The K-Guitar: Korg Kaossilator and Guitar Hero Controller

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rango
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The K-Guitar: Korg Kaossilator and Guitar Hero Controller

Post by rango »

I took a plastic Guitar Hero controller apart, and mounted a Korg Kaossilator (a touchpad synth) inside of it. There was an Instructables story about it, but I added a few things.

Lest you say "bah, that's just making a holder for a Kaossilator", notice that the neck switches of the Guitar Hero toy are soldered in to the motherboard, and actually add a function that was not present in the original Kaosillator (sustain).

Here is the guts of the Kaossilator. The rainbow ribbon cable with the 90 degree bend is where I tapped into the motherboard. Please excuse the poor cellphone pix.
Image


The original guy wanted to be able to remove his, to change the battery, and use it normally. I wanted to make mine permanent, and gig with it. I put a regular quarter-inch jack in it for audio out (Gibson Les Paul, natch). I added a jack for power, then made a battery box to clip on the strap, full of AAs. Here it is at a later stage.

Image

I decided to go all out, and put a wireless instrument transmitter on it. This made two things hanging off the strap, the battery pack and the wireless transmitter. For size comparison, here's the original toy beside another fake Les Paul, a 1974 Aims Custom. Note the funky maple neck with black markers.

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I had a gig coming up and wanted to play it live, but it wasn't quite done. Here it is with a hastily constructed Pepsi carton cardboard top, spray-painted yellow (the original guy did yellow on his, I thought it looked nice). The freezer-tape markings are to identify the new buttons' function to me. I only got it to this point a few hours before the gig. The whammy is cosmetic only, plus it's wrong. Unless it was a Bigsby...

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So, how did it work? Tremendous. The band played 'Wild Thing' and 'You Really Got Me Goin' and I vamped along with it, and played some solos. I had set the key to use in it, and set it for pentatonic. You couldn't play a wrong note. I walked out in the crowd, and offered random drunks (this was a bar) to just scribble on the touchpad. They loved it.

But the funniest part? At the end of the night an extremely drunk guy came up to me and offered to buy it.

Drunkguy: whaddya take fer it?
Me: it's not for sale, it's just a project I'm working on, it's not done.
Drunkguy: im leeevin in the morning for California. I wanna give it to my brother. He's a musical genius on guitar.
Me: it's not a guitar.
Drunkguy: he's a GEEEEENUIS I tell you. He can figger out anything.
Me: it's not finished. I have a nice, paisley top that snaps on neatly. This is just a Pepsi carton taped to it.
Drunkguy: OMG, I LOVVVVVE PEPSI! YOU MEAN YOU CAN FLIP IT OVER AND IT WILL SAY PEPSI?
Me: er, not really it's cut to this shape and if you turn it over it won't fit.
Drunkguy: so youmean I could tape a Pepsi carton to it and it would say PEPSI?
Me: well, kind of. You could use this for a template. You're pretty drunk, I can give you the plans, and your brother can
Drunkguy: (yelling by now) I'LL GIVE YOU $400 FOR IT!
Me: sorry it's not for sale. It's not finished, I still need to
Drunkguy: (waving a fistful of 20s) I'LL GIVE YOU $500 FOR IT!!!
Me: sold.

I gave him my number, never heard back. I guess his brother figured it out.
I felt dirty. And I never even got a good picture of it. But I threw in the cheapie wireless as well. And bought another Kaossilator...
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AlexTheBassist
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Re: The K-Guitar: Korg Kaossilator and Guitar Hero Controlle

Post by AlexTheBassist »

Nice story, dude. So, you plans are to make another one? Amirite? If so, keep us updated on this.
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rango
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Re: The K-Guitar: Korg Kaossilator and Guitar Hero Controlle

Post by rango »

I keep telling myself I will make another one, but I keep not doing it. I bought a 'pointy guitar' controller, but it will make the 1/4" jack a little different. I got another Les Paul shaped one, I am more familiar with that.
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