Design a keytar-neck extention for my microkorg

About maybe 2 months ago my mixer broke. I had it checked by a friend, who had tried what he could, but ultimately concluded that it was beyond repair. I was a little disappointed, but it had served me well for about 8 years. I found a great replacement of the same brand. It’s very similar to the one I had, but slightly smaller, plus it’s more suitable for a digital studio and is surprisingly not too expensive! I’m hesitating to go and buy it right now though, since I’ve spent quite a bit of money these past months already.

My friend returned the broken mixer, and as I took it home with me, ideas boiled up inside my head. Since it was broken, why not give it another check for parts I could salvage? I could swear I had seen a PCB connector inside of there that would fit right into the Microkorg. Upon checking, I was right!

The original PCB connector of the Microkorg has 6 pins, and the wires are colored like a rainbow. They run towards two different linear potentiometers, better known to musicians as a “Pitch wheel” and “Modulation wheel”. I figured now that I have found some new wiring, I could experiment by connecting other different potentiometers, such as sliders or knobs from the broken mixer. Maybe one of these could serve as a suitable new pitch or vibrato controller for the neck of the keytar? 6 days ago

I’ve made a few very minimal designs, so that I can see what shapes will look best for this model of synthesizer. But before I could make a serious design, I had to keep weight in mind. The microkorg is a very light synthesizer model, and if I were to make a wooden extention, it would probably be a lot heavier. Therefore I decided to keep the extention smaller than the length of the original model(about 40 cm), and I might add a counterweight. If I end up adding a counterweight, I’ll use it to lead the output wires to the bottom of the Keytar.

I’ve also had a couple of ideas for the neck of the keytar, and tried getting them on paper. It is going to need a lot of work, however. A lot of circuits and wires are going to be involved, and I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to pull it off. Being the neck and all, it doesn’t give me a lot of space to work. It should be sturdy, functional, stylish and most of all: comfortable to play. 2 years ago