The BKJ is a 12 string electric guitar with a greatly enhanced range (7 octaves) that can almost cover the same number of octaves as a piano (about 8 octaves), allowing for a much wider range of music to be played. It also opens up the scope of guitar composition, by offering the composer a wider range of notes to play with.
CONTACT DETAILS: www.myspace.com/brycekjacobs
Inspiration While studying guitar at the Conservatorium as part of his first degree in performance, he was constantly troubled by the fact that so much music was beyond the reach of guitar players, particularly piano music which has to be heavily re-arranged to be able to be played on a guitar. He began working on a new guitar that would be capable of playing music written for piano, without the need to change a note.
How does it work? The aims of the inventor when developing the BKJ 12 String Guitar were as follows:
1. Create a guitar with a somewhat equal range to an 88 key piano. 2. Have a standard tuning that other tunings could be derived from. The object of the tuning was to allow much easier arrangement of piano and orchestral music for guitar. 3. The sound quality, while hopefully unique, must be at least that of a standard guitar. 4. The spacing between strings should not exceed what is physically comfortable for a player with averaged sized hands. 5. The guitar should be as harmonically stable as a standard guitar. 6. It should be no heavier than a standard guitar, for comfort of the player. 7. The playing technique required should not be out of reach of the average guitar player.
This standard tuning gave the guitar a natural range of approximately 5 octaves. In order to increase the range to 7 octaves, electronic pitch shifting devices had to be added.
The way these pitch shifting devices work on the prototype is as follows:
- The guitar is fitted with 2 sets of Humbucker pickups, one set on the 6 higher strings and one on the 6 lower. - These pickups take the signal, via a stereo lead, into 2 separate pedal operated pitch shifting devices, called Polyphonic Octave Generators, or POGs for short. - The six higher strings can be shifted up one octave and the six lower can be shifted down an octave, thus allowing the guitar to achieve a range of 7 octaves. - The shifted sound is then fed to the amp. The 2 signals can also be modified using volume and tone knobs as on a standard guitar.
By contrast, a normal electric guitar setup would have one set of pickups with tone and volume control going via a mono lead, directly into the amp.
On the prototype the pitch shifting devices are separate to the guitar, but Bryce hopes eventually to be able to incorporate them into the body of the guitar.
SHAPE AND DESIGN OF THE GUITAR
The guitar neck has two truss rods as opposed to one in a standard guitar. These are necessary to balance the neck against the tension of the strings, and in order to keep the tuning stable. (If the neck bends at all then the tuning and intonation of the instrument will be out).
It is somewhat wider than a standard guitar neck in order to accommodate the 12 equally spaced strings. The inventor hopes that in subsequent designs, the neck can be made slightly narrower to facilitate ease of playing.
The body is made from alder wood to keep it relatively light, and is basically a standard guitar shape, though again slightly wider for the reasons mentioned above.
The cut-away shape of the body around the neck allows the left hand to reach right up the neck to play the highest notes on each string.
PLAYING AND HAND POSITION
The guitar is fitted with a strap and is held and played in basically the same way as a standard guitar. The only difference is that the left hand must come further around the fret-board to access the lower 6 strings.
Interestingly, Bryce has found that rather than being a disadvantage, this has actually encouraged him to use more of a "whole arm technique" rather than just stretching his hand around the neck. Playing with his whole arm has actually alleviated some hand problems that had started to develop from playing ordinary guitars in his second year of uni.
Prototype cost approx AUD$5000 - est to market cost AUD$2000