HKG-SEC Update

I’m slowly starting to gather all the parts for my latest project, which I have dubbed HKG-SEC, short for Hong Kong Guitars Stephens Extended Cutaway.

Yes, I just stuck the two acronyms together. Sue me.

I wanted to add something unusual to this build, and since it’s essentially going to be a ‘stunt guitar’ (i.e. to be used in a meretricious, excessive manner), I figured it could use something special to make new and exciting noises.

It will be a stunt guitar simply because I’m painting it Fluorescent F@#$ing Orange (the actual name used by Krylon). You’ll need safety equipment to look at it.

It’s already got a floating vibrato bridge. It’ll make 80s silly noises for days.

But I want more.

Which is what it says on the 80s headstone.

I like percussive sound effects on guitar. I like making a guitar sound unlike a guitar.

What if I want the guitar to sound like it’s breaking? Or like a computer?

One way of doing this is accomplished with having two pickups and separate volume controls for each. If you shut off one pickup (usually the neck pickup) and use a Gibson-style 3-way toggle switch, you can get some interesting ‘stutter’ effects by switching between the pickup that’s ‘on’ and the one that’s ‘off.’

There are some well-known examples, and since hearing it makes it much clearer than reading about it, I made a short video so you could hear the examples, set to still photos of the guitarists who made them. In the first two photos the actual guitars shown are the ones making the sounds you hear.

Like that matters to you…

Anyway, here’s a short video to illustrate ‘Toggle Stutter’:Well, thanks to technology moving forward, it is now possible to create those effects through other means. You can wire in buttons (I’ve done it before) that do the same thing, but a new  invention has streamlined the installation of the effect so that you don’t need to add extra holes yo your guitar.

The Shadow Kill Pot integrates a volume pot (short for potentiometer) and a kill switch. You simply tap on the knob that’s attached to the Kill Pot.

Here’s another (much more professional and much longer) video explaining the Shadow Kill Pot:I bought a Shadow Kill Pot for the HKG-SEC on eBay. It arrived this week:

I can’t wait to make a sound like an aircarft carrrier vomiting.

Because that’s music.

To my ears, anyway.