Digitaize DIY Assembly

Fingerboard Sensor
Digitaize unit

MOUNTING FINGERBOARD SENSOR

You will need:

  • a sharp scissor
  • a glass of water and a brush
  • a cotton cloth to clean
  • tweezer
  • approx. 20 minutes time

Video Tutorial:

1. Prepare your instrument

1. Place the instrument horizontally in front of you on a stable, clean surface. Remove carefully the strings from your instrument

IMPORTANT: require assistance if you did not do it yourself before!

2. Clean the fingerboard with a cotton cloth. Make sure there is no rosin dust left on the surface. 

A clean fingerboard ensures that the DigitAize sensor can be glued well.

 

2. Fit the sensor

Place the sensor on the fingerboard. Align it to the end of the fingerboard (closer to the bridge) and check the length of the sensor opposed to the one of your fingerboard.

 

  • If the sensor is shorter than the fingerboard, you will notice a gap between the upper edge of the sensor and the nut. Don’t worry, it will work anyway. 

Make sure, that, when glueing it, you align the lower side to the edge of the fingerboard.

  • if the sensor is longer than the fingerboard, take a scissor and cut the exceeding part, to fit the sensor on the fingerboard.

To make the glueing procedure easier, cut 1-2 mm more, than the overall length of the fingerboard.

NOTE: You can cut the sensor using a sharp scissor. Cut the sensor ALWAYS from the upper part. 

3. Glue the sensor

NOTE: the sensor needs to be glued in 2 different steps:

  • glue lower side to the fingerboard

  • seal upper and lower layers/sides together

 

  1. take a small brush and apply a small quantity of water on the whole surface of the fingerboard.

This will make the glueing process easier and allow you to make corrections.

 

2. Remove the protective strip of the foil.

 

3. In order to glue the sensor on the fingerboard, align it to the long edge of the fingerboard.

→ Place the sensor carefully on the edge of the fingerboard. Make sure it is placed exactly on the edge.

 

4. Carefully bend the sensor on the fingerboard.

Make sure you don’t loose the alignment to the edge.

Make sure there are no air bubbles or irregularities on the strip.

NOTE: The water layer slows down the glueing process: hold down the sensor gently until the water evaporated and the glue sticks completely. 

 

4. Seal the sensor

1. Remove the protective strip of the ground connection carefully. Watch out that the strip doesn’t get bend and stays in position.

2. If the ground strip slips out of position, take a tweezer and gently bend it back in position. 

This is how the ground strip should look like, when in position.

3. Remove the protective layer of the paths.

Be careful to hold the upper layer open, while you remove the protective layer.

4. carefully seal the sensor, following the curvature of the fingerboard and suing both hands.

5. seal the sides of the sensor using your nails. Be sure that the sensor is well sealed on all edges.

5. Reasembly

The sensor is now mounted. Put the strings and the bridge back to the original positions and tune it.

MOUNTING DIGITAIZE UNIT

1. Adjust and mount the clamp

Once you successfully attached the sensor to your instrument, you can proceed to attach the DigitAize Unit to the fingerboard. 

The Unit holds to the instrument through a magnet. 

 

  • Take the small rounded metal plate and remove the green adhesive cover.

  • Glue the double sided tape to the inner side of the fingerboard. Use tweezers to place it correctly. 

2. Attach the DigitAize Unit

Now you need to plug in the sensor to the DigitAize Unit

  1. Take the sensor connector and gently turn it so, that the grey part looks up in the direction of the bridge. 

  2. Bring the DigitAize Unit near to it and slide in the connector inside the side hole of the DigitAize Unit. 

NOTE: You can also use a tweezer to plug the sensor into the Unit. 

!!ATTENTION!!: Please be aware, that the connector is VERY FRAGILE.

Be careful! Don’t twist, press or pull from the connector while you attach it to the unit. You need just to apply some pressure just when sliding the connector inside the unit.

3.  Once the sensor is correctly plugged inside the Unit, gently put the back of the DigitAize Unit under the fingerboard.

4.  The magnet will attract the Unit and bring it automatically in place.

NOTE: Be careful not to pull from the connector, while holding the Unit. This can result in unplugging the sensor or even in damaging the connector.

Additional user notes

  • When you turn the device on, please hold the module from the sides, so that it does not move backwards.

  • When you plug or unplug the USB cable, hold the unit firmly, so to not break the sensors connector.

  • When you unplug the connector, hold the DigitAize unit firmly, so that you don’t remove it from position