Never has an origin story made more sense to me.

@drunkendrink5241

8 ай бұрын

ong

@eternalsence3033

8 ай бұрын

i was just about to comment this, right when i saw the pickups with the ductape all his other videos made so much more sense and i could see how it all started haha

@jamesnotjames

8 ай бұрын

literallyyyyy

@nostalgia_junkie

8 ай бұрын

extremely evocative of spider-man's spider of random chance

@topbreak38

8 ай бұрын

An ad for the new exorcist movie came on before the video and my knee-jerk reaction to your comment was that you were a fan of the franchise.

building an electric guitar setup from old scraps. Now that's Rock'n'Roll.

@Balzhag

8 ай бұрын

and punk too (:

@MetalKeith666

8 ай бұрын

And metal 🤘

@antares4975

8 ай бұрын

@@MetalKeith666 i think, metal is far too gear oriented. like, you have to have humbuckers and only in brigde position, you have to have a tight boosted hi gain amp, you have to use jumbo frets to shred like dime, etc.. Metal loves Subgenres. If you wanna sound like death metal, your sound has not much room to wiggle. The guitar tone defines Metal and separates it from rock in all its own subgenres.

@MetalKeith666

8 ай бұрын

@@antares4975 yes, but i love metal i dont care about these things

@antares4975

8 ай бұрын

@@MetalKeith666 i love metal too, i'm just saying it is different than this

“Anything can be a distortion pedal” *runs to toaster*

@tylerphillips503

8 ай бұрын

It can really distort a warm bath

@devoicedmusic

8 ай бұрын

A toaster is basically already a distortion pedal for bread. Soft, boring thing goes in, Awesome, crunchy things comes out.

@bluechalk6275

8 ай бұрын

It's been 3 days. Someone should do a wellness check.

@tomney4460

8 ай бұрын

@@bluechalk6275 I did it

@abraxasjinx5207

8 ай бұрын

​@@tomney4460how did it sound?

This guy straight up builds his own electric guitar at age 12. Respect

@kotbayun2207

7 ай бұрын

the guy finds anything in trash and it works perfectly fine. that's some LUCK

@YskarAlbumLuna

5 ай бұрын

Almost sounds like destiny

@NegativeReferral

3 ай бұрын

@@kotbayun2207 And with strings it's not meant to handle.

@Kasikerim

Ай бұрын

Its almost impossible because you have to make a jack input and connect it to pickup with hardware. Idk how he did or if its real but its not that simple bruv

@NegativeReferral

Ай бұрын

@@Kasikerim that's not that difficult, since you can often just put the pick up in the sound hole, and if you do want the input to be on the side, it's pretty simple to drill a hole, get the components in, screw it in, and then put the strings on.

i did a similar thing with a Hello Kitty karaoke machine when I was a kid. I had a cheap squier tele and no amp so i plugged the guitar into this hot pink Hello Kitty karaoke machine i bought at goodwill for a few dollars. The cool thing about that machine was that it had a quarter inch input rather than just some built in wired mic. Also, there was an "Echo" knob which sounded amazing.

@FreeCatCheese

8 ай бұрын

Yup, we had a karaoke machine as well, that was like a cheapie CD/DVD player, with some discs with lyrics. It had an echo knob as well. I actually recorded some stuff onto a bookshelf system that you could stack up to 4 tracks by bouncing tape to tape, backing down on the input level on each pass. You could go further, but it was reasonably listenable after 4 passes, but more than that it was mush. 😁

@AwkwardHypernerd413

8 ай бұрын

Holy shit I’m not the only one lol. I’ve used TWO karaoke machines so far, mainly as a bigger speaker for my orange crush mini. The second karaoke machine has several effects, and I can get a pretty cool chug sound if I pair it with the crush mini

@nyxcal

4 ай бұрын

do you still have it? that’d be cool to see again

@JohnnyBravo-zz2nz

2 ай бұрын

I HAD THE SAME ONE AND DID THE EXACT SAME THING. AND THAT ECHO SERIOUSLY IS THE DHIT

@JohnnyBravo-zz2nz

2 ай бұрын

I had the same things as a kid and did the SAME exact thing lmao. And the echo really was a good reverb/delay substitute

as far as I know, this is similar to how the band Neutral Milk Hotel got that guitar sound on their albums, particularly the song Holland 1945 from In The aeroplane Over The Sea. They didn't use any traditional pedals, and instead just recorded an acoustic, overloaded the pre-amps and plugged straight into the mixer - and it sounds amazing. It's a great technique and I think it has such a unique sound, especially when used with an acoustic!

@jeraldjoyce2995

8 ай бұрын

I think that's a big part of Jeff's tone. A combination of pre amp clipping and tape saturation. When he was performing live, I think he used a Soviet big muff and it got pretty close.

@scowellmusic3632

8 ай бұрын

yeah, a green russian to be precise. Really unique sound. Think he used some sort of pedal (possibly the green russian big muff) to record avery island but I could be wrong.@@jeraldjoyce2995

@heggy_69

8 ай бұрын

The rolling stones did a similar thing, but way more subtle lol

@actuallythepie

8 ай бұрын

Also the band, The Microphones!

@erikerikerikerikerik

8 ай бұрын

on the single version of revolution, the beatles did a similar thing. just with an electric instead

Your endless tinkerings never fail to astound me. You've got such a musically creative brain, you're a younger Les Paul. Big love, Mr Hilowitz ❤

@DavidHilowitzMusic

8 ай бұрын

Ah, thanks! Glad you’ve been enjoying the videos

@zeandro6403

7 ай бұрын

hey btw, that song you played in combination with both devices, is it an actual existing song and if yes can you give me the name and if no, can you upload a full version? :D@@DavidHilowitzMusic

@GameyRaccoon

4 ай бұрын

@@zeandro6403It's Tropical Storm by Manwomanchild! (Dave's band) It's on his bandcamp and there's a link in the description.

Genuinely thought you were gonna start playing the Better Call Saul theme at 4:15. Nifty tape deck honestly! Always really liked the look of mid 1970s tech.

@saularchlnux

8 ай бұрын

the A chord will never be the same again.

@GarrionOne

8 ай бұрын

was looking for this comment

@JustAcrylicArts

7 ай бұрын

@@GarrionOne same

@fritz6862

7 ай бұрын

I WAS JUST GONNA SAY THAT

@jwdunn6401

7 ай бұрын

Same here

4:15 that one chord brings back late 2022 flashbacks 💀

@crashscreen8200

Ай бұрын

I think it's better to call Saul

@GMByteJavaTM

27 күн бұрын

S'all good, man

@varseilles

9 күн бұрын

skibidi lawyer moment

I had kind of a similar story. When I was 11, I was given a beat up 1960's Teisco electric guitar with no amplifier. I had a couple of random pieces of stereo equipment that I used as an amp, and eventually discovered distortion when I fed the output of one amp into the input of another. It sounded pretty gnarly, but I loved it!

@perkins1439

3 ай бұрын

We would get quarter inch input cable with RCA jacks plug into the back of a stereo if you use the phono input you can overdrive the circuit and get that tone

One thing this video taught me is that you were more musically innovative at the age of 12 then anyone else I know at any age. Well done Sir.

Ok that’s cool and all, but can it run doom?

@ing.beaver

29 күн бұрын

underated comment

@prod.bydboi2942

12 күн бұрын

Your asking all the right questions 😂

@aussierhino8535

9 күн бұрын

Hah

@LlayneSstaley

6 күн бұрын

The answer is always yes

@HellMunky

Күн бұрын

it must doom or it must die... then doom.

The record/playback on that 45+ year old tape deck is EXCELLENT. Especially give its age.

Dude has been finding stuff in the trash since he was a kid, and made a career out of it! What an inspiration! Another reminder that real artists don't come from money. Art is borne out of need and wanting; it comes from longing. You can make a hell of a lot more with a little or nothing than if you had everything!

Lovely recollection; I’m envisioning a story 40 years from now where someone describes finding an abandoned Ableton Push in an alleyway as a kid and that’s what started it for them.

@Jesse.Dangerously

7 ай бұрын

but it's an acoustic ableton push, and they have to find some way to distort its output

@davemakesnoises

Ай бұрын

i got my first ableton license from a friend i met at a concert, and found a push 2 used at guitar center for half price, sold it back to ableton for 200 more than i paid on a trade in for push 3

:) one thing I love about your videos is not just your excellent musical knowledge... it's your masterful storytelling. Thanks for another great video.

@DavidHilowitzMusic

8 ай бұрын

Thanks! So glad you been enjoying them

This is great, man. I love that the tone took you straight away to something pretty early-Weezer-y. That's where my brain immediately went too!

@vantatv6655

8 ай бұрын

I totally got old rivers cuomo demos from this! Like something from the alone comps

@pepsy910

8 ай бұрын

rivers said himself that he used no pedals in the recording of blue album!

@yyams

8 ай бұрын

my brain went straight there too:D

That classical electric guitar thing was so cool!

If you have a cassette deck without a mic input you can wire a 3/4" jack to the tape head and get the same result. And if you have a cassette walkman you can do the same, then use the headphone out to go to an amp and you got yourself a distortion pedal 😁

Fun fact, the area under both curves on the distorted waveform is (almost) the same, the height is very different (which is part of what makes the sound interesting) but so is the phase of the zero-point and that kinda cancels out

Hey! Your story is imcredible and interesting! I am from Czechia and in/on every video I must have turn on subtitles to understand what anybody says but you are the first person which I understand without turn on subtitles - I enjoyed your video like as if I watched it in my native language. Thank you for made my day!

The story part of this is very rock and roll. You knew what kind of sound you wanted, then did the experimentation to invent it for yourself. There's something really wonderful about that entire approach to music-making and to life in general. I'm mainly a percussionist. Anything that can resonate is a percussion instrument. Not gonna tell my poor-boy story, but if you know you're a musician at heart and you don't have a lot of money to spend on stuff, you find ways to make your music anyway. Great song too. I love everything about this.

@1oolabob

6 ай бұрын

I'm back to watch this again. I got all the how-to the first time I watched...but I like the story.

people like you are such an inspiration I really felt like I was supposed to make music like a formula to get success but people like you showed me there is sooo much freedom to music. Who cares if my music will be listened by 10 people at a peak as long as it was fun and I poured in my soul? Gear like this is so unconventional but sounds damn great. I love it.

This is awesome! Ever since I was a kid I've always loved messing around with abandoned gear and experimenting with how it can be used 😁

That combo sounded so good. I would love to have THAT in a pedal.

@getsideways7257

6 ай бұрын

At least that sounded relatively decent...

I can relate to this. When I was a kid I had just enough money to buy a 2nd hand guitar, but not enough for also an amp. So I ran the guitar through some weird record player preamp into the stereo. It sounded about the same.

My first "guitar amp" was also a radio shack stereo amp 😅 when I finally got a proper amp, it was just a head and we built a cab with old car speakers. I think these kinds of experiences are actually really beneficial because you learn a lot along the way, and it creates a lot of extra creative pathways in your brain instead of getting railroaded along the "proper" track

Not only are you a fantastic musician but you're a fantastic storyteller. Every single video you make has me lost in your world and I love every chance I get to visit!

Everytime I watch one of your videos I am blown away with how aesthetically pleasing, curiousity driven, inspiring, and simple (the best kind of simple) they are. The videos really, at least it seems to me, are a piece of your mind/creativeness that you have tapped into so incredibely well. Thank you for doing what you do and inspiring myslef and others!

fun fact shoegaze artist astrobrite use this exact same method to achieve distortion on his recordings

6 lines and 30 seconds @7:30 - @8:00 and now I'm addicted to your music. I feel lucky I was suggested this video

It's crazy how good both distortions sound!

Okay, how much stuff do you find in the trash?

@fredman727

8 ай бұрын

If you go around looking for stuff in the trash you make some incredible finds! I have a piece of furniture I use for my gear. My keyboard to be specific

@DavidHilowitzMusic

8 ай бұрын

so, so much…tape recorders, stereo systems, instruments. it’s one of the real benefits of living in a city

@KingfisherTalkingPictures

8 ай бұрын

Yeah, I’m I’m always looking through garbage, and never find anything so useful.

@fredman727

8 ай бұрын

@@KingfisherTalkingPictures same here, it's not always how you want it. :C

@duellingscarguevara

7 ай бұрын

Put your request out to the universe, and you'll be surprised what turns up..( but yeah, being in a city helps).

Dude building a guitar AND setup from trash has got to be one of the most punk things i've ever heard of

David you must have been the most resourceful 12 year old kid. I really enjoyed watching this video. Really goes to show that expensive gear isn't everything. Creativity is much more important!

Yeah! Another great video, David. Fantastic synthesis of your memories, interests, and skills. And that song! Thank you.

That was wonderful. Great content, no waffle or timewasting and really well edited and presented. Well done sir!

as a guitar player, audio lover, and electrical engineering student, this is beyond awesome

this is one of my favorite channels on the entirety of KZread! always enjoy your videos David!

I looks forward to your uploads and you never disappoint. You’ve taught me a lot and I appreciate it!!!!! Keep up the excellent content.

As a non musician, I find your videos thoroughly entertaining and very well produced! Cheers!

My early guitar journey was very similar. First guitar was an old Eko acoustic that my father found in a skip. I don’t remember what happened to it, but it’s no longer in my possession. My first electric was a Fender Tele that got traded for a step exercises machine, that I originally paid £10 for. I didn’t have an amp, of course, but saw that the old 70s tape deck my parents had, had a mic input, and it gave the exact distortion tone you speak of. At the time, it sounded amazing to my ears.

This video has nostalgia, passion and talent written all over it. Amazing!

The tone from the acoustic with the pickup and the preamp is awesome

Awesome video! My experience was similar, my parents gave me a guitar but no amp or pedals. So I would plug it in the mic input of the stereo. For extra distortion I would take the output and plug it back into the other mic input, making the signal run twice through the preamp. Playing with the balance knob would give extra weirdness!

I can definitely appreciate the origin story in the struggle thereof. I wish more musically based charities were easier accessible to people who have that need to create. Cool track too.

Your videos are so inspiring , educative and fun to watch! Keep up the good work! 👏

Another blissful moment with David. Love it ❤

4:14 this chord has been ruined forever for me

@Zentabes

8 ай бұрын

Same lol, I thought he was gonna play it

@heidenbarrel

8 ай бұрын

NOOOO

Your rock-oriented videos are always my favorite to watch. I've been holding on getting cheap analog trinkets to complement my in-the-box setup, but I wouldn't have the space and time to take care of them (apartment living obstacle)

Instead of a pickup, I used a speaker from a musical card (it was popular back in the day), and to get a distorted sound, I connected it directly to the tape pickup input of my player. Sounded crazy!

you have this strangely warm dad's energy. i love it

Better Call Saul is at 4:14

@drunkendrink5241

8 ай бұрын

I thought I was insane

Все що ви робите, пане - це неймовірно. Дякую вам

This tape deck tone is ridiculous! Nice work man - looking forward to what's next!

I did experiments like that all the time as a teen, you brought back some fun memories with this video. My first "four track recorder" was made with two stereo cassette decks and one of those Realistic mixers.

My favourite artist of all time, Phil Elverum, always used a tape deck as his distortion to achieve this crazy abrasive tone, you can hear it on the song "The Glow, Pt. 2" really well

Love your vids!

That is SO COOL! I have a similar story I don't quite remember what it was but I remember having this radio-like device that I ended up discovering produced a BEAUTIFUL crunchy sound, nostalgic!

Keith Richards used a Phillips cassette recorder on the tracks "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Street Fighting Man". But instead of directly plugging in an electric guitar, he recorded his acoustic guitar (most likely his Gibson Hummingbird) with the included mic and then cranked up the volume

@antoniohillario9770

5 ай бұрын

Keith Richards said he used his cassette recorder on "Street Fighting Man" because that was all he had at that moment. His acoustic would not have sounded as wild and rebellious had he used the "right" equipment. It was the perfect tone for that song.

7:16 I was hoping you would combine them in series (as in, in one signal path to a single track); that could be interesting and way crazier than layering the two tracks as you did. Btw, the tone of your childhood acoustic through the record player preamp was AWESOME! I want that now haha:D bangin lofi punk tone

Todas las grabaciones de bandas de rock en los 60s y 70s en Argentina de hicieron enchufando la guitarra directo a pequeños grabadores de cinta, era la única manera de conseguir distorsión porque no se podía importar amplificadores o pedales de guitarra. Manal, Almendra, Pappo's Blues, Los Gatos ❤

@miguelhinojosa5594

8 ай бұрын

Interesante! Siempre me pregunté cómo lograban distorsionar en esa época de escasez.

@pulpero666

8 ай бұрын

@@miguelhinojosa5594 lo más popular era el grabador valvular Geloso g 257, Creo que para Artaud de Pescado Rabioso se usó un grabador National

@miguelhinojosa5594

8 ай бұрын

@@pulpero666 buenísimo. Pescado es de mis preferidas de las bandas del flaco. Me vuela la cabeza lo genio que fue haciendo tanto con tan pocos recursos. Saludos desde Cuba 🙌

Thanks for sharing your journey and passion with us. You are one of the true artists out there. Keep the dream alive, man.

Love what you do! Great video as always

This channel is one of the pearls of KZread. You combine science, experimentation and emotional stories, aka. The formula of really good stuff!

Can my toaster be a distortion pedal?

i love your music stuff/experiments

Very inspiring. Thank you.

For better distortion testing or anything saturation related, when plugging your distortion-device in to the amp, try plugging into the fx return (if your amp got one). That way you skip the preamp of the amplifier. Edit: this way you can connect anything with a preamp built into, in to the amp. I do it with my acoustic instruments as I don’t have a dedicated amp for them

This sounds great! And I love how the sound is produced. There's always something special to these kinds of approach. I always try to use the tools on my disposal "the wrong way" because it gives different results. In my case it means VST's, but I like to tinker with those. Putting drums through Amp SIms and whatnot. Many times the sound comes out kinda "basement" but I don't care as long as I like it.

What a fascinating video, I loved hearing how you got into guitar - and that tape recorder gave a very cool distortion. Fun how you ended up with an Eels/Weezer style song too.

That's real passion. I somewhat can relate to that story. When i was 15 and got my hands on a used Strat copy, i at first had no amp. My Granny's sorted out Tuberadio worked great for that purpose. I used the Phono Input, some old guy gave me that hint. Still remembering how i was, by try and error, sticking some wires in the holes of that input jack. During lockdown i restored that guitar and the Radio is still here. I just wouldn't run it anymore, the thing was built in the 1960s.

*It's called an Electric acoustic Guitar*

This is why expensive effects pedals are actually a scam. They cost nothing to make and are extremely basic circuits with a lot of marketing behind them.

@kaitlyn__L

8 ай бұрын

@@return2sender791thank you

@toastedphantom3007

8 ай бұрын

@@return2sender791 Can confirm. A Fuzz Face shouldn't cost as much as it does but try and make an analog double chorus like a Liquifier and you quickly realize why they cost as much as they do. Also someone had to come up with the circuit in the first place.

The bass sounds awesome. Appreciate you sharing your innovations

This is inspirational! Will try it with Dad's old stereo, Mam's old record player and 2 old tape recorders I've kept all these years👍

Subscribed before I even watched the video. I am so inspired!! Thank you!!!!

Thanks for the video, it's the second I watched now. Really interesting, with your sound experiments and the lesson's in sounds. And I like the music, also. Thank you!

Wonderful video! Love the story, the sound and the song :) 👏

Beautiful!

Great story and cool sounds! Reminds me of plugging into a Kenwood all-in-one stereo decades before collecting dozens of distortion and fuzz pedals.

I absolutely love your videos and stories!

This is great! Truly inspired now.

Love these videos of yours

Especially if you plug whatever preamp you have, into a tube amp, it sounds killer. I found a free VCR with mic inputs, cranked the gain and plugged it into a vibroverb, it sounded like a very badass fuzz.

Great stuff made by an incredible person is a treat to watch everytime 👍✌️🙌

Love the vid. I really dig your signing voice and the tune at the end!

Fun fact: One of the earliest songs to use heavy distortion, "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks, was created by physically slashing the speaker cone with a straight razor. Distortion pedals were invented at least in part to stop people having to damage their equipment to get that sound.

@liltree8382

7 ай бұрын

Listen to the guitar solo from I’m Gonna murder my Baby from 1954 it’s the first

I enjoy your KZread Channel Thanks For Sharing 🎸🎶 💪

That distortion from the mic preamp was so good. Idk if it was the editing you did on this video but it sounded very rich and smooth.

Mind Blown!

The bass running through the mixer sounded really cool

So inspiring!

Love your vocals!!!

Educational, inspiring and moving. Thank you.

Reminds me of my experience getting started. Thanks for sharing! :) Cool song too.

Brilliant. Brought back some memories. In the early 80s, I had a Realistic AM/FM turn table with a mic jack I used to play through.

your story is so interesting and your each of your videos are so unique, i really love ypur content

I don't know why but both the tape deck and the mixer combined does something in my brain, idk the sound is just kinda magical to me

THANK YOU FOR THIS! I have an old stereo mixing console from goodwill i was hoping to use to record but never really could because of how old it is! But my god it worked so good as a pedal!!