The original Godley / Creme Gizmotron

[tinbottom1]

I still have one just like the one shown but unfortunately all of the rubber components have perished, the rubber wheels and the rubber arms that held the wheels in place. It made o lot of noise when attached to my Stratocaster but was quieter on a Maton Phil Manning Stereo.

Did a few home recordings using it way back...I should upload them.

[TODB0AMER]

It's supposed to be incredible with bottle neck slide!

[Negativerything]

before i read on how the ebow worked, i thought i could make my own, and thought of this, except for just one string, because i thought thats how the ebow was doing it.

[kornbelt]

i want one

[iammoonami]

Thanks for posting this. The modern day electronic version is called "E-bow". Look it up, they're about $80

[TouchingYou]

@iammoonami No... it sounds like this has a completely different sound. It sounds like melodic dentist drills, and i LOVE the sound and wish I had one.

[angieskidney]

now I see why you always were up late :P 

[mjedelman]

I saw G&C demo this at the NAMM show in 1978 or 79, talked to them, and ordered one. Luckily it never came ;-) G&C themselves admitted that the prototype required constant fiddling to make it work and the commercial version never quite worked right. It was of course killed by the availability of guitar synthesizers not long after.

[herrfilm]

cool

[jdb83xl]

cool

[angieskidney]

Hey Chris that is one instrument you never told me about! And here I thought you told me about them all! :P

[Harbec]

I hate a Gizmotron. It's because of that product that Musitronics went of business. I miss Mu-Tron.

[OUTSIDETHEBOCKS]

So....is this device still manufactored? How rare are they? How many were actually made? Considering the micro-technology today.....has anyone ever thought about expanding on something like this?

A lifetime of gratitude for your post, Brother. Just remember: We ARE the music!!!!!

Love Wins.....Every Time ~

OUTSIDETHEBOCKS

[ItTheIt]

@OUTSIDETHEBOCKS No, they went under in 1980 or so. I am very surprised to see one in working order all these years later considering those wheels tended to break even when not used. It was used on a few songs the best example and best use of it I think would have to be the intro to In The Evening by Zep.

[TouchingYou]

@ItTheIt I thought that was Jimmy Page on violin bow guitar. Is it really the Gizmotron??

[PaulBarte]

That thing must have chewed strings up...

[audiotrax2000]

Wow!  Never thought I'd see this on You Tube :)

[analogspam]

I don't know how you kept the spinning wheels from breaking off. Every one I've had had broken wheels or they broke when I even looked at them funny. Don't think you can buy one and actually use it, they are not useable at all now, they barely worked 30 years ago when the plastic was new.

[garbeaj]

This is an IMPOSSIBLY rare effect. First time I've ever seen one in the hands of a human being actually using it and it works...Incredible video.

[tinbottom1]

There were songs (tunes) called Gizmo My Way and Submarine that I still have on the flip side of 10CC and Godley & Creme singles that highlight the Gizmotron. Still have the Consequences box set featuring Peter Cook.

I had my Gizmotron attached to a Phil Manning Custom Stereo guitar with mounting tape and there wasn't any damage.

Somewhere I have a roughly recorded tune I wrote using the Gizmotron...I'll have to do some digging around !

[Barkmann44]

Yeah I have one in Australia as well but have the same issue, the rubber supports have perished which is a real shame, it made some great sounds in the studio back in the early 80's. Not sure how I can rebuild it.

[tinbottom1]

I live in Australia and bought a gizmotron in the late 70's. I still have mine but over time the rubber wheels and their rubber supports have perished and are in pieces.

[cardwell]

I remember hearing Godley and Creme talking about this on BBC Radio 1 when it was just new. I always imagined it was a hand-held device with just one wheel which you held up to the string. Don't you reckon the EBow (one of which I just recently acquired) made it instantly redundant?

[Mikemaniax]

Maybe, But you can't sustain all 6 strings at the same time with the eBow. To me, the eBow sounds a bit temperamental, because you need to find a certain sweet spot on the string before it actually starts to resonate, whereas the Gizmo had full contact with the string whereever you put it.

[Trondoc]

Hey everybody! It's Chris Dale!

[belalakaperal]

i will pay you one jillion dollars for that

[SAMRONTOS]

Thanks for posting that. I still have mine from the 1980s which is in mint condition. I believe I have the only Gizmotron in Australia. But it is not installed on my strat and I will not be damaging my Ibanez Jem for it. I would love to hear how it sounds though because the opening of Led Zeppelin's "In the Evening" is simply amazing.

[drinkdrank]

would you be interested in selling it??

I need it so my band can do in the evening

this is a serious offer

name your price

[zenmachinefilms]

Great to see this video. But oy! What a pain it must have been to work with. However, if one thinks back to 1975 or so, there was nothing like it in existence.

Consequences is a very strange album by Godley and Creme that has a lot of the Gizmo on it if anyone wants to listen.

[pazzensutra]

I have always wanted to see a Gizmotron demonstration..........WHAT A PIECE OF JUNK!! It's a good thing Godley and Creme went into videos because this thing sucks!!

[econoroller]

gone are the days of electro-mechanical devices like this (and the oil-can delay, etc.) but they live on in recordings like "in the evening" by Led Zeppelin. The intro is a GIZMOTRON. It's cool that people are doing hard work to preserve these historical devices, particularly these days when everything is imprinted on a microchip. If the GIZMOTRON had some improvements in it's reliability (and availability) it may have caught on, but even less complex devices like the e-bow didn't sell much.

[phnx4life]

My name is 3D and let me 3D you in my own special way!

[2pandora4]

CHRIS! this is great! Mary Anne

[FritzOmnibus]

I don't know where you found this but it's amazing that you found one that works and the wheels haven't all decomposed! It certainly generates a lot of noise. I like the idea of the thing but it looks like the commercial model doesn't quite live up to the prototype that Godly Creme used in the studio.

Yes, and I want one too.

[Sonictheblueblur]

Yes. My friend here, Chris Dale, spent from... what was it, either 2003 or 2005 up to the time now to repair it, and I think it still doesn't function completely properly...

And you wouldn't believe how many other things he has. mellotrons, a birotron that he's fixing, a levitron, orchastron (something like that) and sooo much more. He's amazing XD

[FritzOmnibus]

that's a good friend to have, because all those instruments have a unique character and require a lot of care. it's also great that some electronic music devices become classics, because most are discarded in relatively short order, especially in the digital age.

[Sonictheblueblur]

X3 yeah i've noticed. I played that guitar for fun aswell X3 that thing is so cool.

And he's the only one in North American who has a known working one X3

[tapediskmagic]

Actually many of the wheels and their connectors had decomposed. I had to put them back together like a jigsaw puzzle, use special adhesives, then seal any cracks with silicone and make molds of the wheels, then re-attach everything. It took several years, and was very painstaking but it works to original spec now.

[shame69]

I want one! GIMME GIMME GIMME!

[Sonictheblueblur]

X3 i know i know. I can't give you one since they are so rare, ut I can gived u a cookie =3