just guitar

>I believe it may be quite practical to have frets going all the way across
>in a JI guitar. I have been considering the following arrangement which
>when combined together creates a kind of matrix guitar. Please let me know
>what you think, as I have not yet fully thought it through.
>
>Darren's plan for a dual guitar looks very interesting. Tuning systems
>which emphasize series of partials are guarenteed to reflect the spectrum
>of a vibrating string. A double necked JI guitar, now there's an idea!

I built an electric slide version of this instrument. It has two sides.
One has strings tuned to harmonics 8-16, and the other has two sets of
strings, one tuned to a harmonic hexad, and the other to a subharmonic
hexad. Both sides of the body are marked to indicate harmonics 8-16 and
subharmonics 6-12. Darren, if you have played Denny's Cosmolyra you are
familiar with this layout.

The instrument is extremely resourceful, even as a solo instrument, for
anyone who has paid their fingerpicking and slide technique dues. John
Starrett played the @#$% out of it, if only briefly and unplugged, about a
year ago now. Rod Poole has also played it, briefly and unplugged, to good
effect.

To play it in a band situation is much easier, and almost anybody could
pick it up in an hour or so.

But the design does have drawbacks. I can't imagine, even with a fretted
version, gettin voice leading from inverting chords the way you do on a
regular guitar. But I'm not a guitarist, so I don't really know...

Carl