Re: OT: My master luthier instructor/Zen disciplinarian teacher and friend of the Universe William Eaton and one of his Youtube vids!

["Rick Walker" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Bob Weigel wrote:
  "But I think the whole idea is...with the Robo you can just hit a button
while you are playing the thing and have it go drop D tuning for instance"

This is exactly what is exciting about this invention.   In that sense, it 
allows
one (as with something like an Echoplex) to make music that has never been 
made before.

Touring briefly with Michael Manring,   it was wonderful to see the new 
music for bass
that he is creating by using hipshot D-tuners on all four strings of his 
Zon 
Hyperbass.
(I think he also has some kind of customized mechanical retuning bridge as 
well,
but I'm not sure how he uses it-----anyone want to chime in here?)

He will play beautiful ringing harmonic passages and then flip a D-tuner 
on 
one or more
strings and the Harmonics will gliss down to their new tuning , as they 
are 
ringing out.

It's an ethereal and beautiful effect.

He makes music I've never heard from any other bassist that I've heard 
live 
or on record.
One could be cyncial as say , well, it's just a gimmick or a trick,  but 
then again,
so is a hammer on,  or a harmonic or flamenco flail, or, or, or........

I have a really beautiful capo called a 'Rolling Capo' that you can barr 
chord
retune in the middle of a passage, which is really cool as well.

One beautiful thing about this (and I am a very primitive string player so 
I'm no expert)
is that the harmonics change on the instrument as you change the tuning.

If you are playing against a loop in the initial tuning of the instrument, 
this allows for
all kinds of reharmonizations that you never hear on a straigth single 
tuned 
string instrument.

The same thing can be approximated using false harmonics but the harmonics 
on an open tuned
instrument just resonate wonderfully and sound better imho.

I also found this interesting capo called a 'Third Hand Capo'  that allows 
you to fret (or not fret)
anyone one of your six strings,  throwing the instrument into a new open 
tuning.

I've been experimenting with using the rolling capo to capo up the guitar 
and then changing the
tuning above the capo with the 'Third Hand Capo".

Anyone know of any partial Capos that are out there?

Are there dulcimer Capos, perchance?     I'm able to use capos on my two 
strumsticks (which are like
walking dulcimers to produce really beautiful harmonic results  
(frequently 
modal ones, just becuase
I love the sound of modal harmony and it's easy to play..............lol).