View source for Prepared guitar

{{short description|Musical instrument}}
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[[File:myprepguitar.jpg|thumb|A prepared guitar]]

A '''prepared guitar''' is a [[guitar]] that has had its [[timbre]] altered by placing various objects on or between the instrument's strings, including other extended techniques. This practice is sometimes called '''tabletop guitar''', because many prepared guitarists do not hold the instrument in the usual manner, but instead place the guitar on a table to manipulate it.

The idea of altering an instrument's timbre through the use of external objects has been applied to other instruments as well, most notably [[John Cage]]'s [[prepared piano]], which preceded the prepared guitar.

==History==
With prepared guitars, one of the key goals in preparing the instrument is changing its timbre – the fundamental tone composition of the sound. This is typically achieved by placing objects on or under the strings. The objects can have a tone of their own, like for instance a pen [[spring (device)|spring]], but can also cause strange [[string resonance]] effects or behave like a [[seesaw]] and create echoing or buzzing effects after being struck and swinging like a [[beam balance|balance]]. Many of the sounds sound more or less like clocks, bells or Non Western musical instruments or even non string percussion instruments.

===Bjørn Fongaard===
{{main|Bjørn Fongaard}}
The history of Norwegian composer and guitar player Bjørn Fongaard (1919–1980) probably marks the first steps into prepared guitar. He started off by constructing a [[quarter tone]] guitar with adaption of the fretboard, but very early left this in favour of a diverse set of prepared guitar techniques. His first pieces in this genre came in the mid 1960s.

===Keith Rowe===
{{Main|Keith Rowe}}
The method of actually preparing the guitar was developed in the late 1960s by [[Keith Rowe]], in imitation of Jackson Pollock's painting method and [[John Cage]]'s [[prepared piano]]. Rowe developed various prepared guitar techniques: placing the guitar flat on a table and manipulating the strings, body and pickups in unorthodox ways to produce sounds described as dark, brooding, compelling, expansive and alien. He has been known to employ objects such as a library card, rubber eraser, springs, hand-held electric fans, alligator clips, and common office supplies in playing the guitar.

===Fred Frith===
{{Main|Fred Frith|Guitar Solos}}
Another pioneer was [[Fred Frith]] who in 1974 released a solo album called ''[[Guitar Solos]]''. The album comprises eight tracks of unaccompanied and [[Musical improvisation|improvised]] music played on prepared guitars by Frith.
The album was recorded using a modified 1936 [[Gibson Guitar Corporation|Gibson]] K-11. Frith added an extra [[pickup (music technology)|pickup]] over the strings at the [[nut (string instrument)|nut]], enabling him to amplify sound from both sides of the [[fret]]ted note. He then split the [[Fingerboard|fretboard]] in two with a [[Capo (musical device)|capo]], effectively giving him two guitars, each amplified separately, that he could play independently with each hand. To split the sounds further he attached [[Crocodile clip|alligator clips]] at various positions on the strings. The net result was a guitar with multiple sound sources that could be channeled to a [[Mixing console|mixer]] and distributed across the [[stereo]] [[soundscape]].

===Other prepared guitarists===
In the 1980s [[Glenn Branca]], [[Sonic Youth]] and other experimental [[art rock]]ers also utilized prepared guitars. [[Koka Nikoladze]] developed a preparation technique, which afterwards was named "Nikoladze" Preparation. In this case an acoustic guitar was prepared with a certain type of a light bulb and produced synthetic - alike sound. The beautiful demonstration of upper mentioned technique is the composition "Starshine ~" for violin, prepared guitar and percussion.

Other contemporary prepared guitar composers/performers include:
* Dani Rabin of [[Marbin]] incorporated prepared guitar into the jazz-rock style in a non-avant-garde fashion.
* [[Duane Denison]] used prepared guitar with [[The Jesus Lizard]] and [[Legendary Shack Shakers]].
* [[GP Hall]] (active since the late 1960s) uses a variety of guitars played with implements including [[bowed psaltery|psaltery bows]], palette knives, electric fans and razors, wind-up toys, [[velcro]] and [[crocodile clip]]s. Some of Hall's techniques are similar to [[Keith Rowe]]'s methods but are applied to a much more melodic compositional and improvisational style.
* [[Steve Parry (musician)|Steve Parry]] of [[Hwyl Nofio]] uses a prepared guitar technique and developed a bowed device based on the violin, utilizing paper clips, nails, a razor, pliers, bow, automata.
* [[Koka Nikoladze]] developed a guitar preparation technique with light bulb (2009), and played a standard acoustic guitar as a bowed instrument.
* [[Martín Irigoyen]] (of [[Vernian Process]]) and [[Erik Sanko]] both use electronic devices, hand ventilators, walkie-talkies, paper clips, aluminum foil, credit cards and tweezers.
* [[Nikita Koshkin]] uses cork, matches and foam mutes.
* [[Jacques Palinckx]] (active from the 1980s) from the Netherlands uses vibrators, radios, toys and knives.
* [[Cor Fuhler]] uses multiple vibrators and [[3rd bridge]] on acoustic guitar.
* [[Micachu]] uses unorthodox instruments which are sometimes customised or homemade. These included a modified guitar played with a hammer action, called a 'chu'. Other is a short scaled children guitar with an additional [[3rd bridge|third bridge]] next to the sound hole which shortens the [[Scale (string instruments)|scale length]], leading to an alternate [[microtonality|microtonal]] division of the [[interval (music)|interval]]s.
* [[These Are Powers]] use a bass guitar with a rod placed between the strings and the body to shorten the string length, as well as playing behind that additional bridge like a [[tailed bridge guitar]].
* [[Michael Chorney]] plays prepared-guitar
* Shane Parish of [[Ahleuchatistas]] places a wire in front of the bridge in some songs.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D06Tb01Pe8k '''Ahleuchatistas - Vanished''']</ref>
* [[Paolo Angeli]] uses a "Sardinian prepared guitar":<ref>[https://www.newsounds.org/story/paolo-angeli-constantly-innovates-sardinian-prepared-guitar/ "Paolo Angeli Constantly Innovates On Sardinian Prepared Guitar"]</ref> an orchestra-instrument with 18 cords, a hybrid between guitar, cello and drums, gifted with hammers, pedals at variable speed.

==Custom made instruments==
[[File:Home swinger.jpg|thumb|200px|A [[Home Swinger]], [[3rd bridge]] zither]]
Beginning in the 1970s, guitarist and [[luthier]] [[Hans Reichel]] made some unusual guitars with [[3rd bridge|third bridge]]-like qualities.

[[Yuri Landman]] derived a [[just intonation|just intoned]] [[musical scale]] from an initially considered atonal prepared guitar playing technique based on adding a [[3rd bridge]] under the strings. He constructed an instrument called the [[Moodswinger]] with this scale. When this bridge is positioned in the [[node (physics)|noded]] positions of the [[harmonic series (music)|harmonic series]] the volume of the instrument increases and the [[overtone]] becomes clear and has a [[consonance and dissonance|consonant]] relation to the complementary opposed string part creating a [[harmonic]] [[multiphonic]] tone.<ref>[http://www.furious.com/perfect/experimentalstringinstruments.html '''3rd Bridge Helix'''] by [[Yuri Landman]] on furious.com</ref>

==See also==
* [[Electroacoustic improvisation]]
* [[Experimental luthier]]
* [[Experimental musical instrument]]
* [[Kotar (instrument)]]
* [[Prepared music (disambiguation)|Prepared music]]<!--intentional link to DAB page-->, a disambiguation page for prepared instruments
* [[Prepared piano]]
* [[String resonance]]
* [[Tritare]]

==Prepared guitar luthiers==
* [[Glenn Branca]]
* [[Yuri Landman]]
* [[Bradford Reed]]
* [[Hans Reichel]]

==Notable prepared guitar players==
* [[Derek Bailey (guitarist)|Derek Bailey]]
* [[Glenn Branca]]
* [[Scott Fields]]
* [[Dominic Frasca]]
* [[Fred Frith]]
* [[GP Hall]]
* [[Koka Nikoladze]]
* [[Martín Irigoyen]]
* [[Nikita Koshkin]]
* [[Yuri Landman]]
* [[Thurston Moore]]
* [[Steve Parry (musician)|Steve Parry]]
* [[Lee Ranaldo]]
* [[Keith Rowe]]
* [[Marc Ribot]]
* [[David Tronzo]]
* [[Reynaldo Young]]
* Jon Wilson of [[Meat Beat Manifesto]]
* [[Reentko Dirks]]

==Literature==
* ''[https://www.calguitar.com/music/41 Prepared Guitar Techniques]'' - Matthew Elgart/Peter Yates (Elgart/Yates Guitar Duo) {{ISBN|978-0-939297-99-3|}}, [[California Guitar Archives]], 2020.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120913005112/http://windworld.com/products-page/books-cds/nice-noise-preparations-and-modifications-for-guitar/ Nice Noise] - [[Bart Hopkin]] & [[Yuri Landman]] {{ISBN|978-0-972-731-36-2}}, published by [[Experimental Musical Instruments]], 2012.
* [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-unorthodox-guitar-9780199381883?cc=nl&lang=en& The Unorthodox Guitar] - {{ISBN|978-0199381852}} [[Mike Frengel]], [[Oxford University Press]], 2017.

==References==
{{Commons category|Prepared guitar}}
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{{Experimental music genres}}
{{Extended techniques}}

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[[Category:Electric guitars]]
[[Category:Extended techniques]]
[[Category:Musical performance techniques]]