| Author |
Topic: Guitarzilla 1 and 2 |
chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 11 Apr 2015 1:38 pm |
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I got a request to post about Guitarzillas 1 and 2 and since I’m feeling a little narcissistic today, I thought I’d reply.
Back in 1987, I was playing steel guitar on the film score to ‘The Lost Boys’ and I had machined out the necks on my Super Pro for pups on both ends of the necks. That way, when I wove drill rods and assorted things in the strings for the prepared guitar sounds, I could blend in what happened on each side the rod(s) and get a more complex sound.
To expand on this, I made a console guitar with 3 necks, a short scale 10-string, a longer scale 10-string and a 5 string bass neck. Each neck had pups on both ends with a blend knob. Then in addition to the “usual†stuff I wove in the strings, I made some rods and plates (thank you Harry Bertoia) things that I wove in the strings and mounted over the pups. It got named Guitarzilla. Originally, I would put it in front of the Super Pro (which I converted back to single pups) so I could do pitched material and complex stuff without having to get up.
This was an outdoor concert at the Schindler House here in LA June 04
And this was at a concert at Podewil in Berlin November 04
Because I couldn’t bring both the Super Pro and Guitarzilla to Berlin, I made a single neck 12-string titanium guitar to bolt onto the back of Guitarzilla for the pitched material. That version of Guitarzilla, in the case, with all the stuff weighed 110lbs and schlepping that through all the airports was very not fun.
I decided to build a single neck 12-string and 8-string bass, lighter weight version out of titanium tube and aluminum. Guitarzilla 2, and it clocked in at 28lbs.
This is the video of me doing a short solo at Deke's Guitar Geek Festival:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plk8H9f69Rs
And this is my solo at the Men of Steel concert in San Pedro back in 2013 that I just uploaded to youtube:
https://youtu.be/s4IUQgU0sA4 |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 11 Apr 2015 1:58 pm
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My grandson wants to be an astronaut.
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Ken Campbell
From:
Ferndale, Montana
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Posted 11 Apr 2015 2:20 pm
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| Ian Rae wrote: |
| My grandson wants to be an astronaut. |
I'm sorry I'm such an idiot. Can you please explain the relevance of your comment? I simply didn't get it....I have poor social skills myself.... |
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Ken Campbell
From:
Ferndale, Montana
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Posted 11 Apr 2015 2:21 pm
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Chas,
Way way cool. Your craftmanship and sense of aesthetic is spectacular, as is your musicianship! Thanks for posting! |
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Jon Light (deceased)
From:
Saugerties, NY
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Posted 11 Apr 2015 4:01 pm
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| Spectacular, Chas. |
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Lane Gray
From:
Topeka, KS
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Posted 11 Apr 2015 4:41 pm
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Ken, I took Ian's comment to mean something along the lines of it looking very "space age".
_________________
2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects |
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Ken Campbell
From:
Ferndale, Montana
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Posted 11 Apr 2015 5:03 pm
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| Ah. I guess that makes sense. I'm pretty removed from pop culture these days and I never know.... |
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Steve Collins
From:
Alaska, USA
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Posted 11 Apr 2015 10:00 pm
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| Pure genius stuff going on there Chas, absolutely beautiful sounds, instruments and attitude. Inspiring. |
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Ian Rae
From:
Redditch, England
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Posted 12 Apr 2015 1:47 am
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Sorry, Ken - my comment was a bit whimsical. I was gazing upon Chas's machines with the same wonder as a five-year-old staring up at a space shuttle.
I also have the greatest respect for avant-garde music, having played some - not on steel guitar but on trombone, which also lends itself to long sounds of infinitely variable pitch.
We need people like Chas to patrol the frontiers of musical space.
_________________
Make sleeping dogs tell the truth!
Homebuilt keyless U12 7x5, Excel keyless U12 8x8, Williams keyless U12 7x8, Telonics rack and 15" cabs |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 12 Apr 2015 3:41 am
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I am digging the MOS concert after maxing on The Future of Steel Guitar. You had some rapt steelers to your right,
but they dug it. I could have the MOS music on all morning.
Is that something like Baby Blue attached to the back of Guitarzilla? The 5-string bass remains my favorite.
G II is getting more portable; all the work is strikingly beautiful. I share Ian's awe at it.
_________________
Those that say don't know; those that know don't say.--Buddy Emmons |
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Bud Angelotti
From:
Larryville, NJ, USA
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Posted 12 Apr 2015 10:28 am
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Chas, Would you consider these analog overtone machines?
_________________
Just 'cause I look stupid, don't mean I'm not. |
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chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 12 Apr 2015 5:01 pm
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Thank you all for the very nice words.
| Quote: |
| Is that something like Baby Blue attached to the back of Guitarzilla? |
Charlie, the guitar on the back of GTZ_1 is a titanium 12-string.
The blue thing on the front right of GTZ_2 is The Replicant, which gives me the rod and plate sounds.
Bud, to be honest, I've never thought of them in those terms. I simply think of them as instruments. |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 12 Apr 2015 5:52 pm
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| just what are those sticky uppy things and how do they work? |
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chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 12 Apr 2015 6:13 pm
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Chris, the sticky uppy things are Inconel 718 rods welded to a steel plate that is mounted over 3 guitar pups. The plate is tool steel and as you know, it has to be magnetic for the pups to "hear" it. I can bow them or strike them with a hammered dulcimer mallet and they make a complex sound. Keep in mind that like a string, which doesn't make a lot of sound by it self, when the rods are struck and make the plate vibrate, because it's mounted over pickups, the sound can be huge.
This is a 3 minute clip that I did using the Replicant as the main source of sound. This is all struck rod sounds and there are other small "supportive" sounds, but most of it is what the Replicant can do.
https://soundcloud.com/shobud/replicant-ex-16-44/s-MF7cb |
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Billy McCombs
From:
Bakersfield California, USA
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Posted 12 Apr 2015 8:40 pm
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Amazing.
_________________
78 Emmons PP,Great tone.82 Emmons SKH #56 |
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Steve Collins
From:
Alaska, USA
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Posted 12 Apr 2015 9:52 pm
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| Chas, you look like a busy person, and I don't mean to take up your time, but I am curious. In pics 4&5 of Zilla II There is some circuitry visible. What have you got going on there? Specifically, what are the boards on the pots for? |
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Per Berner
From:
Skovde, Sweden
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Posted 12 Apr 2015 9:58 pm
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W. O. W! Amazing pieces of engineering. 
Found the soundclips. Weird and wonderful, but I must say I prefer chicken pickin' 
Last edited by Per Berner on 13 Apr 2015 6:41 am; edited 2 times in total |
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Bob Russell
From:
Virginia, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2015 6:29 am
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Amazing sounds, Chris, like an orchestra playing Penderecki or Xenakis but coming from a steel guitar frame. I love it!
_________________
Lots of stringy things, many of them slidey. |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 13 Apr 2015 8:00 am
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[quote="chas smith"]
/quote]
I can seriously see this with a strap, then put it back on;
a new kind of bolt-on.
I know the drooling is messy, but this stuff is porno. 
_________________
Those that say don't know; those that know don't say.--Buddy Emmons |
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Frank Freniere
From:
The First Coast
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Posted 13 Apr 2015 9:01 am
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| What the... |
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chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2015 11:29 am
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Steve, the circuit boards are for the active pups and the ones on the end of the guitar are for volume and tone for each neck. On the top changer end of the guitar, are blend knobs. Front is blend for the Replicant and the E9. Middle is blend between the E9 and Bass, bottom is blend between the bass pups. I can literally blend everything together.
I say changer-end because originally I machined it for 4 pedals and 4 knees to operate a "bird cage" changer, which I think is the best sounding Sho-Bud changer. But after all that I was thinking, what am I doing? If I need a pedal guitar, I'll bring one. So the 12 string tuning is a hybrid diatonic E9, with pedals up and down.
| Quote: |
| but I must say I prefer chicken pickin' |
Per, I can't argue with that. |
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chas smith R.I.P.
From:
Encino, CA, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2015 11:37 am
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| Bob, as fate would have it, back in the 60's, when I got the lp of Penderecki's 'Dies Irae', it changed my path in music and one of the pieces I had to analyze was Xenakis' Pithoprakta. |
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Tommy Detamore
From:
Floresville, Texas
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Posted 13 Apr 2015 1:34 pm
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Upon my first visit with Chas years ago at his home in Encino, I knew immediately I was in the presence of a true genius.
_________________
Tommy Detamore
Source Audio, Goodrich Sound, and Stringjoy Authorized Dealer
www.cherryridgestudio.com
www.steelguitartracksonline.com |
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Bob Russell
From:
Virginia, USA
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Posted 13 Apr 2015 1:47 pm
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| chas smith wrote: |
| Bob, as fate would have it, back in the 60's, when I got the lp of Penderecki's 'Dies Irae', it changed my path in music and one of the pieces I had to analyze was Xenakis' Pithoprakta. |
I also spent some time poring over Pithoprakta and Penderecki's "Threnody". Had I been smart enough to stay away from academia, I think it might have changed my path too. That was beautiful music... and so is yours.
_________________
Lots of stringy things, many of them slidey. |
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