i apologize if somebody's already done this, but i've never heard of it being done so i'm considering it my own idea at this point.

anybody who's ever pointed their teevee remote into their pickups and hit a button knows that pickups will pick up the IR bursts. as far as i can tell, remotes use what appear to be conventional LED's to generate the IR bursts.

so how hard would it be to build a box similar in size to an e-bow that would act as a sort of IR oscillator or even complex tone generator, maybe with a couple knobs or buttons or whatnot, that could be used to generate interesting noises through a heavily distorted guitar?

I'm going to start writing all my songs as ring tones and then playing them into the pickups of my guitar.

This would be possible, but not that simple.

The devices are similar to LEDs except they do not emit light as you have pointed out. Therefore it is not an LED.

I can't remember the exact name of them, probably searching RS or Farnell or Radiospares will bring something up. Try searching for IR transducer or just infrared.

Building the associated oscillator will probably involve getting a standardised IC for the job and carefully reading the datasheet. Sounds like a bit of hassle.

Remmeber that an E-bow vibrates the strings, and a remote control just generates interference.

Still, I'd have to give you 5 credits of my elusive, hypothetical street cred. if I saw you using it at a gig. That would be cool - especially if it still looked like a remote.

give me a couple years. i'm only a 2nd year in college, but i think that before it's through i could excecute an idea like this.

and i very much like this idea.

They are called infrared LEDs, IRLEDs. Infrared light is still light ya know, just light we can't see...

ebeam wrote:They are called infrared LEDs, IRLEDs. Infrared light is still light ya know, just light we can't see...

i figured as much. so to generate tones with it, would that be as simple as using a resistance/capacitance circuit with a variable resistor to control the speed of the bursts? kinda like how on the old Apple II computer, tones were generated by clicking the speaker at a faster or slower rate?

what about this... taking the output of the neck pickup and running it through an IRLED that's taped to the bridge pickup? the signal coming out of the IRLED and beaming into the bridge pickup would end up being half-wave DC, right? or if i used two IRLED's wired opposite each other, combined they'd put out a square waveform of some sort that in some way or another followed the output of the neck pickup?

this seems like the kinda thing i will spend a week on when i win the lottery next year.

ebeam wrote:They are called infrared LEDs, IRLEDs. Infrared light is still light ya know, just light we can't see...

Your right. That was a stupid thing to say, what I said.

As you say, it is light, but not the type we can see. I think scientists call electromagnetic waves which travel through space, "light".

I wonder if it's actually the IRLED that's producing signal in your pickups, since pickups rely upon induction, and IRLEDs are emissive non-inductive devices.

It is much more likely that the remote you are using contains a tuned circuit, which modulates the control codes onto the IR carrier using a subcarrier of anywhere between about 50kHz and 160kHz. This tuned circuit likely includes one or more inductors, which would be the source of your signal on the pickups.

geiginni wrote:I wonder if it's actually the IRLED that's producing signal in your pickups, since pickups rely upon induction, and IRLEDs are emissive non-inductive devices.

It is much more likely that the remote you are using contains a tuned circuit, which modulates the control codes onto the IR carrier using a subcarrier of anywhere between about 50kHz and 160kHz. This tuned circuit likely includes one or more inductors, which would be the source of your signal on the pickups.

interesting point. i will test this theory in the next hour or so. IR is directional, and the field generated by the inductor would still be directional, but not quite the same way, right? so if i aim the remote 90 off axis and it still makes the noise, that would suggest it's something like you're saying rather than the IR burst itself. or if i cover the LED with tape or cardboard or something opaque, if it still makes the sound, then it's safe to assume it's not the IR.

i don't know why a pickup would be affected by IR. i also don't know why pickups could be microphonic, but hey, sometimes they are...

i'll report back after lunch.

geiginni wrote:It is much more likely that the remote you are using contains a tuned circuit... which would be the source of your signal on the pickups.

I think your correct here.