re: #37 makeitstop

The gizmo was a mechanical version, using little spinning wheels and motors to ‘pluck’ the strings.

When I lived in Philly, a couple of friends worked at a company called MusiTronics in New Jersey (maker of the Mu-Tron pedal), which was working on development of the Gizmo re-named the GizmoTron. It was a non-stop headache for the company, it was an ‘intrusive’ install (meaning you had to drill holes in the guitar to fasten it), it was big and clunky, and after trying to get it into production for a couple of years they simply gave up on it.

There’s a company that’s making an updated version, but it still looks like if you installed it on a guitar it wouldn’t be of much use other than being a ‘Gizmotron guitar.’

I remember reading once Stewart and Gouldman (5 cc of the 10!) tried to work out a deal with bubblegum producers Super K Productions (Jerry Kasenetz and Jeffrey Katz) to do songwriting and full productions of those songs for Super K to distribute as the label in America.

The Gizmo was figured in because they thought they could go for their own “Wall of Sound” that would be great for pop music all done by two guys. Another version of a hit factory.

Don’t know how true that all is. But I do have some familiarity with Super K and their ways.