Learn the Ethics of Circuit Bending

Video Transcript

AMANDA CLAIRE: Okay, so before we could start getting in to it, I want to kind of talk about one more topic which I like to call "To bend or not to bend. That is the question." And what I mean is that just because something might be bendable doesn't necessarily mean that you might not want to think about whether you want to open it up and start doing something that might be destructive to it. And all I mean by that is, is that things like these toys are--these newer toys made in the 90's and this century are pretty replaceable. I mean, they're all over the place, they're in thrift stores and whatever. Things like some of these older Casio organs like the Casio VL-Tone, yes this could be circuit bent, people do it, these aren't easy to find. They're viewed as being kind of a vintage type of instrument; if you do find one on eBay, you might pay up to 50 bucks for one, maybe more. So you might want to think about, do you really want to dig in to something that's kind of maybe vintage or basically whether it's vintage or not, something that's irreplaceable? Okay. And I guess the point I'm making is that circuit bending is oftentimes destructive to the circuit board meaning that there is a risk of cooking it or frying it so that it'll never work again. And so that's why it's nice to use something used that you buy for 3 or 4 bucks and it's fairly easily replaceable by going back to the thrift store. But I personally wouldn't circuit bend my Casio VL-Tone. I mean, this is the one that I had in the 80's. I mean, it's got Gizmo, the Mogwai on the back, you can see from the Gremlins movie playing his little sort of Casio, right. So I wouldn't circuit bend it because if I messed it up then it's over and then I'm--I'll be really sad. Here's another example, this--here's something that isn't vintage, this is a--this is actually an electric--this is a digital bible that was made by the Franklin company. But that's not what interesting about it, what's interesting about is that it has recordings of Johnny Cash reciting verses of the bible. So these sort of low-fi, kind of low fidelity recordings of Johnny Cash, and they don't make these anymore. And so, I mean I can maybe play this later, kind of show the sounds it makes but it basically sounds like an old speak and spell but you can tell that it's Johnny Cash. And I would never circuit bend this because I don't think I can found another one because these are out of production, they're not that old but something like this is just too cool for me to mess with, and so I won't do it. And just a couple more examples real quick, I mean--oops, you can hear, I got a lot of toys, got a lot of junk underneath this table. This is kind of something that Radioshack came out with in the--I think the 70's, I think the date on this is 1976 or something. Not easily replaceable, you might want to think twice before you dig into it, it's your own choice but here's something else that's in here, one more thing, picking it up. This is a kind of a little--this is again kind of a kid's toy by the VTech company but this is again, kind of a vintage one and it kind of has some really cool vintage sounds, they don't really make the circuit boards like this anymore. VOICE: Red is square. AMANDA CLAIRE: It has a little voice synthesizer in it and it kind of has these certain sounds that--it will be real hard to find a replacement for this. So all I'm saying to bend or not to bend, if you don't want to risk maybe destroying it forever if it's something that's not easily replaceable or something that's near and dear to your heart like my Johnny Cash electric bible, you might want to just put it back on the shelf, appreciate it, and enjoy for what it is and circuit bend something else.

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