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Our friend Joel is looking for some modding help for Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity, he writes -
"Howdy, Makers. In early December of this year we'll be holding the second-annual Fünde Razor (http://funderazor.com), a charity event that raises money for Penny Arcade's Child's Play charity. Last year we raised over $1,600 and this year I'm hoping we can double it.
The main money-raising method at Fünde Razor is a raffle. Last year we gave away an Xbox 360, while this year we intend to have at least one Nintendo Wii and a Playstation 3. (If I can get one; Both Nintendo and Sony are very stingy with donations because of hardware shortages.)
This year I'd really like to have, in addition to other donated raffle items, a very special item crafted especially for the event. See, at Fünde Razor, the main activity is playing Guitar Hero. This year I hope to have at least one hand-made GH controller built into the body of a real guitar, connected wirelessly to the Playstation 2 running the game. (We set up a huge projector in the bar while the rest of the attendees gather around the players and cheer them on; It's awesome.)
Here is an example of someone having done what I'm thinking of...
It's beyond my ability, I'm afraid, especially considering all the other stuff I've got to get together to make the event happen. I was hoping that I might entice a Maker to craft the custom controller to be raffled for charity after being used at the event; I'd be more than happy to pay for all parts and shipping, should you be unable to attend the event in Brooklyn.
If anyone has any modding ideas beyond putting a GH controller in a real guitar body, I'd be happy to consider funding those, too!
Thanks, folks." - Link.
If any Maker helps out, I'll throw in something from the MAKE store too.
How about taking the audio out of a standard guitar and turning that into some control signals. You'd need a filter bank and some 555's to give you clean pulses when a certain note is played. You could also get a 'hex-pickup'(MIDI Pickup) or an already MIDI-enabled guitar(CASIO used to make a decent strat-style that you can usually find on eBay.. or get a Godin XTSa :)). You could probably convert the MIDI to a PS2 controller fairly easily...
Just a few thoughts... No time to actually do it :)
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The Yamaha EZ-EG (http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-EZ-EG-Tutorial-Electric-Guitar/dp/B00009UVQZ/sr=8-2/qid=1163642107/ref=sr_1_2/103-0089057-6231019?ie=UTF8&s=electronics) outputs MIDI, including low-velocity note-on signals when its fret buttons are pressed, and it uses strum "pickups" that emulate the strings of a guitar. I was pleasantly surprised to see this post today, as just a couple of days ago I started a project using an Arduino board (http://www.arduino.cc) to filter the MIDI input from an EZ-EG and output signals similar to what the Guitar Hero controller sends to the PS2. I wanted a custom GH controller but didn't want to wreck a perfectly usable guitar to make one, and supposedly the EZ-EG sends fairly clean MIDI note data (I don't have one myself yet, but I have ordered one). Since it sends each string's note data on a seperate channel, it should be a fairly simple task to make an open source board based on the Arduino design that homebrewers could easily put together themselves in order to use the EZ-EG (or any other MIDI device, really) to control Guitar Hero. I don't know if I'll have time to finish the project in time for the Funde Razor, but it sounds like a pretty cool event so perhaps someone with more time and electronics experience could make something similar. Anyone who wants to collaborate or comment can email me at rictus (at) gmail.
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The Yamaha EZ-EG (http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-EZ-EG-Tutorial-Electric-Guitar/dp/B00009UVQZ/sr=8-2/qid=1163642107/ref=sr_1_2/103-0089057-6231019?ie=UTF8&s=electronics) outputs MIDI, including low-velocity note-on signals when its fret buttons are pressed, and it uses strum "pickups" that emulate the strings of a guitar. I was pleasantly surprised to see this post today, as just a couple of days ago I started a project using an Arduino board (http://www.arduino.cc) to filter the MIDI input from an EZ-EG and output signals similar to what the Guitar Hero controller sends to the PS2. I wanted a custom GH controller but didn't want to wreck a perfectly usable guitar to make one, and supposedly the EZ-EG sends fairly clean MIDI note data (I don't have one myself yet, but I have ordered one). Since it sends each string's note data on a seperate channel, it should be a fairly simple task to make an open source board based on the Arduino design that homebrewers could easily put together themselves in order to use the EZ-EG (or any other MIDI device, really) to control Guitar Hero. I don't know if I'll have time to finish the project in time for the Funde Razor, but it sounds like a pretty cool event so perhaps someone with more time and electronics experience could make something similar. Anyone who wants to collaborate or comment can email me at rictus (at) gmail.
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http://www.pimpmysg.com/
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