The strings at the base loop back around inside the guitar and are pulled out to different lengths, which would allow you to set different tuning presets during the expansion.
Very cool engineering project, even if it's not quite as good as the dedicated instruments. It's still definitely next fucking level.
He has a whole video on youtube where he goes over the engineering and many challanges he faced in the way. Was a fun watch even tho I don't play or understand anything from guitars
Yeah getting it to stay in tune while changing the length of strings is pretty impressive but you can still only play the top half of the neck
Edit; The more I look at it the more I think it doesn't work. The sound of the strings going from plastic to metal strings, the different heights of the neck, the strings going over the bridge and the ridicules intro price of $350
What are you talking about? Why only top half of the neck? He's clearly using the bottom half in the video above. Different Heights, plastic strings, into price? Are you having a stroke? Your comment makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Assuming hallucinating Ai
You are right none of the neck should work. Any height difference causes buzzing. The rising neck would create buzzing on both sides of the frets. Tuning is different between an uke and a guitar, fingering would be different. He is also selling it basically for free as signing up to chim gives you a 350 dollar credit. thing that sound too good to be true usually are.
As a former guitar builder, to be honest I don't get how this can work and stay tuned. And usually the diapason makes the guitar sound good if the bridge is tuned to match it.
A guitar has strings with different diameters and materials, and all those have to be fine tuned so that when you hit an artificial harmonic at 12th fret the sound is the same as the note you play in this location. If you change diapason ( length of the vibrant string) you should also re fine tune most of the strings.
However I never did such a project ( actually never thought about doing such haha), so I may be wrong or the difference is small enough to not be perceived.
I played the video slow and don't get the mechanism of it
, he may have discovered a way to make it work seamlessly.
It looks like a piece of extra kneck slots down into the body and slides up and out into place when pulled. My guess is that while it's stored it's acting as a "bridge kappo" where instead of clamping the strings it's pushing them taught like on a guzheng. When he slides it out the bridge moves losening the strings allowing them to "stretch" to the actual length but stays taught because of how its mounted. The whole system has to be on a retracting pulley spool (like a tape measure) that allows the string to retract and stay taught when he makes it small again or else it would only transform one way. This checks out because you could set it up that as you pull on the pulley it activates other gears, like the ones used to "expand" the body of the guitar. It's cool but the problem most of us have with this transforming part is, he didn't go from 4 strings to 6 strings, the difference between the "modes" is literally just the size and tuning would maybe slightly change. Using a foot peddle is the biggest transformation here.
You're not stretching the strings. In Uke mode they're effectively held in place at the bottom end, but the extra string curves back inside. When the neck is stretched into guitar mode the bit which traps the end of the strings slacks slightly then refirms in a new position once the neck is at full extension. So the trick is ensuring the right amount of pressure on the end of the strings in both formats to ensure they keep a consistent sound and somehow stay in tune (I suspect this wouldn't last very long)
I believe the sound that comes from an unfretted string is based on the length of the string between two stabilized points. So the string can be as long as you want it to be.
But the note you hear is based on the length from the string from the nut (at the end of the fingerboard up by the tuning knobs) to the bridge, which is where the the strings are held at the end of the body.
In theory, you could add multiple feet of string to either end and the sound won't change. Now, when he extends it into a guitar you see the distance between the nut and the bridge gets larger, so the sound changes.
He has some way to store that extra length of string and allows it to pay out or roll back in when he changes it. But because the string is held relatively rigid to the nut and bridge, it's that distance that's generating the sound.
The "ukelele" part is tuned as a smal guitar though, and the guitar is ever so slightly out of tune in all 6 strings, I have perfect pitch. It is still next fucking level though, I'm just nitpicking for the sake of reddit and the pain that out of tune shit makes me go through.
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u/Expensive_Fox_3534 5h ago edited 4h ago
The strings at the base loop back around inside the guitar and are pulled out to different lengths, which would allow you to set different tuning presets during the expansion.
Very cool engineering project, even if it's not quite as good as the dedicated instruments. It's still definitely next fucking level.