Bobby's Casio Info Thread

[jdsmodulus]

Well I have been looking into these lately, it seems there is many that he played. Different necks, different electronics, pickups, and other configurations. So Ill start by asking the question; how does Bob run the midi with no pin cable attached? Also it seems all of his casios are wireless. That being said, how does he run the effects loop through the y cable wirelessly? It seems that maybe one of the extra boxes on his back strap would be to remote the midi wirelessly? Im seeing 3 boxes on his strap. One obviously is ear monitor mix, one is guitar, the other is midi? Ive yet to hear of direct midi wireless even today! Any thoughts, corrections or additons are appreciated. Pics are welcome Im still learning how to post them properly but I think for this thread they would help keep things organized.

[strumminsix]

Which era?

IIRC the Casio has on-board memory and processor so in theory you could simply activate it, have it split your signal, send your mag pickup down its normal route then on-board use presets in memory to morph this other signal then out via an additional 1/4" which is what I suspect he did.

MIDI is an oddity... It gets used in many unique and contradictory ways.

That being said, how does he run the effects loop through the y cable wirelessly?

Effects loop?

[jdsmodulus]

all of his guitars had the same effects loop as jerry. post ibanez

[NashvilleMike]

It is hard for me to always pinpoint when Bob is using a midi computer gen effect and when he is making good use of things like phasers etc...

When typically did Bob use his Casio midi sound? In the 80's I assume with the pink guitar?
Did he use midid at the same time or parallel to traditional effects?
Strumminsix you got that new axe you love so much and you play Bob. What do you have in yours?

[strumminsix]

all of his guitars had the same effects loop as jerry. post ibanez

Are you 100% sure. That is the first I have ever heard of this.

When typically did Bob use his Casio midi sound? In the 80's I assume with the pink guitar?

Strumminsix you got that new axe you love so much and you play Bob. What do you have in yours?

Pepto wasn't midi at first. Don't know if ever went under the knife. His big midi guitar was the black casio.

Personally, I don't like onboard fx or a guitar to sound like a flute so mine is just a regular old guitar

[jdsmodulus]

Well I have seen the PG up close and it did have 2 inputs that were quarter inch. I noticed that no MIDI pin was present! Granted this was a long time ago so no Im not 100% sure that Bob ran the effects loop I just cant Imagine it was anything else. I did read somewhere that he used the loop. I was hoping for confirmation and explination! I also see the 2 inputs on the white PG as well. I know he used many PG's even several at the same show! He has been quoted to travel with a dozen or more! Even Jerry had one! I don't think he used it with any band live (that Ive seen) but it has been confirmed that even Jerry had been given several Modulus Graphite guitars as well! Most notably for this thread a PG. Anyone comes up with a pic of this they rule. Not that would be cool! Back to my point...How could Bob run MIDI wireless? This is the first point I think should be figured out for our sake.

[strumminsix]

What is PG?

They are not inputs they are jacks until we know what they do.

MIDI is "Musical Instrument Digital Interface" and the casio had that on-board.

So my explanation is:
Jack 1 = output of pickups
Jack 2 = output of signal that went through the casio midi onboard the guitar itself

So those 2 jacks, my friend, are output!

[jdsmodulus]

right PG 380 is the model number of the guitar.(although it is really a frankenstrat) but back to the point, I understand the 1/4 inch jacks are outputs (maybe) but I believe it is evidence of the effects loop. The on board MIDI is really just like having say a "brain" on board. The reality is that you must run a pin cable to run midi in any application I have seen. So are we to understand that the Casio can send its Midi info from the guitar to the rack or whatever to speakers wirelessly? More inportantly using a 1/4 inch jack? Not a pin cable? on top of that was the body pack doing this?

[jeffm725]

i have 2 pg-380s...........the difference between these and other midi guitars is everything is on board the guitar,you do not need a rack or controller pedal . all you need is a guitar cable there are 2 separate 1/4 inch outs one for staight guitar and another that outputs the midi signal. There is a mix pot for that output where you can decide how much midi signal to mix with the guitar signal,there is also a midi connector if you choose to hook the guitar up to an external processor...also there is a jack for power (9v) or there is a battery compartment for 6 x 1.5 batteries......
It is a great and simple entry to midi with everything on board the guitar.the original settings has about 90 different patches but you can add rom cards with more patches and create your own on an external editor and load the rom card.

Beware though that I would say that 70% of the casios available now will not track across all the strings properly until they have a cap job done to the board. These guitarsare 22-24 years old now and unless the midi functionality was used regularly the caps lose it, and need to be reformed. There is information online on how to do it, but is a pain because the original board is surface soldered.

I am intimately familiar with these guitars so if anyone has any specific questions you can pm me.

I have replaced the necks on both of mine to good effect

Good examples of Weir using the midi on the casio as opposed to just regular effects would be on Lovelights from the late 80's where he uses some horn sounds to good effect.

[strumminsix]

Thank you, Jeff.

See, JD!

[jdsmodulus]

Thank you, Jeff.

See, JD!

thanks Jeff indeed I think we are gettting somewhere for sure but Bobs guitars were really modified.

[strumminsix]

Thank you, Jeff.

See, JD!

thanks Jeff indeed I think we are gettting somewhere for sure but Bobs guitars were really modified.

You shoulda believed me, homeboy!

Indeed, all their gear gets modified.

[NashvilleMike]

Beware though that I would say that 70% of the casios available now will not track across all the strings properly until they have a cap job done to the board. These guitarsare 22-24 years old now and unless the midi functionality was used regularly the caps lose it, and need to be reformed. There is information online on how to do it, but is a pain because the original board is surface soldered.

In this case I think I would like a new piece for this with modern electronics. Why mess with stuff so old? Who is making a similar axe new today?

[jeffm725]

Here is a shot of the output panel




Here is the onboard controller:


DIP Switches on back:



Not much wood left on the guitar when all these panels were cut out


I swapped out the stock pickps and put a Bartolini in the Bridge with coil tap (pull switch on the tone pot) and ultrasonics in the neck and middle (very rare pickups made by Bill Lawrence):

[jeffm725]

couple more shots:

Notice the midi pickup under the Bartolini,
also the Bridge is made by Gotoh, it is a fantastic Bridge, I took off the whammy because I dont use it, and I generally HATE tremelo bridges, but this one is great, the guitar stays in tune as well as any guitar I have ever played and I rarely break strings on this one. I have a 1976 Ibanez weir professional with the vine where I had to stop using it because it snapped strings so frequently. Casio String changes are kind of a pain, you need an allen wrench (or hex key) and you have to cut off the ball end of a new string. :


Here is a shot of a Warmoth replacement neck, Flame Maple with an ebony fretboard. The stock Casio neck is rosewood fretboard.

Real nice playing guitar. They were actually made in the Ibanez factory in Japan, so it is very comparable to the 80'2 era roadsters and the like.