such a case the oscillator would be calleda VCO aka voltage controlled oscillator meaningthe voltage of the guitar signal either controlsthe amplitude or frequency of the oscillatorsoutput signal.And luckily for me the pin 1 of the XR2206is labeled Amplitude Modulating Signal Input,so all we basically have to do is to feedan amplified guitar signal into this pin.To do that I built up a simple inverting amplifiercircuit which boosts our guitar voltage upto 8V.Then I slid the pin 1 of the XR2206 IC outof its IC socket, soldered a wire to it andthen connected it to the amplified guitarsignal.And as you can see on the oscilloscope, myguitar is truly influencing the amplitudeof the function generators output but thequestion is how does it sound?I would say that it does sound interestingbut it was still not really what I was lookingfor which is why I declared this idea as afail as well and thus it was time for a VCOwhose frequency can be changed.For that I came up with this 555 timer circuitonto whose pin 5 we simply have to apply theamplified guitar signal in order to alterthe frequency of the output square wave.So I built up this circuit on the breadboardand after connecting its output to the oscilloscopewe can see how the guitar sound changes thefrequency of the square wave.So once again it was time to hook up a voltagedivider followed by my amplifier.Now like or hate it but this was still notthe sound I was looking for which basicallymeans that all my analog ideas were prettyuseless.Luckily though I found a site called ParasitStudio where you can find synth projects thatunlike my attempts do not suck.They often use a small microcontroller whichuses its Analog to Digital Converter to readin the guitar signal, and then they applytheir own little effect and spit it out throughthe microcontrollers PWM pin.Pretty smart I would say but I did not feellike using an ATtiny for that, I rather wantedto use one of my Arduino Nanos I got lyingaround and thus I quickly found the ArduinoUno pedalShield.It is an open source project from the siteelectrosmash from which you can also ordera kit for this project to support their efforts.But I didn’t feel like waiting for sucha shipment which I why I checked what componentsI had on hand and started altering their schematicto make a poor man’s version.First off I removed pretty much all of thefilter components since I want to keep itsuper simple.It was also important that the input amp onlyoutputs a maximum of 1.1V since the code ofthe project defines that the ADC will useits internal reference voltage of 1.1V.So what I ended up with was this barebonesschematic of the circuit that should stillwork.Next I brought in a small and big enclosurefor the project that I had lying around butsadly the small enclosure was way too smallfor what I had in mind.So I guess I will have to use the overkillbig box onto which I firstly marked spotsfor all of the externally hooked up components.Then I used a drill press to create all theholes, hot glued the status LED in place andsecured the rest of the components in placethrough the help of nuts.As soon as that was done, I created a smallerpiece of perfboard onto which I soldered thefemale header socket for my Arduino Nano.Then I added the IC holder for the OpAmp andcontinued by adding and soldering all of thecomponents to the board and to one anotheraccording to my previously shown schematic.As soon as the perfboard circuit was complete,I hooked up the 9V battery connector to thepower switch and the circuit and solderedwires to all of the external components.Afterwards all I had to do was to use thescrew terminals to hook up the external componentsto the correct pins of the Arduino Nano.And after then adding a battery we are basicallydone.So I headed over to electrosmash once againin order to choose an example code and assoon as I read Daft Punk, I quickly went forit.And after uploading the code, closing everythingup and connecting my guitar and amplifierwe can finally go for a test ride.Now in the upper position of the foot switch,the guitar signal is basically passed throughto the amplifier without any modifications.But as soon as we flip the switch, the effectkicks in which sounds rather awesome I wouldsay.Now all in all my experiments were quite abig fail but I am rather happy with this pedalShieldsince you can easily extend or swap out effectsand needless to say, they do sound quite awesome.With that being said, thanks for watching.Don’t forget to like, share, subscribe andhit the notification bell.Stay creative and I will see you next time.