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Finished – Circuit Bent Casio DG-20 Digital Guitar

Finally done! There are 10 bends, a low pass filter, and the strings can be triggered electronically. The trigger source is selectable – internal clock, its own internal rhythms, or external audio. Each string has and trigger enable/disable switch, and if a switch is in the disable position, the strings can be triggered by placing fingers between infrared transmitters and receivers on either side of the Bent City logo.


New project – circuit bending a Casio DG-20 guitar.

Finding some interesting things…stay tuned….

Acrylic sheet with drilling template attached…

Acrylic sheet with drilling template attached…

The other acrylic sheet with drilling template attached…

Hardware attached to acrylic sheets.


Making the Amalgamatron Jr.

While making bending notes for a Leap Frog Fridge DJ, I thought about the patterns it creates on its 42 LED display. I decided to make an enclosure that would go over the display and align a photoresistor with each LED so that each time an LED was illuminated, it would trigger a corresponding key on a circuit bent keyboard. I chose a 49-key Casio MT-240 for this project. I designed the enclosure parts in Illustrator and laser cut them from black acrylic, adding the photoresistors and a 15 pin DSUB connector to connect it to the keyboard:

I removed the LED display from another Fridge DJ and wired it in parallel with the one covered by the enclosure so that the LED patterns would be visible (the ones under the enclosure are covered of course). This 2nd display was attached to the keyboard:

Here’s the result: