Entertainment For Lively Minds
The half-forgotten musical instruments thread
Those of us who remember the 80s will recognise the Steinberger bass guitar. It became ubiquitous very quickly and one couldn't avoid the sight of its shiny black minimal body, devoid of a headstock. You could tune it at the bridge for god's sake! I had no doubt that the future had arrived.
As a teenager who used to obsessively read guitar magazines, I learned that its carbon-fibre body ensured that the neck wouldn't warp. It also eliminated something called 'dead spots'. I lapped all of this up, despite – as a sometime bass player – having no idea what a dead spot was and unaware that they had never been a problem.
Then, no sooner than it had arrived, it had disappeared and everyone went back to playing their Fender Precision bass guitars again.
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Don't get me started on forgotten analogue synthesizers :-)
To avoid being too predictable, i'll mention another guitar. It was the Dalek's Handbag (or Roland G-707 Guitar Synthesizer) Although it was a proper stringed guitar, it acted as a trigger to a monophonic syntheziser - based on the Roland SH101.
It's main use was, of course, unplugged and posing on TOTP :-)
It's amazing how taking hard drugs can cloud one's judgement...
(shakes head in amazement)
Mind you, a few years back he was raving about some new gadget/modification that allowed for auto-tuning of guitars - some arrangement of motors and sensors that kept the strings in tune.
There was a control panel which allowed instant retuning to preset tunings at the push of a button.
He's as much of a gear slut as the rest of us :-)
To be fair...
that auto-tuning (cough!) gadget would be great for Page - he could switch between regular EADGBE and DADGAD at the flick of a switch. I think he might have used it on Kashmir at the Unledded gig.
Joni Mitchell
tried something to achieve the same effect when she recorded "Taming the tiger", (and used in performance too, I think) - albeit in a system where the guitar remained in one tuning but the synth it triggered could be reset to transpose individual string outputs.
I wonder if this was prompted by the change in her vocal range around that time which would have made her many tunings much more difficult to realise in a transposed form.
my, times have changed
Observe the oh-so-casual cig. Not to mention the crooked Letraset. Neither of those would be seen anywhere near an ad today. Times have indeed changed.
His eyes look a bit blurry too. Those rockstars, they're all on something you know.
Although...
...the technology lives on in the shape of the Roland GK3 pickup, which is used all over the shop. Much better idea.
Although the SH101's spectre has recently returned, thanks to the House Of Moog:
I'll allow that the Moog Guitar's look is nicer than the old Roland, and it does seem to do some cool stuff, but I'm a total bang-two-rocks-together luddite when it comes to guitars. Plank of solid wood, a neck, some hardware and some laughably rudimentary electromagnetic circuitry: job's a good 'un.
I mistrust guitars that purport to do everything.
The Steinberger is just *wrong*...
There is no more that needs to be said.
Not just basses
Steinberger also made regular guitars. Johnny Winter and Lesie West used them for a while in the 80s, as did Mark Knopfler.
A friend of mine bought a Steinberger 6 String in the 1980s...
and I vividly remember my reaction when he proudly shoved it in my face saying "Look what I've got!" I burst out laughing and said "Christ! What in the name of all that's holy is that?" He was not best pleased.
I own a ukulele shaped like a fender telecaster
I'm kinda tall, so I look silly with a uke anyway but i'm quite sure that I look like less of a prick than this gentleman...
Shame shame shame
I am a major JW fan but this was a low point. I saw him in London with that horrid little guitar and, Samson like, he seemed shorn of mojo. JW should be playing a big bastard upside down Gibson Firebird. I left early after seeing the great man comprehensively upstaged by the support, Walter Trout.
However, the "Serious business" album shoud be in one of those Word best/worst listings - good album with crap cover. It is a cracker.
That
is a fucking excellent album.
Sound The Bell. *purses lips. kisses fingertips. goes 'mwah'*
I agree
there's nothing much wrong with the music JW made with those guitars. They just look a bit daft, like someone slammed a door on the headstock.
I, too, much prefer to see Johnny using his trademark 60s Firebird. Although even then he went through a stage when he was using a lot of phasing with the Gibson, which sounded dreadful.
The Gismotron/Gizmo
was invented by Godley & Creme and used on their contemporaneous albums - including the rather wonderful Consequences.
Each little button operated a rotating serrated metal wheel which pressed on the string. It then fell apart.
I haven't seen one of these for a while
Is 'keytar' the correct terminology here? It allegedly allowed keyboard players to look as cool as guitarists.
Dieter Bohlen
Trivia fans may be interested to know that the band pictured – Modern Talking – features Dieter Bohlen (the one in the horrible yellow jumpsuit). Dieter Bohlen is now the Simon Cowell character on German TV, featuring in Deutschland sucht den Superstar and Das Supertalent.
MrXSG should jump in here
Seeing as he admitted to recently buying a Keytar on another thread last week.
Go on mate, tell us why it's so awesome...
Well Vince I'm glad you asked!
Having a keytar allows me to strut around on stage like a rock God, throwing cool poses and whipping the crowd into a frenzy with my amazing solos.
Well that's the plan anyway...
Unfortunately I've hardly had it out the box yet due to too much other stuff going on.
Guess you'll have to put up with just my singing tomorrow.
practice
You've all heard this one
even if you've never seen one before
It goes 'PEE-ooooooooooooo' when hit; although careful manipulation of the start & stop frequency knobs can make it go 'oooooooooooo-EEP' in the hands of a professional :-)
How much disco drum would you like madam?
Don't knock it... That noise made me a good few quid
back in the day. There was a brief window when every MD/arranger wanted a drummer who had a Space Drum.
I think there was a knock-off called a Tubby Drum as well...
comedy guitars
When I used to read Kerrangg as a kid in the 80's, they reguarly featured bizarre guitars that had been designed and hand-built purely for comedy value it seemed. Who could forget The WANGCASTER?
You'd look like a real cock playing that.
(gets denim 'cut off' coat with embroidered Rush logo on the back)
Casio did a cheap and nasty synth guitar in the 80's
The Casio DG 20 - a poor man's Roland Synth guitar if you like. I don't recall ever seeing them for sale in guitar shops, but you could buy them in Currys and Dixons, which just seemed wrong
Anyone remember the SynthAxe?
I'll post a pic later if i can find one.
Alan Holdsworth
serial offender.
The second pic shows him with the dreaded and ill-fated Synthaxe. Notice the strings run at an angle to the neck.
"notice the strings run at
"notice the strings run at an angle to the neck"
AND the frets are all the same distance apart!
Steinberger bass,
Springsteen-style sweatband. Status Quo at their most slappable, circa 1988.
and
the ugliest bassist the world has ever seen, or was he the drummer...?
anyway the bloke first on the left
only pic I could find of him but I do remember reeling away from my telly seeing him in action
Second on the left
John 'Rhino' Edwards.
Thankee!
but it's the ginger bloke on the left that had me reeling.
drumbo?
Jeff Rich
Quo Drummer from 1986 to 2000
Previously played with Climax Blues Band, and was stand-in drummer/drummer support to Def Leppard whilst Rick Allen recovered from only having one arm (Apparently was all set to play Donnington in 1986, when Rick Allen decided he could do it himself without Mr Rich's help)
Currently hitting things for 'Stealer' - a Free Tribute Band
The Crumhorn
Fans of big retro beat outfit Gryphon will know how they began the craze for the crumhorn. Here is the crumhorn.
We see it there being played by an angel.
I think I saw them
supporting The Yes on their TFTO tour. Now I think about it, I did and it was Crumhorns aloft!
... or was it
the Relayer tour...?
Anybody remember
the best instrument the world ever invented?
It was called "rock and roll".
Everyone seems to have forgotten how to play it these days, so no-one bothers any more...
Sigh.
Wot no SynthAxe?
As promoted by Allan Holdsworth, Gary Moore (!) and many... erm ...make that NO others!
Bonkers
the prosecution
rests, m'lud
I'm trying to work out
what that reminds me of. Some sort of food preparation device, from the Ronco corporation.
what is that tosh the're playing?
Just sounds like a bunch of random chords.
Not to mention tinkly FM synthesis enough to give you nightmares.
As Rik out of The Young Ones would have it:
"the reason you don't understand our music is because you DON"T LIKE IT".
The New England Digital Synclavier II
As played by John McLaughlin when I first saw him in 1984.
Warning this video contains 1980s jazz and a man wearing a headband.
Grrreat
Spot on!
that is so Jazz Club
You say that as if it were a bad thing...
it's a
noodleathon, so yeah - bad
Guitar-shaped Gadget Graveyard
Does this face a similar destiny?
When I saw it, I thought it was so 80s with a hint of Guitar Hero thrown in.
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/reinventing-wheel
Buy one now and stick in the loft
In 40 years people will be paying a fortune for them on EBay.
"Buy one now and stick in the loft "
"...In 40 years people will be paying a fortune for them on EBay."
And be played by loads of desperately trendy Shoreditch bands using them for their ironic retro factor
or the Flight of the Conchords
on their comeback tour...
jump suit
I recall Rick Derringer having a guitar built into a siver jumpsuit, something was said about the whole body being the soundbox. It looked ridiculous but I can't find any photos of it on the internet. Was it just a bad dream?
The Tapboard
co-invented by Francis Dunnery out of It Bites:
Warning! May Contain Headbands And/Or Leather Kecks
Steinberger Bass AND Keytar-assisted rocking out ahoy!
John how could you!?
Oh wait a minute, it's Greg, when the hell was Greg in Asia?
Did I miss a progressive/Ameripop mailer?
Asia were a band that looked good on paper, a bit like GTR. :(
Greg Lake
Played one gig with Asia in Tokyo in 1983. I think it was a bit short notice and needed more rehearsal. It was later released on video. Definitely needed more rehearsal.
This thread should be subtitled "Headstocks: YES! Headbands:NO!"
that is all. But while we're on the subject of iffy forgotten instruments...
Seven String Guitars
I recall frequenting the music shops of Denmark Street in Londinium years ago, and seeing a wide variety of ugly-looking 7 string axes for sale that capitalized on the then-current and decidely dodgy musical genre called NU-METAL!
Have any truly classic songs ever been made with this horrible instrument?
(Fitting just one extra string onto an electric guitar makes as much aesthetic sense as adding a fifth wheel to a classic sports car)
Still very much alive
the Ibanez Jem 7 string guitar, as designed and used by Steve Vai
The case for the prosecution...
...rests.
Case dismissed
All evidence was circumstantial, I'm afraid.
It was probably just a fit-up by the wimp rock establishment, anyway.
Steve Vai is possibly the best rock guitarist the world has ever seen. Here he is playing some quite otherworldly stuff with Dweezil Zappa's band.
Things get really interesting from around 2:30.
Christ alive.
That was a proper ordeal. He's technically exceptional, and only a fool would deny it, of course. That's not the same as producing worthwhile music, which IMO he doesn't.
All subjective, of course.
Have to agree with Bob
It's all personal taste,and the man obviously knows his way around a fretboard but I'd never in a million years call Mr Vai's widdle-heavy songwriting output classic
There's a word for that kind of thing.
And that word is "fretwank"
Incidentally, the odd-shaped hole at the top is called a "monkey grip", and was apparently designed so that Vai could hold the guitar over his head and still widdle about on the fretboard. Or something to do with "legato runs"...
Steve Vai?
Check out this bad boy!
Not his best work.
THIS IS!
Dumb question
What's the nature of string number seven – is it an additional bass or treble string? What note is it tuned to? And does it muck up all your chord shapes (not that I'm in danger of buying one)?
It depends
I hope I've got this right way round, but I believe the early Ibanez Universe 7 strings featured an additional high 'A' string, whereas the current Ibanez Jem 7 strings have an extra low 'B' string.
For the modern 7 stringed
For the modern 7 stringed metallers it's all about low down super crunchy riffage
7 strings are obviously for wimps
Just discovered that Ibanez also make 8 string guitars for the greedy Nu Metal fret-wanker
Frazer, can we bring back
Frazer, can we bring back the down arrow specifically for references to such music. Just coz they can doesn't mean they should! It sends you blind, you know.
Sheesh... At this rate it won't be long before someone makes a
12-string guitar!
Ah.
What we need is
the twin-necked eight-string/sixteen-string. With a ten-way pickup selector.
9 or 10 strings anybody?
Further research reveals 9 and 10 stringed guitars have also been manufactured for the axesmith who likes to unnecessarily overcomplicate everything at the expense of writing a decent tune instead.
However, no 11 string models seem to have ever been made because that would just be silly and pointless, wouldn't it?
Please tell me
that those pictures are the result of some wag with Photoshop and not really available to buy.
Sadly not
From what I understand, 9 string guitars have been around for a while and seem to be a simplified 12 string designed for easier Roger McGuinn stylee jingle-jangle sounds rather than metal widdly widdly riffing.
However the BC Rich 10 String pictured is (according to the official website) strung with " the highest two strings tuned in unison, the middle two strings are tuned in octaves and the lowest two strings are single and do not have the upper octave strings. By leaving the low two strings single, it allows the player to get a normal distortion tone without confusing and cancelling the signal. When playing full chords it creates a serious wall of sound"
Oh dear I've just gone cross-eyed :(
The Ovation Guitar
with the fibreglass back and 'scientifically placed' sound holes. Not forgotten, but everyone was playing one of these in the 80s. (Even Syd Little, if I remember correctly.)
Jesus, I hate those fucking things.
They just slip off your knee! You pretty much have to be standing up with the thing on a strap to be certain that it won't slide suddenly off your knee and go skidding across the floor at any moment.
The reason they took off
so big (apart from the fact they looked like nothing else), was because in the early 70s Ovation was one of the first companies to offer an acoustic guitar with a built-in pickup and pre-amp.
This was at a time when virtually the only other option was to gaffer tape a removable pickup across the sound hole of a regular acoustic. Not a good look!
The Chapman Stick
AKAI EWI
When I saw the Paul Simon Band live in the early 90s, saxophone legend Michael Brecker was playing something that looked like an expensive toy clarinet with coloured keys. It turned out to be, I think, an AKAI EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument). I can't find any pictures of that particular model, but this is a more recent example.
Might it have been a Lyricon?
It was the first 'Clarinet Synth' and was played by Andy McKay and also by John Walters of Landscape.
As an aside, Landscape featured the trombone talents of the legendary Pete Thoms - he of the beret and luxuriant 'tache
EeeeWeeee
Thats what it is!
Theres a band that plays in my favourite pub in Brighton with a bloke that plays one of these to this day. Sometimes sounds like a sax, sometimes like a clarinet. Always sounds like jazz-funk and looks like he is blowing into a Toblerone.
Melodica, anyone?
They may look daft, but they're still around and more popular than you think:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melodica_in_music
I recently bought
a melodica for €15 from eBay. I've been working on a rendition of Kraftwerk's Autobahn on ukulele and melodica (stop laughing at the back!).
I have a melodica. I use it quite a lot.
Here it is:
Blood Ties
Is that you on the mp3?
Very good that.
Yep, and thanks very much! :-)
I don't have a band any more, so I record everything myself, usually in February for the RPM Challenge. The rest of the year, I can't seem to put in the time. You know how it is.
Not looking for a fight
or owt Bob, but that instrument makes the most depressing sound I've ever encountered, I'd rather bagpipes, accordions or banjos than that instrument of torture.
sorry
That's very nice of you, James.
No way you could've left that one unsaid, obviously. Thanks.
I couldn't Bob
and I did leave it for a few days till I replied.
The noise that comes out of it hits a chord in me and I go into bummer mode, I can't help it!
Oh Gawd I see it's me that's in the wrong now and I need treatment!
until I'm cured I'll leave you to that awful plaintive din
Just bee able to have a lis
I think it is jolly good Bob. Takes all sorts. Mind you I always like this too.
The Melodicameister is, of course, Augustus Pablo
Absolutely, Mr Stimpy, sir
And Pablo showed that you could take the melodica anywhere. It was an ideal thing to have along if you found youself on a rock in the middle of a river, for example:
As is often the case...
...once again. And they got it to No 6!
Some very cool guitars here
http://www.collthings.co.uk/2009/01/cool-guitars.html
Ornette Coleman's
plastic saxophone never really caught on either.
Except
David Bowie had a plastic sax, as seen on back of Pin Ups sleeve.
this wasn't right
dunno why but, it just wasn't
You think that's bad...
I first encountered this in the eighties. Astonishingly, it's still being made, and was/is actually a really good instrument.
Here's the full brochure:
http://www.schimmel-piano.de/fileadmin/download/DL_K_208_Glas_E.pdf
However, brace yourselves for this, from the same company:
...
...
...
Ready?
...
...
BOO!
That's not a piano.
It's a sex toy.
Cruise Ship
Wurlitzer for the Bobby Crush fans, I'd say.
The see through Fender Precision bass
was simply a demonstration model taken to trade fairs in the 50s, to enable the instrument's inner workings to be seen clearly.
It wasn't actually manufactured or sold like that.
There was also a (more famous) see through Fender Strat demonstration model.
http://srv1.blogspot.com/2009/03/sensational-story-of-see-through.html
The Dan Armstrong plexiglass guitar did go on sale much later, but that only had a see-through body, of course.
As played by Keef....
Didn't he borrow it off Ronnie?
(or was it the other way around?)
this was
the image I was after
thank you mojoworking
It's a pleasure!
Is that Geezer Butler?
The much derided Dan Armstrong Plexiglass guitars/basses have made something of a retro comeback recently.
I'm sure I saw Polly Harvey using one on stage in Australia not too long ago. A Google search for visual evidence of this has proved fruitless, however.
The bass player in Goldfrapp uses a Danarm.
They're clearly all the rage again
Back in the day I've also found evidence of Ron Wood using a Dan Armstrong (as mentioned above) and even Macca has one (6 string) on the video for Helen Wheels.
I think Ron was playing his on the DVD of the
Faces last gig at the Edmonton Sundown...
EDIT: No he wasn't but it's an excuse to post this clip
And here's Macca
What everyone here needs is
a trip to the Museum of Lost Keyboards
http://www.matrixsynth.com/blog/media/misc/museumoflostkeyboards/museum....
It's the future
Mobile phone guitar
The Peter Frampton voice-thing
Completely one-dimensional plastic presence. And next to Bill Wyman is Pete's voice tube gizmo (at 1:20).
It's a Heil Talk Box
First one was built for Joe Walsh (I think)
I've always been rather
I've always been rather partial to Sir David of Trousersnake's cover of "Daytripper" by the HJHs. Some unpleasantly close up shots here of good old Bernie Marsden operating the Talk Box. However, it does rather effectively demonstrate how it worked for the uninitiated.
As always...
...Jeff Beck did it better than everyone else
The Rail...
A friend of mine is bidding on one of THESE on eBay...
It's a 1980's Westone Rail
Midi
I remember seeing a midi controller which was a belt buckle with strings on it, which you could strum with one hand whilst holding a chord on the keyboard, generating "guitar" like sounds. No evidence of it on the net now, thankfully.
Or you could learn to play the ficking guitar.
Tell you what I'd like.
Midi drum pads made of fabric that you can strap onto your legs. I'm a pretty shit drummer, but play a mean thigh-kit.
John Otway has had one for donkey's years
Made by taking apart an old Alesis drum machine.
Easy to make
Couple of piezo mic from Tandy, a few p each, solder leads on, off you go. There's a Sound on Sound article about making your own triggers. Takes an hour or so, especially since you already have the thighs installed.
White Noise, a fave of some customers round here
The Kaleidophon, go to the 6min mark for full effect/wigout
All this just reminded my of
All this just reminded me of the "Gittler" approach to guitar design...
With the bottom one there's no metal frets just fishing line tied around the neck, I think.