Final Project - Circuit Bending

For my final project I knew I wanted to do a project with circuit bending.  After watching the circuit bending video in class I was very inspired to try and bend a circuit myself. Like any circuit bent electronics, my work was inspired by Reed Ghazala.

I originally bought a cheap piano toy and had anticipated adding more functionality to it. However, during my experimenting I ended up damaging the part of the circuit that made the keyboard work. For a few days the toy made no sound at all so I tried connecting all of the points in any combination I could think of. Luckily I finally found a solution that created the sounds used in the final product.

I found 3 points that in combination could manipulate oscillating noises, one point controlled speed, one controlled pattern, and the other combined the original "guitar" and "piano" tones from the original instrument. This circuit also began picking up other frequencies, it is possible to pick up radio waves (which was very startling when the amp started talking unexpectedly), fluorescent lights, cell phones, and the musician's proximity. It is possible to manipulate the sound without touching the instrument, just by hovering close to the circuit.

I wanted to have these sounds playable as an instrument, since the keyboard wasn't working I did the obvious which was to put the board from the toy into a guitar. Being a guitar player I had all of the parts to do so. My first guitar was in pieces in my closet so I figured I could resurrect it as a sort of sound experiment. I added a switch to turn the circuit on and off while the guitar remained fully functional. The guitar was a simple circuit with just a bridge pickup and volume control (with a knob that goes to 11 of course).  The volume pot has a a push-pull switch to turn the toy part on. The toughest part was trying to find a space on the guitar for the circuit board to go. Due to some time constraint, I just taped it to the front of the pick guard. Ideally I would want to route some space out of the guitar to make it fit inside the body with the contacts still exposed. The wiring ended up being very complicated compared to normal guitar wiring. The batteries replaced the neck pickup since there was no room for them anywhere else.

Visually I think the instrument turned out exactly how I imagine a circuit bent guitar would look like. I chose to leave the cover off the batteries to make them obvious and I like the DIY look of the taped on circuit board. The board does get in the way of the high frets and is a bit to fragile to withstand how I treat my guitars. I have always hated the yellow paint of the guitar which is why I didn't mind possibly destroying it, it was also the reason I kept the video in color. Normally I would make most art videos about music in black in white because color makes the video attract more attention than the music and I just like the aesthetic. However I thought a guitar with such audacious sounds should have the brash color to match.

For my video I just made a demo video with little concern for it's artistic qualities, I just played what came naturally, since the added noises made me play differently. I didn't write a score or have anything I planned to play. I just wanted to show the sounds I could make. I think the sounds are very usable and I would like to use this instrument in a musical setting. I am planning on making the systems more stable and ergonomic and using this guitar whenever I'm feeling uninspired or want some more adventurous sounds for a project.

I have always wanted to incorporate some of the normally unattainable sounds of electronic music into an instrument I can play. This guitar is a step in the right direction and is maybe the only art project that I have use for once the due date has passed. I was hooked instantly when we watched the circuit bending video in class. I am interested to pursue it further and combine it with music and modify other instruments.

Here is a video of it in action: