elektrocaster

What is the ElektroCaster?

The highest premise of the ElectroCaster is that it's a real guitar which can be used just like that. This project is about to extend the possibilities of expression of a guitar without taking anything away from it. By guitar I don't mean a specific instrument that's hacked somehow, but the idea of a guitar that's to be extended. The ElektroCaster is built from scratch out of aluminum, 3d printed PLA and wood. All the design files are made with open tools such as OpenScad and Kicad. The design is made with the option of parametric changes in mind, like changing the string count, for example.

Here is a list with the most important "guitar-extensions" I've implemented on the hardware side so far are:

led lit fretboard with 150 individually controllable rbg-leds
hexaphonic pickip along with a Teensy 4 based 6 channel dsp-unit
actuator called Kickup that consists of 6 solenoid hitting the strings
actuator called MultEbow that works like a polyphonic e-Bow (endless sustain)
fretboard is "touch sensitive" in a way that it recognises which string was pressed at what position
10 faders, 7 potis, 8 rotary encoder(&switches), 5 buttons, 7 toggle switches, 3 rotary switches (12steps), an analog joystick
128*64 oled display