Just when you think you've seen everything that could be done with a guitar... Someone comes up with an interesting and creative new idea. That's what I love about Guitars!

Just f.y.i.: The idea of a "Koto Guitar" came actually from David Torn, as you can hear on the track "Snapping the Hollow Reed" of his 1987 album 'Cloud About Mercury', which was produced when Kaki King was only 8 years old. He used an old guitar and the handle of a kitchen knife, which he also showed in his instructional video "Painting with Guitar" (...make a happy stroke!). However, the Passerelle bridge is certainly a big improvement over the knife handle. 🙂Also, please understand I 'm a big Kaki fan, as well, and I don't mean to diminish her ingeniuity. It just doesn't sit well with me when someone is credited as an inventor while actually somebody else had the original idea first. We all sit on the shoulders of giants.

@ludamillion

28 күн бұрын

And it's almost certain that someone, probably more than one someone, thought of it before 1987 as well. Torn was just the first to both put it to tape and be well known enough to be recognized for doing so. I like David Torn as well. Not trying to diminish him either, just pointing out that many of the giants on whose shoulder we sit on are anonymous or lost to history.

@lealoop

28 күн бұрын

@@ludamillion agreed.

@user-yv6xw7ns3o

22 күн бұрын

Yes. I’ve spontaneously experimented by sticking a drumstick under the strings by my own inspiration, and I have no doubt that many other people have tried something similar without any big recognition of it publicly. Just to underline what another mentioned here, that the concept of inserting something to improvise a bridge in the middle of the strings of a guitar is not really all that unique. Yet of course, this is a more highly engineered/refined version of that.

@jamieryandowney9880

20 күн бұрын

@@user-yv6xw7ns3o The concept of a "third bridge" goes back quite a while and numerous people used it during the 20th century. From Wiki: "In the 1930s, Harry Partch experimented with this technique on an instrument he called a Kithara that had movable glass rods. In the late 1960s, Keith Rowe made occasional use of third bridge guitars, inspiring a slew of experimental guitarists (notably Fred Frith) to use prepared guitars, inspired by John Cage's technique of the prepared piano. Classical guitar duo Elgart & Yates wrote a small book, Prepared Guitar Techniques, in which the technique is described and used in the added written musical piece, although not defined with the term 'third bridge' yet. From the 1970s, Hans Reichel's self-made and modified acoustic guitars sometimes featured third bridges. From the late 1970s, Glenn Branca adopted Partch's theory and used amplified string tables for some of his symphonies.[6] After being trained in the Branca orchestra, Sonic Youth applied their own guitars with screwdrivers, mainly in their early years. On their debut EP and the album Confusion is Sex this technique is often used.[7] Afterwards Bradford Reed developed the Pencilina. Reed plays mainly with drumsticks hitting the strings as well. "Nails" (2004) by Kaki King uses a third bridge set over the 16th fret and the technique has also been used by Fred Frith and Keith Rowe in addition to Branca, Moore, and Ranaldo."

Oh that's amazing ! I have this old acoustic with abusively high action. I can just do this. That's fantastic, thank you !!

I used to do this using a pencil lol

Super cool, I wasn’t aware of anything like this. Your videos are excellent.

The sound of that instrument is SO beautiful. It seems like a three-way hybrid that's part guitar, part koto, and part Celtic harp. I love it.

Changing string angle like that puts a greater load bending the neck and pulling on the top. I wouldn't have that on my guitar for any length of time. A stack of popsicle sticks would work for this.

Wow! Guitar hack of the year, probably!

Thanks! This is simply amazing and expands music in a very different way.

@MarkGutierrez

Ай бұрын

Wow! Thanks so much.Truly appreciated. Please stick around. The future is bright!

Lovely! Especially the part with the bends. I miss having a 3D printer at work, but if I find a local fab lab that does one-off orders, it will be the first thing I'll print!

Add always great content Mark! Sounds great. I have an unplayable guitar (bc of high action) so this is particularly interesting to me.

Your videos always show off such cool stuff Mark, and giving the files away for free is really generous.

Groovy, man. I got on the Kaki bus early on. She's thinking outside of the box, no doubt. You could amp up with a couple of magnetic pickups on either side of your bridge, with a sort of stereo output.

Interesting concept, might be great for sound effects in certain circunstances, but I can't imagine any practical uses in my world.

Lovely sounds! I’ve not come across this before. Great video! Cheers Dave

Neat, I enjoyed the video, and thanks very much for providing the blueprint file for free . . of course I'm going to subscribe now 😁👍

the reason it won’t intonate is the wide flat top… round it off like a fret and it will sound better… i’m going to try carving one… thanks for the vid!

a scrabble tile holder might work for that, except for widening the string spacings and the curvature

I'm pretty sure David Torn used this in the mid 80's on Cloud about Mercury. So decades before Kaki King

Very cool! Wonder if there may be other non middle point positions to support a useful different tuning on each side. I would buy one to experiment.. and almost enough motivation to buy my first 3d printer. Thanks for the great video!

Badass work dude! Would be interesting to slap a piezo sensor on each end and wire them to a preamp. Also... There is the idea of using your DIY ebow driver to add some drones...

Such a big return for a basically simple idea! Makes me think….make a slotted base and utilize different materials for string contact….mix and match for different tonal values/contrast….

An ebow might be a fun thing to use along with moving the device to different frets to create some dissonance.

Genial! gracias...

Luna Lee uses a Guguin which is set up like this .She plays w the right and bends w the left.

im going to make one from African walnut, and im going to try it on my 7 string electric

So the next step - is to transform guitar to Koto)))) BTW, there's much crazier trick - insert piece of match between 1 and 2nd string at 12 fret. short piece, just to connect them with some tension to keep it in place. Excellent bells sound )

rad!

The great David Torn (also kaki's producer) in the mid 80's, like in the seminal ecm record Clouds about Mercury, use this concept with an additional bridge for some atrmosferic intro..go search !!

Another addition would be a more accurate surface for the string position and adjustment for accurate tuning and string compensations on the bridge. Just keep going. I'm all in.

Super interesting! Thanks for the file, I just made one.......no big surprise but mine is Bubinga

@MarkGutierrez

Ай бұрын

Ha! Thanks Trent. Have fun!

Genius!!! Great 3d hack!

Interesting way to get Koto sounds and play style from a guitar.

Nice! How about getting a second guitar, cutting the necks of both and joining them together so that you have a soundhole on each side?

@Chris-mc2dt

Ай бұрын

Glenn Branca did this with Stratocasters

@MrGutbag

Ай бұрын

@@Chris-mc2dt Thanks, I didn't know that!

I wonder how it responds to being played with a slide?

Thanks for the plan. Why do you think it extends so far on each side?

@MarkGutierrez

5 күн бұрын

Great question. I can only guess. For aesthetic reasons, it looks more like a pedestrian bridge. For ergonomic reasons, you can hold it better when sliding it under the strings. For structural reasons, maybe it's more rigid with the extra extensions?

Very cool. Thanks for posting this and sharing your design. One question. Is the bottom of the bridge radiused to match the radius of the fretboard?

@MarkGutierrez

Ай бұрын

Yes. It has a subtle radius.

@django02

Ай бұрын

@@MarkGutierrez Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

Since you’re not fretting, you are free to flip the guitar if you prefer your normal finger picking hand to be on the other side, as you experiment. 😊

Very interesting. I'd hate to have to strobe tune this, though ;-)

can i just buy a printed one?

Wonder what this would sound like with a 12 string.

@NadavBachar

27 күн бұрын

kzread.infoLSrT7Nrpb5E?si=zEnDmKyWfNr13HpU

There actually is a Chinese musical instrument that the use of this bridge on a guitar mimics.

thanks, I'd love to take a shot about making this out of wood.

@deltavistastudio124

26 күн бұрын

From the sound of his, a very hard wood, (like the Walnut that was mentioned above, or even brass, like the original will probably yield better sounding results.

@abominablemusic

26 күн бұрын

@@deltavistastudio124 my first prototype is made from cheap soft wood, it works, but yes, hard wood is the way forward...

I have an extra resonator guitar that's begging for one of these...

Mark, check out a Chinese instrument called a Gushing. An artist named Jingjing has some videos. Her rendition of "Rolling In The Deep" demonstrates some cool tones.

@johnbotsford6897

28 күн бұрын

Guzheng (damned spellcheck)

Hi, you might be better to just draw in a ‘guide’ line for how you would cut the nut in the 3D print, then use a file like you would on a regular nut. The minimum feature size on your printer might be causing your challenge on the strings popping out

so you made a zither :)

👍

Can you sell this please? Would buy

also, you might want to experiment with making feet that touch the body of the guitar transferring more sound into the instrument…

Imagine a 12 string... Woah dude..

Seeing the thumbnail I thought you could change a Guit-fiddle into a Bow-fiddle, still cool tho.

@MarkGutierrez

Ай бұрын

The bow experiments didn't make it into the vid. The bridge allows for bowing all six strings. The only thing getting in the way is the body

@steveowens398

Ай бұрын

@@MarkGutierrez Try a psaltery bow - much shorter so you might be able to keep off of the body on the end strings. Otherwise, go with an ebow.

Great use for a guitar that needs a neck reset.

There is a chinese instrument Gu zhen.

I mean... any reason you couldn't rig up a plank of wood and some cheap pick ups to do this? hmm... now i have some ideas....

@ErickvdK

Ай бұрын

I did that a couple of years ago, basically a heightened fret of rosewood, placed on the 16th fret. You get a new instrument!😊

It's an awesome idea, but, since there's no way to intonate the new bridge, you are left with a lot of out of tune notes. Possibly because the guitar doesn't intonate well as it is without the new bridge..

Make 1 for an 8 string electric

@ErickvdK

Ай бұрын

Yea, why don't you do it, he is giving the files to make one, file 2 extra slots and Bob's your aunty!😊

@Tjricchio

Ай бұрын

@ErickvdK I lost my hands from frostbite but I still have a love for guitars and 3d printers are expensive

@davidledford3522

20 күн бұрын

You'd have to have one hell of a high pickup lol or may throw neodymium magnets on the back

The workshops outside now. You dont have to whisper. You wont wake up your parents

"Intonation inconsistencies are part of the charm" is the lamest excuse for poor engineering ive heard in a while. And why no radius on the fret slot? Is lack of contact and sustain charming as well?

@mikerevis6439

29 күн бұрын

Also, moving it closer to the soundhole will increase volume as well. Charm is weak.

Yeah... Nah.

What’s with the whispering voice? 🤬

Sounds bad to me, like an out of tune Chinese instrument.

I bet he at least knows what one tastes like.