Following on from the last post about the future of guitar Jon and I were talking about bike riding this morning and we think there are great parallels between bicycle design and development and that of guitar. I think the Sunday Times ran a think tank amongst a series of leading experts, gurus and scientists who felt that the greatest invention of the last 250 years was the bicycle. Basically any great design doesn`t need radical improvements but more so innovation in materials over time. Like they say you just can`t reinvent the wheel but you can improve the drivers, sprockets, braking, or frame materials and geometry for different applications. Anyway this what we`re seeing in modern guitar design right now. Conisder the PRS Custom 22, the Ernie Ball Music Man, the Parker Fly, Steinberger GL, or at the most extreme the Teuffel Birdfish or the XOX.
Most experts agree the single-course, 6-string guitar began to appear commonly around the 1790`s and that by 1800 it became popular with music becoming printed around 1808. The instrument may have been “invented” earlier as a custom order, and many single-course variants like the arch-guitar, lyre-guitar with 7 or more strings apparently preceded it in the 18th century.
Of course underlying the construction of the guitar are some fundamental mathematics which I`m going to have a quick look at tomorrow and we`ll find out exactly how you can juggle time and space – the easy, non-transcendental way.
Meanwhile, perhaps, have a listen to Frank Zappa’s imaginary guitar solo on “Watermelons in Easter Hay”, Leslie West playing Nantucket Sleighride with Mountain, or Vernon Reid ….man. If you want to learn to play guitar like these fellas then maybe Jamorama could help propell you along the path toward unlocking the fretboard!
Or if you “dont give a $^%$ anyway” get some air guitar strings here!
Cheers,
