I was sitting and thinking on enight, and I had an idea: the Electric Flute.
Take a flute, and have a long, thin wire running down the center. Add magnetic pickups like ona guitar, or use clear plastic and optical pickups.
Connect to an amplifier and have something awesome.
Would it work?
June 18, 2008 at 12:53 pm
hello i am very dispointed because my band teacher who is leaving us to go and get his masters degree (so selfish) may i say. said that there was such thing as an electric flute and so i am very very very determinded to find a picture of a real electric flute. So i really really would like it if you could show me a picture. Thank you very much.
June 18, 2008 at 4:31 pm
1. Why is he selfish to go and get a degree to make his life better?
2. http://iasos.com/videoclp/flute-2.jpg
August 26, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Magnetic pickups on an electric guitar work because the strings are metal, and their movement in proximity to the magnet creates flux, which induces current on the wrapped wire.
Although the body of the flute itself is metal, most of the flute’s tone comes from the air column that moves within the flute. A signal generated from the vibration of the metal alone would probably sound like spitting and key clicks.
If you really wanted a portable “electric” flute that isn’t a MIDI wind controller, you could use a small piezo element. However, it’s going to, by its nature, pick up more of the percussive sounds (again, spit & keys, really). I have seen people talk about flute pickups but I think they’re piezo elements, not the coiled-wire type that guitars use.
Piezos are fun to screw around with, though. You can get one at the ’shack for a couple bucks, wire it to an audio plug or jack, and start amplifying anything you can get it to stick to. Unfortunately they’re not too durable and unless you shield the wires you’re going to get a lot of noise from the line. All part of the sound, though.