OK... a fella mentioned he was gonna put some old springs in his guitar... to "do whatever they may be inclined to do in there".

I decided I like this dude's style for sure, but I have no idea what might be produced.

.. so I tried it. It sounds like something is buzzing\loose in there is what I'd say, it's not pleasing... disconcerting if anything. So what is the objective here...Reverb? Old fashioned distortion? Should the spring be tight or loose? Should it touch the back or be stretched freely?

Here are some pics: Starting with mine which I'm probably taking out, unless someone can tell me how to make it do something desirable. In the last pic I can sure see someone went to great effort for this, so I would like to believe some good can come of it? 

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I thought those were there for bridge support? LOL!

Here's what you gotta' do, you have to tune the springs sympathetically to thirds and fifths of the root key, then play it for a minimum of 100 hours to break in the springs, and retune.

I fear you expected a straight answer........ :-)

Hahah sounds like I better put several more springs in there too!

A full box might do the trick. But then where would the shock absorbers go?

OK, heres my straight answer. (well as "straight" as I thnk I can muster.....)

I would expect the example to sound like a junk box. Which is fine if that's what you want. Its not for me.

But..... If I were inclined to experiment in that direction, which I might be one day, I would consider this:

If you placed one long spring, similar to what you did in example one, I would probably look for it to have moderate tension, not at all "floppy". Locate a mag pickup close to the spring somewhere mid-way. Set the distance close, but little or no chance of "rattling" together in "normal" use. Configure a circuit as such as to cut the bass, and have a volume knob that "blends" that signal with the main guitar signal..........

See where I am going with this? Could create something unusual but of useable interest. Unlike the junk box sound effect........ Just sayin'

Whoa... built in distortion...?

No, though it would probably have some. And yes, as Pick pointed out, my thoughts shifted toward electric pickups and away from acoustic effects.

My thought is basically something like a "reverb tank" in the box.

The spring would respond to the sounds vibrations within, and the pickup would allow a way to amplify that.

The big question to me is how the "blending" portion of the idea would work.

I'm sure its been done before, in fact I've probably seen an example and forgotten. "There's nothing new in this world" (Chuck Berry)

I would add a selector switch to switch between regular pickup only, and a blend position, and simply set a tone circuit up to cut out the  low end frequencies of the reverb pickup. (Low frequencies through a verb can cause a "muddy" resulting sound.) and attempt to blend a regular pickup and the verb pickup with a volume pot.

Seems like a fun experiment that should have a far better chance of an interesting or even useable end result than a box full of vibrating junk.......

Just came up in google - Ed Stilley apparently created "sonic loops" through the internal metal pieces in his guitars with different resonating bits of junk. Looks like Shane Speal at one time was playing with this but the links are dead. Just Wow.

understand that the objective is to add a little  acoustic reverb .  this  can sound very  nice  when installed  ideally  .  note that   in  your picture  you are  running it  behind the pickup  . which the pickup will still read  .  thus exaggerating the  the  sound of the spring  that was meant to  be subtle.  (and acoustic )

note also that the  other pictures  are   acoustic  guitars .

if you moved your spring   (pickup  end )  closer  to  the corner  so  it  misses the  pickup field ,  you   should get a more  desirable acoustic    sound , it may  even be  slightly detectable  when  amped .

I'd agree with Pick on all counts probably.

And I knew you were referring to the Stilley articles.  And would still express strong doubts as to the value or probable acoustic results.

Still, interesting experiments.

Hahah, yes. Thanks guys.. I found some home made reverb too. This one definitely looks like it works, using a Piezo... hmmmmmm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z4jlxiZWzc

A piezo could probably work. But my thinking is that A: It would probably tend to color the reverbs tone in a less than ideal way, and B: Since piezos work best in contact with a vibration, while a mag pickup can be used in proximity, it would just be simpler to configure.

Try it!

Also, looking at some of this from an amplified electric perspective, and wanting to MINIMIZE added noise and ringing, and improve tuning accuracy..... anyway, its all different and some how somewhat relevant-

for your perusal, check this out from about 5:00, and take additional note at 6:00.

I imagine this video has split a lot of heads, and thanks because after screwing around with this spring a while more last night I can tell you it does kind of ring acoustically, really, you don't notice unless you knock the box, it's so subtle. Electric I can't say, again if you knock on the box it rings, not really reverb even though I moved it closer to the mag.

What I will say, interestingly given your video, is it buzzes when I pick the strings with any vigor. 

Which is horrible... I'm taking it out for good after my coffee. ;)

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