Before I try to describe this thing, just watch the fucking video.
Okay, do you get it? Pretty damn awesome right? Apparently this thing was actually invented in the 70’s, but they fucked it up. The technology for design and production back then was apparently not up to the task, so they were terrible (I guess the old “they don’t make ’em like they used to” is bullshit), but the concept was sound. So these guys reverse engineered the idea and resurrected it from what could have been eternal obscurity.
Like the Hammer Jammer we covered more than a year ago, the Gizmotron brings you a texture to the guitar you could never achieve otherwise. It uses motorized textured wheels that essentially bow the string without ever stopping (until you let go of the lever). So you get truly infinite “sustain” because it’s perpetually being played.
Sure, it’s a tiny bit like the E-Bow, but the key difference (aside from the absolutely different mechanism by which it works) is that the Gizmotron is like an on/off, whereas the E-Bow has a very slow attack. The E-Bow and other similar ideas that work on magnets (like the Sustaniac and Fernandes Sustainer pickups) also simply cause the string to vibrate without any physical contact, whereas the Gizmotron is mechanically playing the string like a violin bow that never runs out of horsehair.
I think this is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in the world of guitar in some time, and I’m a jaded cynical dick who’s seen a lot of guitar shit. I hope this thing succeeds and holy crap do I want to try one.
You can get yourself on the waitlist here, they are supposed to be out sometime this year.
Hmmmmm / August 19, 2015 9:53 am
Neat, but not very useful in a live setting. I’d just get an Ebow for a 4th of the price and use that.
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BurningBeard / August 19, 2015 10:02 am
That is really cool.
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Wagnerian_thrice / August 19, 2015 10:17 am
This is cool. It makes me think about the Moog guitar.
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Connor Metsker / August 19, 2015 11:15 am
Looks like it would be fun as hell to play around with that
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7 Dying Trees / August 19, 2015 11:25 am
same amount of money as a cheap guitar, requires mounting on top of a guitar somehow, and renders any muting techniques on the bridge impossible. Cool idea, but I don’t see it taking off due to having to mess your guitar up to put it on.
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Djens / August 22, 2015 12:54 am
A lot of gear costs the same as a cheap guitar, but I agree, muting would be impossible with that thing on. I’d love to see a version ingrained in the guitar with the buttons further back though, but I guess that might make a total mess of the guitars internal structure.
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Erica / August 19, 2015 11:30 am
It’s a cool idea but it just has kind of a cheap sound to me. I think prefer the e bow.
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OutsideLookingIn / August 19, 2015 4:31 pm
Useless.
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Boozermaniac / August 19, 2015 4:47 pm
Just listen SOLSTAFIR and youll get it right without that big thing in your guitar!
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mitchell271 / August 19, 2015 5:38 pm
Neat idea, but I’ll stick to actually playing cello instead.
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Handy / August 20, 2015 5:52 am
I can see this beaing a neat tool in a production studio.
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David J Galbraith / August 20, 2015 8:11 am
You’re almost right.
This was originally invented in the 70’s by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley of 10cc. They didn’t “fuck it up”. (You can hear it on many of their songs, a popular example is “I’m not in love”.)
I interviewed them about it on Capital Radio at the time as a guest contributor to the ‘Hullabaloo’ show.
One reason they did not pursue it to mass market was that they were in the process of forming their Video Production company and considered that a better investment of their time and money.
(History shows that to have been a wise decision!)
The Ebow was marketed soon after and, although vastly different in operation, remains popular because it is hand held and does not need to be retro-fitted to the guitar.
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chaswick / August 20, 2015 2:47 pm
Your first sentence is correct. Everything else you said is 100% wrong.
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David J Galbraith / August 20, 2015 8:47 pm
That’s an amusing response, chaswick – a somewhat sweeping yet completely unsubstantiated empty statement.
My comment is factual and correct. I still have the interview in which I discussed all of this with them on the Hullabaloo show on Capital Radio in the 70’s, on a recording somewhere in my archives.
However I would love to hear the theory behind your comment…
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chaswick / August 21, 2015 6:46 am
The Gizmotron was mass marketed by Musictronics in 1979 but they failed to produce a working product. They went bankrupt.
The ebow was already on the market in 1976, 3 years before the Gizmotron came out.
Google is your friend.
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David J Galbraith / August 21, 2015 11:27 am
Google may be YOUR friend, but I prefer memories, knowledge and personal experience.
For brevity, my original post was concise, but if you want the facts from someone who was ‘there’, here you go.
The Gizmo (as it was referred to at that stage) was invented by Godley and Creme during 1973.
(Check the 10cc album ‘Sheet Music’ – the Gizmo was first used on that album, particularly on a track named “Gizmo My Way” – bit of a give-away, huh?)
It was used in their following two albums as well, prior to G & C’s split with 10cc. They further used it on their own recordings, particularly on the 1977 album Consequences.
I spoke to them on Capital at that time. We discussed the Gizmo, and they played me a track from Consequences that featured it heavily to illustrate what it did. However they had no plans to take the product to market, as their video production company was in its embryonic stages and that was where their attention was now focussed.
The Ebow was actually invented in 1969, but not put into production and availble to purchase until 1976. The Gizmo, however, had already featured on three 10cc albums before that time.
Godley and Creme did eventually grant a licence in 1979 to a 3rd party to manufacture the “Gizmotron”, a device based on their design.
This (as has already been stated) turned out to be an abject failure, and said 3rd party company went bankrupt.
Perhaps you may wish to do a little deeper research with your Google friend? I’m sure it could enlighten you about this as much as I can.
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chaswick / August 21, 2015 12:00 pm
Godley and Creme had EVERY intention of taking the product to the market, and the reason why they left 10CC was to pursue its mass market manufacture. But don’t take my word for it, or googles word for it. Here is a video of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme explaining all that in a 1980 interview, while proudly displaying the failed Musictronics Gizmotron.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbNBygTzjlo
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David J Galbraith / August 21, 2015 11:22 pm
…And going on to explain their future plans for going into video production, just as they had told me a couple of years earlier.
The reference to leaving 10cc was regarding recording with the Gizmo, (hence the album I mentioned in my last post, Consequences, which was Godley and Cremes first project after departure from the band). Stewart and Gouldman did not share the same enthusiasm for the device which, as KG said, became the catalyst that led to the split.
Interesting footage, which pretty much sums up what I already said. Thanks for finding that.
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Lonn Myronuk, MD / February 12, 2018 1:49 pm
I still have one of the original Gizmotrons, mounted on a frettless bass. It was a promising idea that disappointed in its under-delivery. The flexible “soundsheet” vinyl record that came with it demonstrating the sounds it could produce was telling: Even in the hands of the best people they could get it sounded mediocre. I’m no engineer, but I think one of the weaknesses in the design was that the bar didn’t revolve fast enough, and the little toothed wheels delivered an audible overtone from their own “plucking” frequency which was fixed, rather than resonating at the string’s frequency like rosin-coated horsehair would. I am interested to note that this “2.0” version is reported to spin the driveshaft at 5000 rpm–I will dust off my original and see if I can determine its spin rate — if it isn’t a whole lot different, I very much doubt the sound will be.
Oh, and there is no hope of actually playing the original gizmotron now — its rubber wheels have hardened with time. It’s a museum piece only.
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