Third bridge guitar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A third bridge guitar is a guitar with three bridges, instead of the usual two.
Standard guitars have two bridges, the first near the tuning pegs (called the "nut"), the second at the other end of the strings, near where they are normally plucked or strummed. But by adding a third bridge, one can create a number of unusual sounds vaguely remisincent of chimes, bells or harps.
Both electric guitars and acoustic guitars can have this feature, though electric amplification makes the usually quiet third bridge sounds more easily audible. A third bridge can be a "prepared guitar" modified with an object—for instance, a screwdriver—placed under the strings to act as a makeshift bridge, or it can be a custom made instrument.
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[edit] History
[edit] Guitars with tailed bridges
Leo Fender designed two guitars, the Fender Jaguar and the Fender Jazzmaster, which unintentionally had a primitive third bridge mechanism in their floating bridge with limited timbre when used in an extended technique. When the strings are played behind the bridge, a chiming tone is created.
Several guitar manufacturers from the 1960s, such as Teisco (Japan), Egmond (Holland) and Eko (Italy), made inexpensive guitars with long bridges suitable for this playing technique.
[edit] Screwdriver technique
Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth are well known for using the screwdriver technique on their guitars. Confusion Is Sex contains a lot of music with third-bridge sounds. Other musical examples of this technique are the intros of the song "Bull in the Heather", again from Sonic Youth, and "Good Morning, Captain" from Slint's album Spiderland.
[edit] Custom made instruments
Dissatisfied with the limitations of the preparation of a normal guitar, several people began building instruments to improve the technical possibillities.
[edit] Glenn Branca
Guitarist and composer Glenn Branca has created several primitive but effective working models of third bridge guitars for his first symphonies.
[edit] Hans Reichel
Since the 1970s, German guitarist and luthier Hans Reichel has created guitars with third-bridge-like qualities.
[edit] Pencilina
The pencilina is a custom-made string instrument invented around 1985 by Bradford Reed. The instrument is a double neck third bridge guitar with four bass strings and six guitar strings.
[edit] Neptune
The American band Neptune has also created custom-made guitars with drumsticks used as a third bridge.
[edit] Moodswinger
In 2003 experimental luthier Yuri Landman created his first third bridge zither. In 2006 he built a 12-string third bridge guitar for Aaron Hemphill of the Liars he called the Moodswinger.
The tuning of this instrument is a circle of fourths:
- E-A-D-G-C-F-A#-D#-G#-C#-F#-B, arranged in 3 clusters of 4 strings each.
The pickup and electronics are built into the neck instead of in the body like usual electric guitars.
[edit] How it works
The third bridge divides the strings into two segments with different pitches. Depending on where the string is played, a harmonic-like second tone is created. This sound is often described as a bell-like tone. The string resonates more or less when the back side is struck, depending on the position of the third bridge along the string. The reason this happens can be explained by the theory of acoustic resonance and microtonality. At harmonic nodal positions, the string resonates more than at other positions. For instance, dividing the string 1/3 + 2/3 creates a clear overtone, while 24/33 + 9/33 creates an indistict overtone.
| 1f | 440 Hz | fundamental frequency | first harmonic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2f | 880 Hz | first overtone | second harmonic |
| 3f | 1320 Hz | second overtone | third harmonic |
| 4f | 1760 Hz | third overtone | fourth harmonic |
More complicated:
| harmonic | stop note | harmonic note | cents | reduced cents |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | octave | P8 | 1200.0 | 0.0 |
| 3 | just perfect fifth | P8 + P5 | 1902.0 | 702.0 |
| 4 | just perfect fourth | 2P8 | 2400.0 | 0.0 |
| 5 | just major third | 2P8 + just M3 | 2786.3 | 386.3 |
| 6 | just minor third | 2P8 + P5 | 3102.0 | 702.0 |
| 7 | septimal minor third | 2P8 + septimal m7 | 3368.8 | 968.8 |
| 8 | septimal major second | 3P8 | 3600.0 | 0.0 |
| 9 | Pythagorean major second | 3P8 + pyth M2 | 3803.9 | 203.9 |
| 10 | just minor whole tone | 3P8 + just M3 | 3986.3 | 386.3 |
| 11 | greater unidecimal neutral second | 3P8 + just M3 + GUN2 | 4151.3 | 551.3 |
| 12 | lesser unidecimal neutral second | 3P8 + P5 | 4302.0 | 702.0 |
| 13 | tridecimal 2/3-tone | 3P8 + P5 + T23T | 4440.5 | 840.5 |
| 14 | 2/3-tone | 3P8 + P5 + septimal m3 | 4568.8 | 968.8 |
| 15 | septimal (or major) diatonic semitone | 3P8 + P5 + just M3 | 4688.3 | 1088.3 |
| 16 | just (or minor) diatonic semitone | 4P8 | 4800.0 | 0.0 |
[edit] See also
[edit] Bibliography
- Helmholtz, H. von. (1877). Die Lehre von den Tonempfindungen als physiologische Grundlage für die Theorie der Musik. 1877, 6th ed., Braunschweig: Vieweg, 1913; trans. by A.J. Ellis as On the sensations of tone as a physiological basis for the theory of music (1885). Reprinted New York: Dover, 1954. ISBN 0-486-60753-4
- Partch, Harry. Genesis of a Music, 2nd ed. Da capo press, 1974. ISBN 0-306-80106-X
[edit] External links
- GlennBranca.com
- www.pencilina.com, Bradford Reed's home page
- Oddmusic A website dedicated to unique, odd, ethnic, experimental and unusual musical instruments and resources.
- The interaction of reflected waves on a string is illustrated in a simplified animation that can be found at Edward Zobel's "Zona Land".
