Holding Toy Rayguns and Noisemakers up to Your Electric Guitar's Pick-Ups?

[KenElevenShadows]

I'm interested in knowing what toys (ray guns, voice-activated devices, etc.) people have used to hold up to their electric guitar's pickups to obtain interesting sounds. Which ones do you use? Who makes it exactly (model, manufacturer, etc.)? The weirder, the better! Thanks!

[Bunny Knutson]

Before Eddie Van Halen did this (he stole it from me! ;) ), I used to play an electric drill through my pick-ups, with distortion. Not like Paul Gilbert, the drill didn't have any guitar picks attached. I just made the drill sound rhythmically into the pick-ups for the verse of one of our songs. Fun!

[mplspaul]

I've never used it but a t.v. remote makes a rapid chirpy/clicky sound through the pups.

[Wow]

I farted in my pickup and it sounded nasty. Believe it or not , the smell came out of my 1/2 stack. :D :freak:

[freddynl]

A trainwagon Model ? 4 wheels open case Brand Marklin Must have been around 1970 so nothing new about this.

[Gtoledo3]

I usually use a Radio Shack cheapo tape recorder by the pickups. I just record whatever sound I want on to the radio shack recorder first.

[Wow]

Speaking of an E-bow , has anyone used this ? Give me some feedback on what types of cool sounds can you get, is it worth the money? thanks,

[Franknputer]

I can't remember the name, but I had what I called a "Giggle Ball". It was black, about the size of a golf ball, and had 2 metal contacts on the bottom that, when you put your fingers on both of them & completed the circuit, emitted a weird electronic laugh. It would transmit this sound through guitar pickups really well - awesome effect! Hadn't thought about that one in a couple years - thanks for the reminder! :D

[Alndln]

[quote]Originally posted by Ken/Eleven Shadows: [b]I'm interested in knowing what toys (ray guns, voice-activated devices, etc.) people have used to hold up to their electric guitar's pickups to obtain interesting sounds. [/b][/quote]Around 1972,Yamaha gave a prototype of one of their first polyphonic synths(forget the model)for our keyboardists to try in the studio,so I naturally put my pickups as close to the thing as I could to get a variety of weird sounds.Thanks for reminding me,I must try it with my Korg.

[bearded yeti]

I've used a vibrator on it a few times, no joke! White Chocolate/The artist formerly known as Ashley

[surfmonkey]

Oh Ashley.. you beat me to it! The vibrator makes a cool sound, plus you can't beat the shock value of whipping it out on stage.

[Meriphew_dup1]

[quote]Originally posted by C.M.: [b]Speaking of an E-bow , has anyone used this ? Give me some feedback on what types of cool sounds can you get, is it worth the money? thanks,[/b][/quote]C.M. - The Ebow is a very cool device, though it takes a while to get the hang of it. If you want to hear the master of Ebow, listen to some of Bill Nelson's work post 1982.

[Botch.]

When the Van Halen video came out with the drill, I thought it'd look really cool on the electric fiddle during "Orange Blossom". My fiddle had a piezo pickup, however, and didn't pick up electromagnetic energy. Then I came on the idea of chucking a felt polishing bit into the drill, rubbed it with fiddler's rosin, and could get a sound out of it. It didn't sound much different than a bow, but it was good for visual effect for a couple gigs. Ebows? Real Men use Real Bows!! :D :p

[Franknputer]

[quote]Originally posted by surfmonkey: [b]Oh Ashley.. you beat me to it! The vibrator makes a cool sound, plus you can't beat the shock value of whipping it out on stage.[/b][/quote]You must be using the 120v model? :D

[KenElevenShadows]

I use an E-Bow for several Nectar songs. They are on MP3.com under "NectarLA", or follow the links from the Nectar portion of my web site http://www.elevenshadows.com/nectar and you should be able to hear it. Or heck, you can always order a CD from CDBaby.com... Anyway, it's pretty easy to use if you are using it on one-string. It basically adds infinite sustain. The closer you hold it to the pick-up, the louder and more intense the sound gets. If you get really good with the thing, you can get arco string sounds, hop from one string to another and get muted sounds, etc. I find that it's easier to get good sounds out of it in conjunction with a volume pedal. I also play through a delay, but that's probably more of an aesthetic thing, but I really like the sound of it. On several new Nectar songs, I am using a slide and an E-Bow simultaneously, great fun. I have one of the newer ones, which allows you to play an octave up as well. Fun!!!

[KenElevenShadows]

Sorry, I forgot to list the Nectar songs. It's on "Hands" (intro and another part of the song) and "Will I" (during the chorus).

[Shawn1272]

I second the vote for the E-Bow. A must have around the studio. But it is a little tricky to get the hang of it. I just used a drill on a song a few weeks ago. Totally fit with what we were trying to do. Here's a trick I came up with: (although someone else may have thought of this too) Split the signal out of the guitar before the amp. A buffered splitter is ideal. Run guitar signal 1 into the regular amp and guitar signal 2 into a small, battery powered amp (Marshall, Fender, Danelectro all make one) Have the guitar player move the small amp around the pickup and see what happens. You won't be disappointed if you're looking for really weird sounds. Also run effects off of guitar signal 1 (delay, modulation) before or after the splitter. The beauty of this is that you can mic the regular amp AND create a feedback loop with lots of control over it. Works great in the studio. And if the guitar player has to have some feedback on a song but doesn't want to be in the same room as his cabinet, this is a good way to achieve feedback without having to be in front of a Marshall on 11. Good luck S

[The Bear Jew]

Stay with me on this one... it's a little wacky: A few years ago, some total genious decided that people didn't need to work as hard as they were when eating lollipops, so they invented this "lollipop twirler" thing. Basically, it's a little tube-shaped, plastic thing with a motor in it. You stick a lollipop in it, press a button on the tube, and the lollipop spins around, which eliminates the need for you to spin in in your own mouth. Obviously, this thing is a totally stupid and useless. How do I know of this item, ou ask? I dated a woman who decided this was the coolest thing ever. We stopped dating soon after she bought this ridiculous thing. For some reason, I wound up with the "twirler." It's generally useless (I hate lollipops), but it makes some really cool noises when you use it over your guitar's pick ups. Big fun, and it looks bizzare.

[Hippie]

When wireless guitar units first came out they were very prone to external RF. One night, I accidently discovered that using the wireless unit with a Wah-Wah pedal fully depressed, I could pick up truckers CB conversations. It was a good dead-air time filler at the gigs. It gave a whole new meaning to the term 'making your guitar talk'. Matt

[PBBPaul]

I will third the EBow vote. I've been using one for several years now; most often with slide. The sounds you can get with it are wild. I bring it out when we play live for the solo on "Little Red Rooster". It breaks up a traditional, low-key, slow blues and brings in a real nice and unexpected psychedelic kinda thing. I play most of the song with my PRS set at the single-coil neck pup with the volume at about half and even at that setting, the EBow can make it scream. The audience digs it too. A great toy!

[doc taz]

[quote]Originally posted by White Chocolate: [b]I've used a vibrator on it a few times, no joke! White Chocolate/The artist formerly known as Ashley[/b][/quote]Hey man, me too! Power drills aren't bad either. Anything for the ladies :D

[aeon]

a link to a post from over a year ago: http://www.musicgearnetwork.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=19;t=001003 :D

[patrick_dont_fret]

Wow, cool stuff. Does this stuff work on bass too? Even with soapbar pups? I have a bass with regular p-bass pups, so I know that those'll work.

[Hippie]

I bet you get some funny looks at the gigs when you whip out that vibrator. :freak: