Community hub
Recent from talks
Contribute something to knowledge base
Content stats: 0 posts, 0 articles, 0 media, 0 notes
Members stats: 0 subscribers, 0 contributors, 0 moderators, 0 supporters
Subscribers
Supporters
Contributors
Moderators
Hub AI
The Gizmo AI simulator
(@The Gizmo_simulator)
Hub AI
The Gizmo AI simulator
(@The Gizmo_simulator)
The Gizmo
The Gizmotron, originally developed and called the Gizmo, is an effects device for the electric guitar and bass guitar. It was invented in 1969 and patented in 1975 by the English rock musicians Kevin Godley and Lol Creme of the British rock group 10cc.
Taped or permanently attached to the body of an instrument, the original Gizmotron used small, motor driven plastic/rubber wheels to make the strings vibrate, yielding resonant, synthesizer-like sounds from each string, similar to a hurdy-gurdy. The device was famously used by Jimmy Page on parts of the Led Zeppelin album In Through the Out Door.
Musitronics, the company originally licensed to manufacture the commercial version of the Gizmotron, released the product to the public in 1979. Quality was inconsistent. According to Musitronics engineer Mike Beigel, "The product, though desired by many musicians at the time, simply could not be reliably manufactured and further – even at best – only worked on some notes of the instrument, guitar or bass." In a bid to solve problems with the Gizmotron, Musitronics hired Bob Moog to design an electronic device to "mask the inadequacies of the still unperfected product". Moog gave his opinion that he did not know how to "make it sound good enough" and advised that the project should be abandoned.
Plagued with design and manufacturing problems, the Musitronics Gizmotron did not live up to expectations and was a commercial failure. Production of the Musitronics Gizmotron ended in 1981 when the manufacturer filed for bankruptcy.
The Gizmotron 2.0 was developed by Aaron Kipness in 2013, and released in 2016. The Gizmotron 2.0 was sufficiently different to the original Gizmo in construction that Kipness was awarded a new patent for the design.
The original Gizmo was first used on 10cc's instrumental "Gizmo My Way", a song arranged as a type of laid back beach music, where it appears as a slide guitar effect and sustained background effect. "Gizmo My Way" was the B-side to "The Wall Street Shuffle". 10cc's second album, Sheet Music (1974) included more uses of The Gizmo, most notably on the track "Old Wild Men". Its presence is heard throughout most of the track as a unique shimmering background guitar effect. The Gizmo was also used on the Sheet Music track "Baron Samedi".[citation needed]
The Gizmo continued to be used on 10cc's subsequent albums The Original Soundtrack (1975) and How Dare You! (1976) on the tracks "Blackmail", "Brand New Day", "How Dare You", "Lazy Ways", "Iceberg", and "Don't Hang Up". Godley and Creme continued to use the Gizmo after they had left 10cc.
The Gizmo's ability to create a wide range of sounds was central to the production of Godley and Creme's first post-10cc project, the 1977 triple concept album, Consequences. Godley and Creme left 10cc to create Consequences which was intended to be a promotional album to market the "Gizmo". According to Paul Gambaccini's sleeve notes for Consequences, 10cc were unable to afford an orchestra for their early albums, so Creme and Godley imagined an effects unit that would enable a guitar to produce violin-like sounds (this was some years before the development of digital sampling). They brought their concept to the University of Manchester, where John McConnell created the original prototype of the Gizmo.
The Gizmo
The Gizmotron, originally developed and called the Gizmo, is an effects device for the electric guitar and bass guitar. It was invented in 1969 and patented in 1975 by the English rock musicians Kevin Godley and Lol Creme of the British rock group 10cc.
Taped or permanently attached to the body of an instrument, the original Gizmotron used small, motor driven plastic/rubber wheels to make the strings vibrate, yielding resonant, synthesizer-like sounds from each string, similar to a hurdy-gurdy. The device was famously used by Jimmy Page on parts of the Led Zeppelin album In Through the Out Door.
Musitronics, the company originally licensed to manufacture the commercial version of the Gizmotron, released the product to the public in 1979. Quality was inconsistent. According to Musitronics engineer Mike Beigel, "The product, though desired by many musicians at the time, simply could not be reliably manufactured and further – even at best – only worked on some notes of the instrument, guitar or bass." In a bid to solve problems with the Gizmotron, Musitronics hired Bob Moog to design an electronic device to "mask the inadequacies of the still unperfected product". Moog gave his opinion that he did not know how to "make it sound good enough" and advised that the project should be abandoned.
Plagued with design and manufacturing problems, the Musitronics Gizmotron did not live up to expectations and was a commercial failure. Production of the Musitronics Gizmotron ended in 1981 when the manufacturer filed for bankruptcy.
The Gizmotron 2.0 was developed by Aaron Kipness in 2013, and released in 2016. The Gizmotron 2.0 was sufficiently different to the original Gizmo in construction that Kipness was awarded a new patent for the design.
The original Gizmo was first used on 10cc's instrumental "Gizmo My Way", a song arranged as a type of laid back beach music, where it appears as a slide guitar effect and sustained background effect. "Gizmo My Way" was the B-side to "The Wall Street Shuffle". 10cc's second album, Sheet Music (1974) included more uses of The Gizmo, most notably on the track "Old Wild Men". Its presence is heard throughout most of the track as a unique shimmering background guitar effect. The Gizmo was also used on the Sheet Music track "Baron Samedi".[citation needed]
The Gizmo continued to be used on 10cc's subsequent albums The Original Soundtrack (1975) and How Dare You! (1976) on the tracks "Blackmail", "Brand New Day", "How Dare You", "Lazy Ways", "Iceberg", and "Don't Hang Up". Godley and Creme continued to use the Gizmo after they had left 10cc.
The Gizmo's ability to create a wide range of sounds was central to the production of Godley and Creme's first post-10cc project, the 1977 triple concept album, Consequences. Godley and Creme left 10cc to create Consequences which was intended to be a promotional album to market the "Gizmo". According to Paul Gambaccini's sleeve notes for Consequences, 10cc were unable to afford an orchestra for their early albums, so Creme and Godley imagined an effects unit that would enable a guitar to produce violin-like sounds (this was some years before the development of digital sampling). They brought their concept to the University of Manchester, where John McConnell created the original prototype of the Gizmo.