Gizmodo: circuit bent

Speak 'n Spell Mates With Rock Band Guitar

Mark Wilson — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:52:40 EDT

It may be the ultimate circuit bending mod. One man, nay, god has combined a Speak 'n Spell with a Rock Band guitar.

The resulting Speak n' Spellbinder instrument captures all of the analog randomness of a Speak 'n Spell, mapped to the frets, strum button and whammy bar of a Rock Band guitar. I wish that modder Aj Gannon really started thrashing in the below video, but we'll have to settle for a pretty complete and organized tour of the device instead. [Getlofi via MAKE]

Listening Test: It's music tech week at Gizmodo.

16 Circuit-Bent Toys: The Track List to Your Nightmares

Sean Fallon — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:30:00 EDT

From toy guitars to the Furby Gurdy, modders have been taking cute, cuddly kids' toys and transforming them into the demented, terrifying instruments of your nightmares for years now. The folks at OObject have collected a whole album's worth of these twisted circuit-bent toy tunes for your listening displeasure. [OObject]

Furby Gurdy Circuit Bent Instrument Brings Our Nightmares to Life

John Mahoney — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EDT

The hurdy gurdy is one of, if not the coolest old-timey instruments. Great sound, beautiful craftsmanship, not a lot of talent required to get a basic sound out of it, and so on. But David Cranmer's Furby Gurdy turns all of that on its head, replacing the dulcet hurdy tones with the synchronized moans of four brutally scalped Furbies wailing in unison. The rig can also be used as a sequencer using an appropriately anachronistic screw and rotating cam mechanism. The whole spectacle gets shown off on video, if you dare.

Cranmer's quite a prolific circuit bender. His other creations including version one of the Furby Gurdy, each with complete photo documentation and thankfully, not all as nighmarish, can be found on his site. [Nervous Squirrel via Neatorama]

"Circuit Bent" Toy Guitars, My New Geek Fetish

Mark Wilson — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:55:00 EDT

Circuit bending is by no means a new idea. Through the clever short-circuiting of normal electronics, modders have been inventing some pretty incredible sound effects for years (the Speak & Spell is a notable example). But with the rise of Guitar Hero, or more appropriately, Guitar Hero knock-off toys, circuit bending may be experiencing a Renaissance. Preloaded with both music to manipulate and speakers to celebrate the distortion, cheap toy guitars are the canvas. Rocking out with miniature, pink plastic guitars is the art.

Here are some of our favorite examples of circuit-bent toy guitars.