My friends and I love Halloween. For the past couple of years, we'd pick a theme, all make costumes relevant to that theme, and then go out and drink sinful amounts of alcohol while cursing ourselves for making costumes that are cumbersome.
Still, much fun is always had.
This year's theme was steampunk. So, I decided to go as a steampunk rock star, a character my friend kindly dubbed as the Rad Hatter.
This is the best costume I've ever made and certainly the most fun I've ever worn. It consists of three major components: the BOX, the steampunk guitar, and the HAT.
This is how it works. The box that I have strapped to my back plays music through its pipes, much like a pipe organ. My guitar is then routed into the box where it is transformed through a process of highly volatile alcehmy. The sound created is then routed out of the box and into my hat where it is then projected out into the aether.
And the great thing about it is that it all works!
Above is the side view. You can see how the ensemble is put together.
Above is the back view of the box. Though you can't tell in this photo, the objects in the window create a wonderful range of light. The objects are my
flowsticks from flowtoys (I use them for spinning which is another post in itself). Inside the box is a small, battery-powered speaker system that my ipod plugs into. That's where the music comes from. I also have two guitar pedals, a distortion and delay, housed inside as well. i originally thought I would have the guitar run directly into the hat, but I wanted to affect the sound and pedals were the easiest way. The box was perfect for them.
The picture above is a pretty good close-up of the hat and the guitar (which I have named "Tetanus"). Inside the hat is a small Danelectro Honeytone amp. I had originally toyed with the idea of using a smaller amp, but I opted for the Honeytone since it allowed me clean sounds at a higher volume. That way I was able to use my pedals to affect the sound rather than the amp. The key sticking out of the side of my hat controls the volume.
But I honestly think that it's the guitar that makes the costume and it is the part that I am most proud of. I found a cheap "snake" guitar on ebay and then repainted it and created the rusted iron effect. I then added little touches like the copper tubing, the "furnace" light, and the red thing that used to be the end of a curtain rod. And it doesn't sound half bad. Not great, but not bad either. The pick-up position is just a little off so it doesn't produce that full, meaty humbucker tone you would expect. Instead, it's more of a 2nd position from a hum-single-single configuration (those of you who play guitar will know what I mean). And it can't stay in tune to save its life. Even so, it's a blast to play. there should be some video floating around on youtube. As soon as I find it, I'll link.
So now that this Halloween is finally over, we have to decide what to do for next year. To be honest, the time and money invested in this makes me want to go as the Rad Hatter for the rest of this decade so I can get my money's worth.
And in case you were wondering, my costume wasn't the best. Not by far. We also had a
zeppelin mechanic,
Miss Knick Knacks, a
steampunk iron man, and the
apothakitty.
Yes, the apothakitty. Frikkin' brilliant.
