INVENTION II

This is  an instrument designed with and for Benjamin Wigler, a multi-instrumentalist. Since his primary instrument at the time was voice, and he usually plays in bands large enough to have all the major instruments carried well by other players, on this piece we worked to incorporate many different ways in which he would be able to accompany himself as he sang that would not overlap with the normal roles of guitar, bass, etc. 

The result is a hybrid including banjo sounds, large and small mbira (also called kalimba, sanza, or thumb piano, an African traditional instrument) keys tuned to a chromatic and a quatrotonic scale, drum style percussion, and two unfretted strings designed to play in the manner of an Erhu, the traditional Chinese spike fiddle. 

It uses a controllable blend of several piezo transducers and a magnetic guitar pickup to create a wide variety of electric and electroacoutic sounds from all parts of thje instrument. It features 4 strings on the full fretboard and one string that can land on the fretboard or off it, so it can play in both western and nonwestern scales.

Photos by Adrian Buckmaster