Testing a motor
After putting my motor together, I decided to try to use it. I cut a hole in a guitar pick and hot-glued it to the motor shaft. This would make a very rough draft of what I want.
After putting this on a guitar string, I realised two things; this setup works much better on lower gauge strings and because of the pick shape it’s not a consistent sound. To fix this issues, I thought a thicker material would help play the lower strings, and a more circular shape would help play the string more consistently.
After thinking of these issues, the hurdy-gurdy jumped out to me. This is a medieval instrument that uses a circular bow that is cranked to play multiple strings. This wheel-bow is made of resin-coated wood and has cotton on the strings to dampen and protect them. (Link)
Along with this idea, I could go to more of my original inspiration. Zimoun uses cotton balls to excite strings here, maybe this could work? I’m worried that over a long period of time, the exciters could break or break the strings. If I used something hard, like a guitar pick, I think it would eventually break. While something more like rubber (or anything soft) could last much longer. I will need to experiment with this idea.