Stringy

by Boldport

You won’t believe it’s not an actual guitar! Stringy is a tiny guitar synthesiser soldering kit from Boldport.

Stringy synthesizes guitar sounds using an efficient implementation of the Karplus–Strong string-plucking synthesis algorithm implemented on a tiny PIC microcontroller. It can play notes over five octaves (twelve notes per octave) in either acoustic or electric guitar style.

This was a collaborative project between Boldport and James Hutchby from MadLab. Boldport thanks James for his ingenuity and for allowing them to re-implement his original project.

Note: requires through-hole soldering!

Click here for the kit contents and assembly guide

Stringy was Project #14 of the Boldport Club.

5 customer reviews

5 years ago
This is a very cool little kit, bending the resistors in the gap is a little tircky but the effect is worth it. I was a little dissapointed to find that it was based around a micro contorller instead of analog circuitry, but the longer i sat with it the more i like the idea of playing with the software!! i would love to see a version with more smd parts as the tht componants seems comically large working on tiny smd projects.
by William about Stringy via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
I had and idea of a bucket bridge delay gadget and a cheap solution to generate the harmonics of a musical string, but yet I have not got any. The whammy pedal was an expensive solution but I couldn't get the dry signal out. Anyway this is not anything related to that but a nice DIY kit to make musical notes. I may have fun with this. Perhaps something more when I learn to do with my pic kit 3.
by Thushara about Stringy via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
Very nice quality PCB easy to build cant get it to work properly though. Thing seams to have a mind of its own sometimes.
by Alexander about Stringy via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
Really good bit of kit, but study online photos of it carefully to work out where the bits go, if like me you can't read circuit diagrams. It might help to have an amplifier with volume control, as it is really loud! I do love the resistor design - very pleasing to the eye and ears!
by Samantha about Stringy via REVIEWS.io

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