After attending way to many boring tradeshows with status-quo displays of static products and aggressive sales people, I decided to be different.

If the goal is to get attention, show off products, and demonstrate capabilities, we would need a booth that attracts people and brings joy. No more pressure on the sales people to engage. Now everyone walking past would do that for us. Clippard was seen as an innovative and creative company that would be fun to work with!

The pneumatic air guitar was about 8 months of sketches and brainstorming prior to the build.

Using a 1st gen iPad and an Alesis dock station (the only way at the time to drive midi from an iPad) and a 128 Midi I/O board to drive digital valves, we could use MIDI to program any song.

• 1 Ovation Acoustic guitar.

• Controls:

  • 1 iPAD with simulated keyboard and midi capabilities.

  • Wifi Card

  • 128 I/O relay board

  • Small amp & Bose speakers

• 30 Cylinders would actuate the frets on the bridge.

• 12 Cylinders to pick the 6 strings

• 1 Cylinder to strum - with several proportional valves to control speed of strum

• 6 cylinders for Harmonics

• 6 Cylinders for Mutes

• 3 Percussive Cylinders for slaps and taps.

• 3 Air to electric switches for controlling LED lights.