Tim Donahue came up with this design in -84, I think. Thanks to my recent Stick playing I could do some two handed tapping on this one. It's not as versatile as the Stick but offers a useful complementary sound for recording and concert. The TDHG has dedicated outputs for the guitar and harp side so I just plugged right into my usual Stick rig and this is how it sounded.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWcU59p9Spo[/youtube]

Absolutely fascinating...and very nice music! Very lush and cinematic.

Oh the Toys!!!!!!!!!

very cool instrument. from appearances it seems to be a "limited" instrument.

can you play "autumn Leaves" in 12 keys on it? or are the open strings tuned to a particular chord? if so then you are somewhat limited in how you use them. Of course Metheny makes some great music on his "pickasso" guitar, and this seems like a simple version of that concept.

nice sound have fun!!!!!

now i go in search of a cheap used byrotron

wish me luck
Brett

Good questions, Brett. Yes, of course it is "limited". I find that inspiring though, since the harp strings stay fixed at the pitches they are tuned to they tend to add different colors to any key you decide to play in. The general concept is to keep the harp strings closely tuned. For this improvisation I had them tuned at (low to high) A, B, C#, D, E, F#. Then I play around the key B minor, the most convenient approach for wailing around a jazzy minor seven add9 mode. If I had chosen to play in C# the resulting phrygian scale might have made the music sound more aggressive. Or in A major for a good old pentatonic with the extra fourth note option on the harp side. I have a corporate gig coming up on thursday announced as Solo Stick but I think I will bring this harp guitar as well. The Stick must be the most unlimited instrument that exists; except for strings sounding a bit different at different frets it is in fact a non key instrument. The harp guitar is the opposite, it draws unique ornamentation from certain keys and just doesn't work in some keys (if not retuned on the fly)

Beautiful Sunday morning.. Coffee on the back deck... Then I clicked on your vid and turned it up. The neighbors seemed to enjoy it as well.

That was very pretty, per.

jimi

I sometimes forget this about the Stick and I think it's absolutely true. I have shifted a song from say the key of C to B without a second thought. Almost nothing else gives that kind of freedom. I remember one of the famous song writers from early in the 20th century could only use the white keys. So he had a piano made with a lever that could shift the strings to other keys. The Stick is like that only we're not cheating. I'm not even aware of the key I'm in when transcribing a tune. I'm just thinking of the notes and chords.

I like the Stick.

-Eric

Thanks Eric and Per, for mentioning the "keyless" aspect of The Stick and its unlimited harmonic freedom. I tried to think of another instrument with this capability, certainly not piano, where every key center produces a different "feel" to the player and a different repertoire collectively. The horns are key centered too, fingering in some keys being more awkward than in others. Maybe the harp comes close to the universality of The Stick, but no, there are pedals that deaden some lettered notes through the octaves.

You even have to tune drums and percussion. The more you fuss with them, the more key centered they become. The fretless bowed violin down to upright bass probably come close.

I made The Stick with exactly that keylessness in mind. As a teen, I played accordion, then one-handed piano, everything in C, but I was a chord collector, all from the framework of C. If I had gone on with piano, I would have no doubt been one of those "lever" guys, and would even have used it mid-song to do my harmonic "wandering", as I call it.

Debussy was always my favorite and I created The Stick to improvise harmonically as well as melodically. (I got very tired of those "two/five" jam sessions on lead guitar in the '60s, a la Santana.)

Still, I'm amazed at how key centered Stick performances usually are, as if they were relying on open strings for fullness of sound (a la Hedges). Mastery of any instrument includes playing well in any key (the harmony being transparent to the ideas behind it), and it's so easy on Stick!

A tried and true device in song arrangement, improv and composition is to keep expressing the song in different keys, and getting there by way of chord progressions in modulation. It's so effective, and refreshing. Do you really know the song? Can you play it anywhere on the board? Then you could also play it in any key, even working out systems of key changes by the interval.

Take a Giant Step, Emmett.

This post edited by the author, as it was so obsequious it even offended himself.
Sorry folks.