The Flaming Lips' double-necked Guitar Hero guitar

Where many guitarists petulantly sulk about these damn kids today plinking on their plastic guitars, completely degrading the mystical art of the five-string craft... at least until the first Rock Band royalty check comes in... Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne has built a Guitar Hero controller right into his double-necked guitar, using the five brightly colored buttons to control a built-in Korg Kaossilator synthesizer. You'll have to get through a rather sloppy vanity piece on some NBC jingle promotion to see it in action, but if you can get to 1:55 in this Entertainment Weekly piece, it's terribly neat.

Wayne Coyne's Guitar Hero guitar [Hollywood Insider via Hack-A-Day]

[#1 posted by jeshii , October 28, 2008 5:26 AM]

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who thought about the synth potential in these things... Just can't wait until there are like a million of them at garage sales. XD

[#2 posted by dogrocket , October 28, 2008 6:40 AM]

Small correction: you said "art of the five-string craft" but guitars generally have 6 strings. (Note, though, that the "real" half of the guitar in the photo is a 12 string...)

[#3 posted by dculberson , October 28, 2008 7:41 AM]

I want a Rock Band synth controller; a 49- or-so key synth hooked to the ps3 would be awesome.

Of course, who wants to be the keyboard player in a rock band? (slinks away, chastised for his lameness.)

[#4 posted by Jim Rizzo , October 28, 2008 9:13 AM]

Holy crap, that video made me want to puke. Sure, Wayne moves around a lot, but the cameraman could have at least kept the camera on the guitar during the guitar segment.

[#5 posted by w000t , October 28, 2008 1:18 PM]

dogrocket/#2:

Brownlee just plays too much Banjo Hero - it's an understandable mistake.

[#6 posted by devophill , October 28, 2008 1:20 PM]

G, E, C! General Electric Corp.! It's all becoming clear now...

[#7 posted by eti , October 28, 2008 1:53 PM]

"You'll have to get through a rather sloppy vanity piece on some NBC jingle promotion"

I had no problem simply clicking ahead to 1:55.

[#8 posted by Downpressor , October 28, 2008 5:23 PM]

@#3 hook it up on a strap and be a modern day keytard

[#9 posted by chrisdodds , October 28, 2008 8:38 PM]

"Here's a camera. Now pretend that your getting attacked by bees."

The Kaossilator is really the cool part. Waiting to see someone do a Nostromo Speed Pad mod with one of those.