Dweezil Zappa

Ripley Super Pluto Guitar

Hello Everyone,

I thought I would share this with you since this piece of gear was just returned to me after 10 years of use.

RIPLEY SUPER PLUTO GUITAR

As part of the ongoing research for the 1984 album and EP 10, I was researching the Ripley Stereo Guitar. Steve Ripley, a great musician, inventor, and guitar builder was a friend of mine and also Edward Van Halen and Ry Cooder. He built a very complex stereo guitar with a 16 pin cable that interfaced with a 2 rack space "brain." The brain unit housed compression, individual string panning, distortion, Envelope and Sustain, and even an input for a keyboard breath controller. It was very complex and Edward Van Halen nicknamed it the "Super Pluto Guitar." Only 3 were ever built.

I am the owner of one of them. Edward and Ry owned the other 2. Over the years, the brain for the guitars stopped working for Ed and Ry. Both of them called me to borrow mine because it was still functioning. In fact, Ry had mine for the last 10 years! I finally got it returned to me today.

I haven't tested it yet but I'm told it was still working when Ry had recently used it. In any case, it's a rare piece of Rock History and I'm glad to have the chance to do some stuff with it soon!

I'll post some more pictures when I have a chance and of course, I will do a sound demo of it once I get it up and running!

1984 Ep 10, has become epic in many ways, from the perspective of listeners waiting to hear it, it's epic in its tardiness. If the episode could speak it would most definitely say, "I don't feel tardy," that's because the delays are only necessary to make the episode the best it can be.

From my perspective, it's epic because of the number of extra details I uncovered and added to the episode. Indeed it has taken a lot of time and I have pages of notes I've written with over 6,000 words. It's been a jigsaw puzzle but it's finally taken the right shape and there is light at the end of the tunnel.

This one has been tough!!! The good news is there will be other episodes that follow quickly thereafter. I've done special episodes with Greg Howe and Satchel from Steel Panther. Both episodes have some live guitar playing, so that's exciting!

And finally, this weekend I will be able to test the gear needed for the upcoming live podcast listening parties. As soon as I have it all working I will begin the process of scheduling the listening parties. That means there will be more information to share together which will make our time between episodes more fun!

Alright, back to completing EP 10's glorious finale!

Best, DZ