Welcome to the Lounge

white-paper: how the basic system works - NICE!

Guitar signals are created by metal strings of specific tensions being picked causing them to oscillate, which induces an electric field in the inductive magnetic coils of the guitar, called pickups. The electric field induces a sinusoidal current in the coils of wire around the pickups, which travels through the coiled wire inside the pickups through a network of volume and tone potentiometers and out the output jack of the electric guitar. From there it is approximately between 140mV and 1.4V in amplitude, and changes frequency depending on fundamental frequencies of the notes played and their accompanying harmonics. This signal flows through a
guitar cable to a series of signal processing circuitry and then is sent through the speakers of a guitar amplifier.

white-paper: summary of lessons

The task undertaken of building a distortion pedal with a ten band equalizer, with functionality comparable to existing pedals on the market today is one that is undertaken by teams of specialized and experienced engineers, with resources far exceeding that available to our group as students. A WPI education provides the foundations for continued learning through practice in the workplace. This project represents our abilities and our research to this point, and serves as the culmination of our education and our transition from students to engineers.
Knowledge necessary to build a functioning and marketable distortion pedal is not contained in any lecture or textbook.