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The Guitaret is an electric lamellophone made by
Hohner Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of musical instruments, founded in 1857 by Matthias Hohner (1833–1902). It is a subsidiary of Matth. Hohner AG. The roots of the Hohner firm are in Trossingen, Baden-Württemberg ...
and invented by
Ernst Zacharias Ernst Zacharias (21 June 1924 – 6 July 2020) was a German musician and engineer. In the 1950s and 1960s, he invented various electro-mechanical musical instruments for the German musical instrument manufacturer Hohner, including the Cembalet, t ...
, in 1963. Zacharias also invented similar instruments like the
Pianet The Hohner Pianet is a type of electric piano, electro-mechanical piano built by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany and designed by Ernst Zacharias. The Pianet was a variant of his earlier reed-based Hohner electric piano, the Cemba ...
,
Cembalet The Cembalet is a type of electro-mechanical piano built by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany from the late 1950s to the late 1960s, and designed by Ernst Zacharias. It was a reed-based electric piano intended for home use, and ...
and the
Clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respond ...
. The instrument itself was not popular, and was dropped from the product line in 1965, presumably because it failed to excite the market. It was one of a number of experiments that Zacharias made converting non-standard musical instruments to modern ones. Guitarets that have survived have problems with the reed dampening system, which means that the instrument has come to be played with two hands. Despite its obsolescence, its distinct tone has made it popular in both retro- and colourist settings, and it has experienced somewhat of a revival. It has been featured in soundtracks recently for this very reason."I ended up playing a lot of guitaret (the rare thumb piano-like instrument that Eno gave me" Leo Abrahams, review of Searching 1906 The Guitaret's sound is that of a thumb piano. It is plugged into an amplifier, and sounds like an electric thumb piano.


Instrument layout and playing

The Guitaret is a rationalised lamellophone, making use of metal reeds or tines which are arranged in three rows within a white painted metal rectangular case approximately 30 centimetres long. The ends of the tines protrude slightly above the level of the casing. The player takes the guitaret with the left hand on the handle and uses the thumb of the right hand to pluck the tines. There are hidden tines that resonate with the plucked tines to swell the sounds. Although there are 3 rows of 12 tines each (36 Total), there are only 15 actual tones (1.5 Octaves), ranging from G3 to E5 owing to repetition. A handle at the left-hand end of the instrument contains a large lever, called the "damper button", which operate a damper mechanism. By pressing the spring-loaded button, a damper mechanism lifts a series of felt pads which rest on the tines; by releasing the button, all the tines, including the resonating tines, are simultaneously muted. The instrument is amplified up by a single electromagnetic pickup which is wrapped around all of the tines. The coil is directly connected to the output to the amplifier, it has no built-in amplification. The sound of the instrument on its own is very soft. The three rows of tines are laid out in the cycle of fifths which permits easy performance of chord
sequences In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is call ...
, and they are arranged in such a manner that three- or four-note chords can be played with ease. At the top of the instrument case, these chords are laid out for the convenience of the player. The chords are major, minor, diminished seventh, major seventh, diminished, augmented, minor seventh and sixth. An alternative method of two handed multi-finger playing is listed in the Facebook Guitaret Page as being invented by Lalli Barriere with the damper button held down with elastic bands, while Ivodne Galatea has created a five finger right-hand style for playing classical music, with the left hand being used for damping. Galatea has also created a
tablature Tablature (or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering or the location of the played notes rather than musical pitches. Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuel ...
for playing the instrument classically and has arranged a repertoire for it from
Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the or ...
,
Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...
and
Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...
, as well as an arrangement for Guitaret consort of Reilly's
In C ''In C'' is a composition by Terry Riley from 1964. It is one of the most successful works by an American composer and a seminal example of minimal music, minimalism. The score directs any number of musicians to repeat a series of 53 melodic fr ...
.


Famous performers

*It is featured on
Leo Abrahams Leo Matthew Abrahams (born 28 November 1977) is an English musician, composer and producer. He has collaborated with Brian Eno, Katie Melua, Imogen Heap, Jarvis Cocker, Carl Barât, Regina Spektor, Jon Hopkins and Paul Simon. After attending th ...
's work (he was given a Guitaret by
Brian Eno Brian Peter George Jean-Baptiste de la Salle Eno (, born 15 May 1948), also mononymously known as Eno, is an English musician, songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and activist. He is best known for his pioneering contributions to ambien ...
). Leo plays the Guitaret on the soundtrack for "Searching 1906" ''"I ended up playing a lot of guitaret (the rare thumb piano-like instrument that Eno gave me)."'' *
Warren Ellis Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is an English comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ...
plays Guitaret both on the
Grinderman Grinderman was an Australian-American rock band that formed in London, England, in 2006. The band included Nick Cave (vocals, guitar, organ, piano), Warren Ellis (tenor guitar, electric mandolin, violin, viola, guitar, backing vocals), Martyn P ...
album and on the Soundtrack for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford *Max Eastley (creator of instruments) plays Guitaret according to the Lord Jazz Discography *Lali Barriere plays Guitaret in Pad (Projecte Achmed Digital) and with Ferran Fages in a Barcelona experimental duet GRUS. Lali also plays guitaret in "My Pony", last track of "Press the Space Bar", by Chicks on Speed and The No Heads. Lali also started the Guitaret Fan Club on Facebook, and contributed to Guitaret Album *Michael Peters organised the Guitaret Album through the Guitaret Fan Club and uses the Guitaret for Live-looping. He played Guitaret in Tonlabor (2004–2006) as part of a collection of strange instruments *Ivodne Galatea has released 3 albums of Guitaret music "The Ambitions of Curiosity", "The Geography of Thought" and "The Archaeology of Knowledge". Ivodne also contributed to the Guitaret Album. *Saïd Zarrabi, the keyboardist in Les quitriches, a French beat band from Stuttgart, Germany and Quitriche-en-Auvergne, France doubles on Guitaret *Aja West plays Guitaret on Aja West & Cheeba's Flash & Snowball *Plamo includes Guitaret in his instrumentation. *Roland Wolff plays the Guitaret in his stage music *Martin Schnur plays his Guitaret sometimes in his stage music with the Original Wammertaler Musikanten. *Icelandic band múm have Guitaret on their latest album and the track Illuminated features it *Abandon the Earth Mission features a Guitaret *It is sampled in the MOTU Electric Keys, so the Guitaret sound is likely heard more than the Guitaret itself. It can be detected by the harsh metallic clicking of the high C. There is also a (defunct) one for 9V Audio which extends the range by octaves, but transposes an octave as well. *
Loren Bouchard Loren Hal Bouchard (born 1969 or 1970) is an American animator, writer, producer, director, and composer. He is the creator of several animated TV shows such as ''Bob's Burgers'', '' Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil'', and ''Central Park''. He is a ...
plays it on the theme song of
Bob's Burgers ''Bob's Burgers'' is an American animated sitcom created by Loren Bouchard for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is centered on the Belcher family—parents Bob Belcher, Bob and Linda Belcher, Linda and their three children, Tina Belcher, Tina, G ...
. *
Joanna Newsom Joanna Newsom (born January 18, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. After recording and self-releasing two EPs in 2002, Newsom signed to the independent label Drag City (record label), Drag City. Her debut album, ''The Milk-Eyed ...
plays one on the title track of the album
Divers (album) ''Divers'' is the fourth studio album by American musician Joanna Newsom, released on October 23, 2015, on Drag City. The album was revealed on August 10, 2015, along with its first song, " Sapokanikan", which was released digitally as the fir ...
.


References


HOHNER-GUITARET
wunderwerke.de {{Authority control Comb lamellophones