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wiring speaker for music project

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uethanian

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ok so a while back i was asking about piezo buzzers for a specific application, but i realize know that it could never work. so keeping it simple, looking at loudspeakers

the project involves splitting a signal coming out of an electric guitar; 1 signal goes to the regular amp/speaker, the other part goes to what i'm trying to build. it's a board strung with many strings (essentially a zither) that are tuned to vibrate sympathetically with the guitar. since it's not physically connected to the guitar, there needs to be some element that vibrates the object. so after talking to some people and doing some research (this 'shaker' exists commercially, it's just expensive), i supposedly can de-cone a speaker, attach it to the board, and it will vibrate the board without producing significant sound by itself.

so i'm looking for a small speaker (3-5" would be best) that has good power and can reproduce the range of a guitar well. now i'm not worried about the sound quality of the speaker, since the cone will be out and it shouldn't make too much noise. it should vibrate at least as much as the top of an acoustic guitar when strummed, but more would be better. i don't need any tone/level controls for this speaker, just a volume.

can someone recommend me an inexpensive speaker and show me a circuit that goes along with it? something that runs on batteries would be best if possible, i don't know anything about circuits that are powered by wall outlets.
 
The cone is part of what centers the voice coil in the magnet gap. If you try to remove the cone, the magnet will rub on the magnet.

btw- I have one of those "shaker table drivers". Maybe we could make a deal. I would take a pretty big amp (~100W) to drive it.
 
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i thought the spider would keep the coil centered...but maybe not

yea i'm not exactly looking for anything that serious, or anything i'd have to buy an amp for. what exactly is it? a 'bass shaker?' the ones i found online are 50W, which is still a lot.

instead of taking the whole cone out, what if i cut segments out, so the middle meets in a sort of cross?
 
The spider should hold. Depends on the speaker and on how careful you are to avoid off center loading.
 
I recommend scavenging old radios or TVs from your local tip, failing that you can buy cheap speakers from Rapid electronics.
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A zither is plucked like a harp.
Vibrating the board that holds the strings won't cause the strings to move enough to make much sound.
 
A zither is plucked like a harp.
Vibrating the board that holds the strings won't cause the strings to move enough to make much sound.

i'm aware of that. if you look at most instruments with sympathetic strings, the area of excitement is at the playing bridge; so i only need to generate as much vibration as is present at the bridge on an acoustic instrument. i failed to mention that the strings on the board would be over an electromagnetic pickup, and the signal sent to another amp.
 
does anyone have experience with these?
**broken link removed**

it seems like the right idea, the reviews are pretty good. the specs are
for use with 10-50 W amp
8 Ohms
6 W power capacity

an immediate plus that i see is that i could attach them very near or directly on the bridge of the sympathetic strings, rather than try to vibrate the whole board. so what does the power capacity mean? and what would be the ideal wattage to run these at?

EDIT: is this something i could use ?
**broken link removed**

2x15W, 4 ohm channels
 
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ok new plan, i want to use an old acoustic guitar as a sort of sound projector, rather than take the signal from the 'board' and put it through a second amp. this seems like more of what the 'sound exciters' are designed for anyways. so i could put one or two on the top of the guitar, and have the guitar strung up with sympathetic strings, and then play a signal into that. of course there's still the amp to deal with.
 
The "amplifier" is a joke. Its output is 15 WHATS!:eek:
Look at the detailed specs and you will see that its real output is only 3 Watts per channel into 4 ohms which is about only 1.75 watts per channel into 8 ohms.

Its input might not match your guitar's pickup.
 
so what could i do to drive these transducers? now i'm thinking i need something with EQ/tone control as well as volume...i'm keeping an eye out for guitar amp combo's i could take apart...what does 6W RMS mean?
 
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I think the transducers will survive 6 watts as a sine-wave continuously. Their allowed momentary peak power is more and is listed.
 
well someone suggested to me that i try connecting a transducer to the speaker lines of a 16W guitar amp (and using low volume). i'll do it to see if it works, but i'm not ready to dedicate that amp for that purpose.

i have all the stuff to make this circuit -
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would this be enough for 1 or 2 of the transducers?
 
The datasheet for the LM386 amplifier you posted shows that its output power at clipping into an 8 ohms speaker with a 5V supply is only 0.113W and with a 12V supply its output is 0.53W but the LM386 gets hot.
 
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