The Electric Kazoo (plus a MIDI kazoo, too!)

Zach writes from San Francisco with news of the Kazooka Electric Kazoo, which attaches an electromagnetic pickup to a Kazoo, so it can be played through a guitar amp. Sample quote: "The electric kazoo frees musicians from all the limitations of "normal" instruments." I asked Kazoo King Rick Hubbard what he made of it. "I've got one, and it sounds pretty good," he said. "But it's not the first electric kazoo. I built my first several years ago. I have an Roland GI-10 pitch-to-MIDI converter and can make some pretty cool sounds. At Kazoobie Kazoos we are working on a new pick-up for our kazoos. It will be detachable."
There you have it. A MIDI Kazoo. I suspect that everyone should probably own a Kazooka, particularly as they're only $17.95.

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTT SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET I ROCKED OUT TO IRON MAN ON THIS THING. YOU ARE THE GROATS. I OWE U A CRACE FACE.

# posted by

Anonymous : 4:22 pm

You guys freakin' rock.....that is just amazing! i mean... *no words*

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:43 am

Don't you risk electric shock from droolinh in that thing?

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:17 am

I GOT A BIG ROD!!

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:17 am

Don't buy them, they are absolute rubbish! I bought one after reading this blog, and when it finally arrived it was very dissapointing.

They may as well call it an electric straw, coz thats what it sounds like, absolutely no kazoo sound! My mate bought one at the same time, not only did his come without the kazoo sound, the 'de-tatchable' pickup was glued to the kazoo and therefor UN-de-tatchable!!!

Stay away from the scammers, make your own!

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:28 am

To the other Anonymous: OF COURSE they don't sound like regular kazoos, they're ELECTRIC! Duuuh! Besides, anyone who wants to know what they sound like can just listen to the demo sound clips.

And nowhere does it say that the pickup is detachable (that's ANOTHER kazoo from ANOTHER company, and it's not even finished yet), so WTF are you complaining about?

Scammers? Get real. You made up some wild and crazy fantasy instrument in your head, you got your information about it from a blog post that you didn't even read right, you bought it without asking questions, and now you're bitching because reality didn't magically change to match your faulty assumptions.

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:06 pm

Electrickazoo.com no longer answers email and has kept the money without fulfilling orders.

Myself and a friend were both taken by these treacherous scoundrels....90 days later still no kazoo, and still no response. Be aware mateys.

cheers!

# posted by

Anonymous : 10:56 am

I too ordered a kazoo. It Took forever to get it. They did respond to my email though and said that demand was killing them and they were sorry blah blah blah. 2 months for mine.

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:56 am

I just got mine. The pickup popped off, but I hot-glued it back on and now it's solid as a rock. I'm in the U.S. and shipping for me took 2 weeks. It preformes great.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:46 am

Hmmmm I may order one of thes off ebay do you think I should? There is one on there at the moment and it may not take ages to get here so should I?

# posted by

Anonymous : 3:13 pm

I just got mine, and it works fine. I don't know what you idiots are complaining about. If you want it to sound different, connect it to a guitar pedal or an amp. That's actually what it's made for! Or do what I do, and connect it to the computer, and use soundforge to toy around with the audio.

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:11 am

Does anyone know how they work? I was thinking about trying to make one. Is the pick up just a mic?

# posted by

Anonymous : 5:16 pm

Magical things indeed! I believe The Kazoo Funk Orchestra used them on their Midnight Finger Painter album, which, by the way, is completely free for download from www.kazoofunk.co.uk the best example is Baby You've No Eyes, it features pitch-shifted electric kazoos!!

# posted by

Anonymous : 7:13 pm

I got one. took less than two weeks to arrive. I put it through my moog pedals and it sounds sweet.

A bunch of bands use them. I know for sure califone, sebastian tellier and kazoo funk orchestra use these.

no way could you shock yourself unless your amp wasn't earthed. think about it. your amps ground is connected to the guitar strings through the bridge (it should be). With this you aren't even touching the ground so a guitar would shock you before this would.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:11 pm