HISTORY / INFO:
Got this from the thrift store for 50 cents. It has a speed knob, whammy bar, the 'strummer' which activates two different guitar riff sounds depening on which direction you play it, and 3 lighted buttons which flash to the music and can activate the 3 different songs. The three songs include the Sesame Street Theme, the ABC song, and another one which I can remember. The songs include a backing drum track.
It took me about a year and a half to complete this one. I started it when I was laid off from my job in April 2004. To keep myself from going crazy, I would take breaks from the job search to poke around. Eventually I had 3 pages worth of notes. I had originally intended to wire them all but the problem of not having enough parts was in my way. Money was extremely tight at the time so the only thing I could do was try to trim down the number of bends that I would incorporate. I figured out how many push buttons and toggle switches I had and narrowed down the field. Since there were some bend points that had quite a few pairings assigned to them, I made up a crib sheet so I knew how many 'extensions' each point had to have. I went out and bought this sweet red velvet box. I then added some brass hinges for durability.
I was about to build it when I realized that if I built it, I would not have any parts to build anything else during my unemployment. So, I packed the little red elmo guitar into its future box along with all my schematics and drawings and went about bending other things with fewer bends.
A year and a half later, in August of 2005, I finally picked up the box again. I had since gotten a job and bought all sorts of switches. I had also bent quite a few instruments, including the infamous Drunken Sailor Flanger pedal. I got out my cheat sheet, drew up where I wanted all the bends in the box and soldered up all the wires. This is where the fun began. After cramming all the wires, the wire for one fo the connections had snapped off. Having already had to pull the wires through the box twice already (after several small mishaps), I decided to leave those bends off and continue on.
Now remember, I wrote my notes a year and a half ago. I knew that I had carefully planned out what connections I needed and what bends were going to be wired. As I started wiring up the connections to the toggles and push buttons, I started noticing that I had quite a few extra wires hanging around. I checked over and over in my notes and just wasn't finding them all. It was an interesting experience. In the end, I had some points that I had marked as needing 5 connections and I swear that my bending notes only ever showed 1 possibly mod for that point and I had crossed it out in favor of another one. So I ended up with some wires that never got connected at all. It was all rather strange, but in the end, I am very happy with how the simple black blob toy turned out. For such a small gizmo, it certain had quite a fwe cool bends in it.
PRE-MODIFICATION PICTURES:
MODIFICATIONS:
1) 1/4" audio out - This thing can actually make some pretty nice sounds, especially when slowed down, but the little 1 1/2" internal speaker doesn't do it justice. So I added the audio out.
2) Volume LED - I added a fairly bright LED that pulses to the sound.
3) Slow down - Flick a toggle switch and you can make Elmo crawl. This is controlled by the knob to the right.
4) Speed up (with distortion) - Flick a toggle switch and you can make Elmo speed up quite a bit. Instead of just replacing the pitch resistor, I found two separate mods (3 & 4). You can turn on one or the other or both.
5) Drunken Elmo mode - This is my favorite mod of them all. Push a button and you can make Elmo be a bit drunk. Degree of drunkeness can be varied by turning the built in speed knob (green).
6) Pyscho mode - This mod utilizes a 471 ceramic cap. Push a button and cause Elmo to stutter. If you let go at the right time, you can get Elmo to say 'Keeeessheeeeebrrrrrgggggg it up!' instead of 'Shake it up!'
7) Slow robotic mode - This mod utilizes a zener 5.6v diode. Push a button and Elmo slows down a bunch and is very distorted.
8) Triggered chord - Turn on the toggle switch during the song and everytime the purple star lights, Elmo strums a chord. Make the songs somewhat less recognizable, especially when one of the slow down mods are put to use.
9) Hiccup mode - Flip the toggle switch and each time the yellow LED is lit (and only when it is lit), Elmo plays as fast as he can. It's almost like removing notes from the songs and replacing them with a small beep. Elmo's voice is practically unintelligible in this mode.
10) Normal distortion - When this button is pushed, Elmo and his tunes are a little bit distorted but the the pitch almost stays the same. Almost.
11) Mute - It is what it says. It mutes the sound, but Elmo continues to play on while muted. I could have simple added an inline cut to the speaker feed, but instead I used two points. If pressed in rapid sucession, Elmo tends to 'reboot'.
12) Super speed up - Pushing this button causes Elmo to go about as fast as he can go for as long as the button is pretty.
13) Distortion with overtones - This mod uses a 4001 dide. Push the button and Elmo gets distorted and has some nice ringtones as well.
14) Another distortion - Used a 1uF 50v electrolytic cap for this one. Again, it adds distortion. It's grittier than 10 and actually doesn't cause a volume drop like number 10.
POST-MODIFICATION PICTURES:
front view with mod numbering
front view
inside view
SOUNDS:
elmo-red.mp3 - Just a sampling of me goofin' with the red Elmo guitar.
FUTURE MODIFICATIONS PLANNED:
1) More mods - I left most of the extra wires inside in case I felt like toying around to find more bends with the existing wires that weren't used. But I honestly don't see that happening less I get really bored. If I got another one, I would seriously consider adding ALL the mods that I found. Since I have a little more knowledge now, I would be able to avoid alot of repeats that my original bending notes had.
Last Modified: April 25, 2006