Nick Rhodes' Pixelator Fender Stratocaster

guitarz.blogspot.com:

As I've said before, if we're going to show Fender Stratocasters on this blog they need to be pretty damn special - either that or particularly disgusting or amusing. This Pixelator Strat, I'm sure you'll agree, falls into the "special" category.

The brainchild of Duran Duran's keys player Nick Rhodes, this Mexican-made Fender Stratocaster has been customised by Sims Custom Shop with 100s of LEDs beneath a plexiglass top, which when controlled from a laptop (also included in the sale) allows video-streaming straight to the guitar's top, as seen in the YouTube clip below.


Currently being offered for sale on eBay with a Buy It Now price of £5,000.

I'm reminded of Visionary Instruments' video guitars but think I prefer Nick Rhodes' system which uses a regular (albeit modified) guitar.

G L Wilson

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

Squier Strat modded for stereo

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Wow, just look at this great confusion of pickups, knobs, switches and THREE output jacks! I'll let the eBay seller tell you about it:

Middle pick-up on Strat has been replaced by 2 slanted Fender pick-ups, one covers the 3 bass strings and one covers the 3 treble strings. Fuller sound as 6 coils cover 3 strings. [I think he means 6 "pole pieces" - GLW] The signals are then fed out through 2 separate volume controls to 2 jacks - one going to the left amp and one to the right giving a fantastic stereo sound. Each jack can of course, have its own effects foot pedal like reverb, chorus or octave box etc. Special offer - on one Fender Stratocaster Squier (as opposed to Mexican) - $745 + $45 shipping. Will build to your own specifications [...]

Normal Strat pick-up coming from 3rd jack.

This can be used for normal Strat playing with volume, tone and switching between the neck and bridge humbucker. Playing the 2 together is not a feature found on normal Strats as they are usually combined with the middle pick-up. You can of course have a third amp for surround sound.

Once you hear the amazing sound you'll never want to play a mono guitar again (unless it's a Martin). If you are not happy please send it back as we really don't want to sell it. The guitar has been modified to professional standards by the Guitar Guru of Toronto, who has finely tuned the action and fantastic sound.

Hey, I'm sure it works beautifully, and would be a great guitar for recording with. But all those switches look a bit much, and can you imagine try to play that at a gig with three cables coming out of it?

Thanks to Caleb who spotted this one on eBay.

G L Wilson

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!

John Mayall's sawn-off Strats

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Latvis sent the above photo and comments that: "I know that John Mayall has many modified and odd shaped guitars. [In] 1990 he played this one at Kuusrock Festival here in Finland."

Indeed, John Mayall does seem to favour Strat-type guitars (in the above instance it's a Fernandes) with the body chopped down to the bare minimum. Quite why he likes such tiny-bodied guitars is anyone's guess. Perhaps it has something to do with the way he slings the guitar strap over his right shoulder?

G L Wilson

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

Millenium Falcon guitar

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Quite why Star Wars is so enduring to so many people is a complete mystery to me. There. I said it. I do not like Star Wars. I know this may be an almost blasphemous statement to many, but there it is. If Freddie Mercury could say it, then so can I.

There have been Star Wars themed guitars before, most notably from Fernandes (how anyone could play a guitar with, say, a picture of Darth Vader on the body and "Star Wars" emblazoned on the fingerboard whilst on stage without feeling an acute sense of embarrassment I do not know). Here we see a one-off guitar build with a body fashioned out of a Star Wars Millenium Falcon toy.

The body is reinforced inside with maple so that the ageing plastic toy does not implode under string tension. It's all very ingenious and quite impressive if you are into that sort of thing.

But it's not for me.

Read and see more here (via Misha).

G L Wilson

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

An optimistic Portuguese eBay seller

guitarz.blogspot.com:

If there was ever an optimistic eBay seller, then it's this guy, a newbie to eBay with zero feedback and who seems to think that a Buy It Now price of $1,000 is not unreasonable for this cheapy Strat copy with a seriously carved-up body.

G L Wilson

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

The guitars of Christian Blandhoel

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Christian Blandhoel is a Norwegian visual and audio artist.

He has quite a collection of self-customised guitars which form his "Sonics" series of art works. These aren't guitars for conventional playing. They can have any number of strings, oddly-positioned pickups, springs as bass strings, pickups behind the bridge, etc. Some don't even seem to have a neck as such.

For more of his work please see here and for the guitars specifically here. Much of it is in Norwegian, but I still found plenty to look at and thought it was utterly fascinating.


G L Wilson

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

Surely some mistake?

guitarz.blogspot.com:

What the...?

I'll leave you to make you own comments!

(Thanks to Brad Olson who found this oddity on Craigslist).

G L Wilson

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

Flycaster

guitarz.blogspot.com

Not really necessary to write anything, it is enough to acknowledge that it exists: some guy sells a telecaster custom body with a giant fly carved on it - unless it is the result of a unexpected transmogrification by some mad scientist who let a fly enter his secret telecaster nano-generator... 

bertram



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

Would you like a little Bossa Nova with your Fresher Straighter?

guitarz.blogspot.com:
Fresher Straighter?... that's a rather cheekily named brand/model, and with a rather cheeky headstock decal too. The word "lawsuit" springs to mind. It appears to be a rather accurate copy of an 1970s-era Ash-bodied You Know What, and is of Japanese origin.

This example has an unusual feature in the shape of a built-in drum machine of sorts, which is no doubt very crude by today's standards. Still, it makes a change from the endless Kay-brand LP style guitars with built-in effects which eBay sellers will insist are rarities.

Read more about Fresher guitars here.

G L Wilson

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