Transform your Acoustic with a 3D Printed Passerelle Bridge

Passerelle PDF Blueprint: who-wants-hone...
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All Music Composed by Mark Gutierrez

[@stu7161]

Just when you think you've seen everything that could be done with a guitar... Someone comes up with an interesting and creative new idea. That's what I love about Guitars!

[@lealoop]

Just f.y.i.: The idea of a "Koto Guitar" came actually from David Torn, as you can hear on the track "Snapping the Hollow Reed" of his 1987 album 'Cloud About Mercury', which was produced when Kaki King was only 8 years old. He used an old guitar and the handle of a kitchen knife, which he also showed in his instructional video "Painting with Guitar" (...make a happy stroke!). However, the Passerelle bridge is certainly a big improvement over the knife handle. 🙂Also, please understand I 'm a big Kaki fan, as well, and I don't mean to diminish her ingeniuity. It just doesn't sit well with me when someone is credited as an inventor while actually somebody else had the original idea first. We all sit on the shoulders of giants.

[@ludamillion]

And it's almost certain that someone, probably more than one someone, thought of it before 1987 as well. Torn was just the first to both put it to tape and be well known enough to be recognized for doing so. I like David Torn as well. Not trying to diminish him either, just pointing out that many of the giants on whose shoulder we sit on are anonymous or lost to history.

[@lealoop]

@@ludamillion agreed.

[@user-yv6xw7ns3o]

Yes. I’ve spontaneously experimented by sticking a drumstick under the strings by my own inspiration, and I have no doubt that many other people have tried something similar without any big recognition of it publicly. Just to underline what another mentioned here, that the concept of inserting something to improvise a bridge in the middle of the strings of a guitar is not really all that unique. Yet of course, this is a more highly engineered/refined version of that.

[@jamieryandowney9880]

@@user-yv6xw7ns3o The concept of a "third bridge" goes back quite a while and numerous people used it during the 20th century. From Wiki: "In the 1930s, Harry Partch experimented with this technique on an instrument he called a Kithara that had movable glass rods. In the late 1960s, Keith Rowe made occasional use of third bridge guitars, inspiring a slew of experimental guitarists (notably Fred Frith) to use prepared guitars, inspired by John Cage's technique of the prepared piano. Classical guitar duo Elgart & Yates wrote a small book, Prepared Guitar Techniques, in which the technique is described and used in the added written musical piece, although not defined with the term 'third bridge' yet. From the 1970s, Hans Reichel's self-made and modified acoustic guitars sometimes featured third bridges. From the late 1970s, Glenn Branca adopted Partch's theory and used amplified string tables for some of his symphonies.[6] After being trained in the Branca orchestra, Sonic Youth applied their own guitars with screwdrivers, mainly in their early years. On their debut EP and the album Confusion is Sex this technique is often used.[7] Afterwards Bradford Reed developed the Pencilina. Reed plays mainly with drumsticks hitting the strings as well. "Nails" (2004) by Kaki King uses a third bridge set over the 16th fret and the technique has also been used by Fred Frith and Keith Rowe in addition to Branca, Moore, and Ranaldo."

[@lachaineguitarededavid]

Oh that's amazing ! I have this old acoustic with abusively high action. I can just do this. That's fantastic, thank you !!

[@harmlesscreationsofthegree1248]

Super cool, I wasn’t aware of anything like this. Your videos are excellent.

[@AlexFCarl]

I used to do this using a pencil lol

[@ConwayBob]

The sound of that instrument is SO beautiful. It seems like a three-way hybrid that's part guitar, part koto, and part Celtic harp. I love it.

[@RocktCityTim]

Thanks! This is simply amazing and expands music in a very different way.

[@MarkGutierrez]

Wow! Thanks so much.Truly appreciated. Please stick around. The future is bright!

[@caeliachapin5317]

Wow! Guitar hack of the year, probably!

[@marlinhall8298]

Groovy, man. I got on the Kaki bus early on. She's thinking outside of the box, no doubt. You could amp up with a couple of magnetic pickups on either side of your bridge, with a sort of stereo output.

[@dsmith9572]

Changing string angle like that puts a greater load bending the neck and pulling on the top. I wouldn't have that on my guitar for any length of time. A stack of popsicle sticks would work for this.

[@CB-68-westcreations]

Interesting concept, might be great for sound effects in certain circunstances, but I can't imagine any practical uses in my world.

[@DaveDickens]

Lovely sounds! I’ve not come across this before. Great video! Cheers Dave

[@pablo.l]

Add always great content Mark! Sounds great. I have an unplayable guitar (bc of high action) so this is particularly interesting to me.

[@Barkosaur]

Neat, I enjoyed the video, and thanks very much for providing the blueprint file for free . . of course I'm going to subscribe now 😁👍

[@StonyBlazestation]

Your videos always show off such cool stuff Mark, and giving the files away for free is really generous.

[@daleonov]

Lovely! Especially the part with the bends. I miss having a 3D printer at work, but if I find a local fab lab that does one-off orders, it will be the first thing I'll print!

[@Stephen-zx4uf]

Very cool! Wonder if there may be other non middle point positions to support a useful different tuning on each side. I would buy one to experiment.. and almost enough motivation to buy my first 3d printer. Thanks for the great video!

[@mwarnken1234]

the reason it won’t intonate is the wide flat top… round it off like a fret and it will sound better… i’m going to try carving one… thanks for the vid!

[@wisterialosenge2546]

a scrabble tile holder might work for that, except for widening the string spacings and the curvature

[@terryenglish7132]

Luna Lee uses a Guguin which is set up like this .She plays w the right and bends w the left.

[@davidpatton3180]

An ebow might be a fun thing to use along with moving the device to different frets to create some dissonance.

[@DutchKyotaku]

I'm pretty sure David Torn used this in the mid 80's on Cloud about Mercury. So decades before Kaki King

[@prestonashworthmusic]

Badass work dude! Would be interesting to slap a piezo sensor on each end and wire them to a preamp. Also... There is the idea of using your DIY ebow driver to add some drones...

[@MrGutbag]

Nice! How about getting a second guitar, cutting the necks of both and joining them together so that you have a soundhole on each side?

[@Chris-mc2dt]

Glenn Branca did this with Stratocasters

[@MrGutbag]

@@Chris-mc2dt Thanks, I didn't know that!

[@1-eye-willy]

im going to make one from African walnut, and im going to try it on my 7 string electric

[@alanagottalottasay997]

Such a big return for a basically simple idea! Makes me think….make a slotted base and utilize different materials for string contact….mix and match for different tonal values/contrast….

[@enzosetteducati836]

The great David Torn (also kaki's producer) in the mid 80's, like in the seminal ecm record Clouds about Mercury, use this concept with an additional bridge for some atrmosferic intro..go search !!

[@breezlee59]

Genius!!! Great 3d hack!

[@YegresAL]

So the next step - is to transform guitar to Koto)))) BTW, there's much crazier trick - insert piece of match between 1 and 2nd string at 12 fret. short piece, just to connect them with some tension to keep it in place. Excellent bells sound )

[@lisdexia1]

Another addition would be a more accurate surface for the string position and adjustment for accurate tuning and string compensations on the bridge. Just keep going. I'm all in.

[@chrisnewman9693]

Thanks for the plan. Why do you think it extends so far on each side?

[@MarkGutierrez]

Great question. I can only guess. For aesthetic reasons, it looks more like a pedestrian bridge. For ergonomic reasons, you can hold it better when sliding it under the strings. For structural reasons, maybe it's more rigid with the extra extensions?

[@Trent.Wessler]

Super interesting! Thanks for the file, I just made one.......no big surprise but mine is Bubinga

[@MarkGutierrez]

Ha! Thanks Trent. Have fun!

[@ntx9design392]

Interesting way to get Koto sounds and play style from a guitar.

[@60secmusic96]

can i just buy a printed one?

[@django02]

Very cool. Thanks for posting this and sharing your design. One question. Is the bottom of the bridge radiused to match the radius of the fretboard?

[@MarkGutierrez]

Yes. It has a subtle radius.

[@django02]

@@MarkGutierrez Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

[@humanwaveform]

I wonder how it responds to being played with a slide?

[@Bwalston910]

Wonder what this would sound like with a 12 string.

[@NadavBachar]

kzbin.infoLSrT7Nrpb5E?si=zEnDmKyWfNr13HpU

[@juanjobravo4476]

Genial! gracias...

[@philippebyrnes1213]

Very interesting. I'd hate to have to strobe tune this, though ;-)

[@x13-t7o]

rad!

[@loki3292]

I have an extra resonator guitar that's begging for one of these...

[@johnbotsford6897]

Mark, check out a Chinese instrument called a Gushing. An artist named Jingjing has some videos. Her rendition of "Rolling In The Deep" demonstrates some cool tones.

[@johnbotsford6897]

Guzheng (damned spellcheck)

[@MrTravisAl]

Since you’re not fretting, you are free to flip the guitar if you prefer your normal finger picking hand to be on the other side, as you experiment. 😊

[@MarkVictorson]

There actually is a Chinese musical instrument that the use of this bridge on a guitar mimics.

[@timhope8832]

Hi, you might be better to just draw in a ‘guide’ line for how you would cut the nut in the 3D print, then use a file like you would on a regular nut. The minimum feature size on your printer might be causing your challenge on the strings popping out

[@abominablemusic]

thanks, I'd love to take a shot about making this out of wood.

[@deltavistastudio124]

From the sound of his, a very hard wood, (like the Walnut that was mentioned above, or even brass, like the original will probably yield better sounding results.

[@abominablemusic]

@@deltavistastudio124 my first prototype is made from cheap soft wood, it works, but yes, hard wood is the way forward...

[@truthinesssss]

👍

[@UmasPapa]

Can you sell this please? Would buy

[@DMARrecords]

Imagine a 12 string... Woah dude..

[@johanjotun1647]

Seeing the thumbnail I thought you could change a Guit-fiddle into a Bow-fiddle, still cool tho.

[@MarkGutierrez]

The bow experiments didn't make it into the vid. The bridge allows for bowing all six strings. The only thing getting in the way is the body

[@steveowens398]

@@MarkGutierrez Try a psaltery bow - much shorter so you might be able to keep off of the body on the end strings. Otherwise, go with an ebow.

[@paulshea7022]

Great use for a guitar that needs a neck reset.

[@velvetvideo]

so you made a zither :)

[@mwarnken1234]

also, you might want to experiment with making feet that touch the body of the guitar transferring more sound into the instrument…

[@TheM00ndawg]

I mean... any reason you couldn't rig up a plank of wood and some cheap pick ups to do this? hmm... now i have some ideas....

[@ErickvdK]

I did that a couple of years ago, basically a heightened fret of rosewood, placed on the 16th fret. You get a new instrument!😊

[@c3N3q]

It's an awesome idea, but, since there's no way to intonate the new bridge, you are left with a lot of out of tune notes. Possibly because the guitar doesn't intonate well as it is without the new bridge..

[@qweszxcqazesc]

There is a chinese instrument Gu zhen.

[@Tjricchio]

Make 1 for an 8 string electric

[@ErickvdK]

Yea, why don't you do it, he is giving the files to make one, file 2 extra slots and Bob's your aunty!😊

[@Tjricchio]

@ErickvdK I lost my hands from frostbite but I still have a love for guitars and 3d printers are expensive

[@davidledford3522]

You'd have to have one hell of a high pickup lol or may throw neodymium magnets on the back

[@familyengineering5591]

The workshops outside now. You dont have to whisper. You wont wake up your parents

[@jerrymander1492]

What’s with the whispering voice? 🤬

[@mikerevis6439]

"Intonation inconsistencies are part of the charm" is the lamest excuse for poor engineering ive heard in a while. And why no radius on the fret slot? Is lack of contact and sustain charming as well?

[@mikerevis6439]

Also, moving it closer to the soundhole will increase volume as well. Charm is weak.

[@MrRetinas]

Yeah... Nah.

[@nickvictor7398]

Sounds bad to me, like an out of tune Chinese instrument.

[@DD-lc9jv]

I bet he at least knows what one tastes like.