3rd bridge

For other uses, see Third bridge (disambiguation).
Yuri Landman's Home Swinger, 12 string 3rd bridge zither
Landman's 2006 Moodswinger, a 12 string overtone zither.
Different possible shapes of a third bridge: "a common six-sided pencil [4mm contact], a round dowel [more focused contact], and an L-shaped bracket [even more fine]." The pencil creates, "a damping effect and also prevents energy from transferring across the bridge to the opposing string segment," with the dowel, "resulting in greater sustain and cross-string resonance," and the bracket, "offers even more sustain than a [round] dowel."[1]

The 3rd bridge is an extended playing technique used on the electric guitar and other string instruments that allows a musician to produce distinctive timbres and overtones that are unavailable on a conventional string instrument with two bridges (a nut and a saddle). The timbre created with this technique is close to that of gamelan instruments like the bonang and similar Indonesian types of pitched gongs.

A third bridge can be devised by inserting a rigid preparation object between the strings and the body or neck of the instrument, effectively dividing the string into distinct vibrating segments.[1]

Third bridge instruments can be custom-made by experimental luthiers (as with guitars designed and played by Hans Reichel); modified from a non-third bridge instrument (as with conventional guitars modified with a pencil or screwdriver under the strings[2]); or may take advantage of design quirks of factory-built instruments (as with the Fender Jazzmaster, which has strings that continue from the "standard" bridge to the vibrato mechanism).

Perhaps the best-known examples of this technique come from No Wave artists like Glenn Branca and Sonic Youth. The 3rd bridge technique has a physical connection with Pythagoras' monochord, because both function with the scale of harmonics. Many non-Western musical scales and musical instruments share these consonant just pitch relations.

  1. ^ a b Frengel, Mike (2017). The Unorthodox Guitar: A Guide to Alternative Performance Practice, p.115-7. Oxford. ISBN 9780199381852. "The shape of the bridge, or more precisely, the amount of contact it makes with the string as they pass over it, affects both sustain and cross-bridge resonance."
  2. ^ Bigsby's ENGR 407 blog (February 26, 2008): "Third Bridge Guitar", Bigsby.WordPress.com. Accessed: December 16, 2017.