Crackle guitar project at STEIM.org

A little bit more info about the crackle guitar project on STEIM project blog.

crackle guitar session 2

Our working process has been quite chaotic, so I kept the pictures in complete disorder - would have been pointless to pretend that there's been a logical progression... The key thing that happened is at least that our expectations that the crackle box would work as a filter for the guitar pickups are fulfilled - see the video...

Next session and achievement of the crackle guitars should be next February in Amsterdam!

crackle guitar session

The last week-end was dedicated to the conception and making of 2 crackle guitars (yes we do it Sonic Youth style, each of us has his own personalized model) - these are the more or less definitive sketches of the guitars.

There's been a few modifications of the original projects, a. o. with the introduction of stroboscopic LEDs than can interfere with the crackle circuits and add rhythmic patterns, and of little speakers to respect the original spirit of the crackle bow, that is to be independent from external amplification (but there are outputs too of course).

Photos of the working process in the next post.

crackle guitars gear

Finally gathered the gear for the crackle guitars project - the problem being that the strings are also contacters for the crackle circuit, so they have to be isolated from each other and have separated contacts on the body to connect to the electronics one by one.

We decided to use Sung Il Tune-o-matic bridges with Graph Tech teflon saddles and string-thru-body system - the ferrules will be the contact points. Otherwise we have Wilkinson tuners. We recycle the pick-ups of the base guitars.

Probably what I'm saying doesn't make sense to most people - that will be more clear in a few days, since we will have a crackle guitar working session on the week-end.

expanding crackle box

For those who wonder about the crackle guitar project, this an inspiring expansion of the crackle box, created by visual artist Oscar Ramos during a residence at STEIM - you can see more about this work and others on his project blog.
I keep this work in the back of my head while conceiving the c-guitar...

another customable brand-less guitar

We decided to actually make 2 crackle guitars, one of each of us, so I managed to get exactly the same cheap guitar as a starting point. This project is getting more and more exciting!

crackle guitar sketches

Starting the crackle guitar process, Daniel S. and I exchange the first ideas...

customable brand-less guitar

Ripped open this guitar, it's funny to see how a cheap guitar is made, I've been lucky enough so far to only deal with good stuff. The body is made of plywood, it should be OK with the crackle mod, it's even good that it's so light because there will be a lot of new embedded gear...

Customable brand-less guitar

I got myself this cheap vintage brand-less strat copy, probably an early 70s Japanese guitar, a Crestline or something. I'm still making research, if you have any information about it (I've been told that this kind of guitars have been quite common at some point), you are welcome to leave a comment.

I'll wait until I know more about it, but I'll probably use it as a base to the crackle guitar project, I like the idea of using a vintage guitar to do an experimental custom.

I'll keep the trem and the pickups but most likely change the other gears. The crackle plate will cover most of the body and the electronics will be deeply modified.

New project: Crackle Guitar

No guitar making nor sketches these last days, I'm on travel, but the brain is still active. I met a few days ago with my friend and experimental electronic musician Daniel Schorno who works at STEIM Amsterdam (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) and build his own instruments.

Brainstorming about instrument making, we had the idea of building together a Crackle Guitar, an hybrid of guitar and STEIM's famous crackle box, an analogic pocket synthesizer played by finger contact on electronic circuits.

We intend to transform the pickguard of a guitar into a graphic circuit that can be touched by the guitarist while playing and alter the sound of the pickups... That will be a project for next year since my working agenda is already quite full, but I'm already quite excited about it!

And though I don't post much here, I keep contributing daily to the Guitar Blog - check me there!