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Acoustic/Electronic Clothes and Fish Controllers
How else to even describe these wonders from around the world? A team in France is responsible for this plastic skirt with speakers, contact microphones and more. They also make "audio jackets" and perform regularly wearing these fashionably loud duds. Visit their webpage from this link.
A duo in Japan has taken organic controllers to new extremes by creating musical instruments and accesories based around live fish. Of course (?) they also sell a series of darts that whistle when shot and fish shaped extension cords. Visit their homepage from this link.
Tubeheads: Two pictures of the popular Wollensac 1/4" mono Reel
to Reel. This sexy model can be found at flea markets all over the world
and offers a warm tube preamp (complete with input and output), two recording
speeds, and has a built in speaker. Perfect for the experimenter on the
go.
If you want to go further back in fidelity try the Wire Recorder which
actually imprinted sound onto a spool of special cable. Below are two examples
of this classic technology and a great page on the history of wire recorders
and more pictures can be found by clicking on the first picture or go here.
A Casio DH100 plastic saxophone: This silver wonder uses the fingering of a recorder and can act as a velocity sensitive midi breath controller. It has six sounds built in so you can just pick it up and wail as well.
The Effector consumer guitar had switches for built in effects such as distortion, autowah, delay, and vibrato. The Effector seems to favor Gibson guitar body designs. In addition to the Les Paul shown here, they made an Explorer copy available in black or white as well.
Synsonics (owned by Mattel the toy company) made a number of strange toy instruments that have unique properties. The synsonics guitar was a 1/2 size mini instrument with a built in amplifier. Below is the "Gibson Explorer" model.
Finally the Casio DG20 is a digital midi guitar that uses plastic strings and a rubber fretboard to trigger built in preset sounds or send midi notes. Of course, it also has preset rhythms, a small built in speaker, and runs on batteries.
But why stop there? These companies didn't. Here's a wonderful full
size guitar that's part Gibson Flying V, part Steinberg headless, and all
cheaply contructed Synsonic. Of course the thing sounds horrid and has
nothing to do with any of the companies it so freely borrowed it's fake
design from but dig the built in speaker right above the pickup!
Or if you want a real player try the Casio MG500, a fully pro guitar
complete with EMG OEM pickups, solid bridge and tuners, and the best midi
tracking of any guitar of it's day. Of course it looks like it's from outer
space which is why it landed here.
Effects units weren't immune to the consumer market either. The infamous Radio Shack reverb is so strangely designed it acts more like of a flanger or fuzz box than a reverb.
To make matters worse (or better depending on your view point) Radio Shack released their own version of other famous instruments. Here is the MG1, a Realistic analog synthesizer that was a slightly different version of the famous Moog company's own Rogue monosynth. Radio Shack's version added a polyphonic organ section and used more user friendly names of components such as "Voice" instead of "Oscillator" but the serious analog guts and slider interface are all there.
Next to it is the Paia Gnome. Sold as a kit users tried to assemble this creation which used a touch sensitive strip that you played by rubbing it with the attached metal stick. if you were lucky and put it together correctly you would be rewarded by hearing werid noise and surf sounds.
Or how about it's little brother the limited but nicely colored Suzuki Portachord?
A typical Optigon home unit:
Mini Amplifiers...
Mini amps are great fun. They have a fuzzlike tone when over loaded and can be thrown in a backpack or even a pocket to annoy the neighbors or other street performers. All mini amps have their own sound and tone characteristics and can be miked and used as strange sound sources.
The ellusive Zeus Micro amp and a plastic Harmony consumer amp:
The Chordorama:
The Chordorama is similar to an Optigon that uses tapes rather than
disks. It loops rhythm tracks on an 8track cartridge that can be played
by pressing on foot swtiches on the top of the unit. The loop will play
and change keys, add a bass line or additional rhythm instrument, or slow
down/speed up depending on what button is pressed. I have only seen one
of these in my life and no one I've ever spoke with (including those great
folks at 8track Heaven)
have heard of this unit. The tapes that were made for the unit are mostly
what I like to call "Country and Cheese" with a few jems thrown in here
and there. (One we call "Banjo Sammy" is quite good) 
Hear lofi samples of the Chordorama in action in RealAudio
format by clicking here
and here.
Library Of Congress "C" series tape decks:
The Library of Congress has been making tape recorders and record players
for the physically handicapped for decades. Often these units show up used
in a thrift store or at a flea market for a few bucks. They are true cassette
MONSTERS featuring a built in amp, realtime slider controlled pitch shifting,
and the ability to play a tape backwards. Click on the image to read about
these units in detail and see more pictures.
The Library of Congress also made pitch shifting record players. Dig
the classy carpet swatch covering the speaker and note the silver knob
on the front of the unit for realtime adjustment of the speed. Settings
on this model are 8,16,33, and 45 RPM and each can be shifted down to 1
RPM using this knob.
Reel to Reel decks:
Reel to reel decks lend themselves to all sorts of experimental nonsense.
It's easy to make tape loops (The first form of sampling if you will),
play a sound backwards, mix sound on sound, and many have various speed
settings which you can use to mutilate spoken word material or music quite
nicely. Reel to reels come in all shapes and sizes as well as prices. As
with most items it's best to use whatever you can find cheap and in semi
working condition and then progress to other pieces to get the features
you want from there.
A more professional stereo reel to reel deck next to a deck that was
originally used to test hearing: 
A pair of stenography 3" reel decks which usually have a speed adjustment slider for realtime manipulation:
And to finish up just a few odds and ends from the Reel world:
This page is always under construction. If you have a picture, specs, or information on gear that you think belongs here please send us email.