Made in Japan 12-string Guitar Sculpture

guitarz.blogspot.com

Any comment would be superfluous, isn't it? There's more where it comes from...

Bertram

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!

Motorized remote-controlled guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Présentation from Gryphée on Vimeo.

Here's an email from Gyphée:

Hi there,

A friend of mine make me discover your web-site, it's really great!

You maybe be interested in my project. I'm a french musician and I start a new project during the summer, called Gryphée. It's a motorized and remote controled guitar, tunned in 450Hz, with 5 stings in B and one in Fb.

It's done big drones, with stranges overtone.

You can watch a video here: http://vimeo.com/17466126 (see above)

I have a Myspace even if it's became a very bad place: http://www.myspace.com/gryphee

I have a mini-album here: http://www.archive.org/details/isor025LesRondesAbiment

Right now, a friend do the mastering of the second called "The Rotations Project" with 10 other european musicians who used the same sample of motorized guitare to do something new. And I will record another one in January.

I hopes you will like it.

Regards from France.

Gyphée.

Thanks for that. As well as weird, wonderful, beautiful, strange and outrageous guitars, we always enjoy seeing guitars used in art installations and in experimental music.

G L Wilson.

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Self-playing doubleneck Telecaster - The Doppelcaster

guitarz.blogspot.com:



Bertram is, I guess, one of those people that balks at blowing his trumpet so I guess it's up to me. There is a whole bunch of interesting musical things going on over at Dhellemmes Towers. Not only has he finished making his Dopplecaster but he has now featured it as an artwork/installation at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart. Beautiful it looks and beautiful it sounds, as you can see below.



David in Barcelona

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

Maywa Denki - Big in Japan

guitarz.blogspot.com:

In the land of the self playing guitar machines, the one armed guitarist is king. I think Tom Waits said that

We've featured art-guitars before (The Destroyer and the Les Paul-playing sparrows spring to mind) but I'd like to bring to your attention another little artistic gem - and to recount a little of my rather relaxed Sunday.

When not following the antics of the Papal entourage in this beautiful and still quite Catholic city (today the Sagrada Familia is officially a bona fide church), I found myself tinkering round with a Gakken SX 150 synthesiser kit - bought a while back but not really explored in any depth. With the kit came a thick, glossy magazine cum instruction brochure.

I hadn't take much notice of the magazine before as it's in Japanese and obviously hard to understand. Actually a lot of it is about nutty japanese artist/musicians so it's all but impossible to understand - probably even to the Japanese.

That may not be totally fair because it does actually look really quite fascinating. "LOOKS" is the operative word in a lot of the instruments featured in the magazine. It wasn't obvious at first but a lot of Gakken's instruments are quite experimental with an emphasis on the "mental".

In the magazine there are unusual instruments played by the likes of musician/artist Maywa Denki, for instance, that combines guitars, electronics, art and comedy (well, I assume it's meant to be funny). I've not heard much of him before (apart from his Otamatone, the musical tadpole) but he seems to be quite "Big In Japan", he he!

Back to my day: I spent a jolly morning listening to electronic music, the afore mentioned tinkering, making a rabbit and sausage casserole and after lunch - after the siesta after lunch that is - I spent a pleasant afternoon Youtubing Gakken, Maywa Denki and weird Japanese videos - with a slight diversion to the astounding, and apparently nice lads, Muse.

Anyway... this impressive, though for him quite conventional, video is a great example of his inventiveness. It's a bit long and the best bit doesn't kick in till 2 minutes into the video. But it's worth it.

As a viewer with the rather telling nom de plume of Merzbowxnoise says "Everything is possible in Japan!"

I can't see Sir Eric Clapton taking up this contraption just yet.

Rock on! David from Sacred Barcelona

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

What the?????? The Destroyer

guitarz.blogspot.com:

While we are on an art theme, lets talk about art... and guitars. From the previous sorry attempt to something altogether much more interesting and I believe, more artistic on every level. If a guitar can be a work of art, I think this is one that deserves the tag.

This Guitar, The Destroyer, was built by luthier Mark Dalzell for the 2007 Jersey City Studio Artists Tour, which seems to be an "open studios" not a music tour.

Firstly, it looks amazing and secondly it looks like it was built by someone who knows what he's doing. He certainly does.

I'm going to list the features in Marks own words:

- Double neck 6-string guitar, 4-string mandolin
- Onboard digital effects Distortion, Chorus and Flanger
- Onboard analog "Theremaniacs" theremin
- Onboard chromatic tuner
- Scalloped brass nut on guitar and mandolin
- LED fret markers
- LED pickup indicators
- 1/4 scalloped neck on guitar
- 6-bolt neck
- Matching amplifier
- 60's styled chrome accents

It is well worth spending a little time checking out his Flickr stream to see some of his other creations, not to mention some spiffing shots of his Vermont 2009 golfing holiday. And don't miss the opportunity to check out his "Incredible Stupephone" on Youtube. It made my day and I hope it has the same effect on you.

David in Barcelona

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!