Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I understand some (or rather many) of you have already seen this one, but i saw it just recently...

First i thought it's a Photoshop work, but no! It seems there's not many of them, but some play it, right? I wonder - HOW?! 42 strings, oh-my-God, how can it be possible?! (6 are quite enough for me And tuning it might be a nightmare...
Anybody knows who plays it actually (on what record if there is one) and HOW they do it?!

This was built as a special for a female singer (can't remember who...Emmylou Harris?)

But that's not her playing it, fer sure!

oh... i've found something about it, BTW... The guys on ru_guitar say that it's called Picasso guitar made by Linda Manser (or is it Manzer?) and the guy is Pat Metheny, he was the first to start playing it, and there's only two of these guitars in the world. There's also a description of how he does it (or kind of) but still, i cannot imagine it! And... eh... as far as i understand, Metheny himself has lots of troubles with tuning it...
Anybody seen him playin' it?

I seem to remember seeing something on television at least a year ago when I was visitin the in-laws--it may have been him, playing a multi-necked instrument with an amazing number of strings....we watched for about five minutes, and then father in-law changed the channel before I could find out who the musician was or what the instrument was.

Father-in-law? I thought that was mother-in-law duty.

My FIL is addicted to television, and has exclusive control of his T.V. remote, LOL!

It looks like Pat Metheney to me...

That, or a young Chuck McCann in a Bozo wig...

Yes that's Pat Metheney, Dane. He must have steel fingers!

Linda Manzer is a luthier in Toronto and she has built several instuments for Pat Methany, she is very good at her craft

I saw Pat Metheny play this at the Montreal Jazz Festival a couple of years ago. He uses open tunings on the top shorty neck. He is an amazing guitar player to begin with, and this was a treat.

He has played the Jazz Fest every year since it's inception, except 2004, due to prior bookings. As a result of the 2004 conflict, he apparently got a new agent and was adamant about nothing interfering with future Jazz Fest appearances.

He is very, very popular here. This year he played a free show for over 100,000 people. The first year, he had well over 100,000 as well.

...Dean

I haven't seen Pat in many years, the last time was with Joni Mitchell, Lyle Mays, Don Alias, Michael Brecker and Jaco Pastorius! Oh, and the Persuasions.

Yes, that is Pat Metheny. He still plays and records with Lyle Mays, as far as I know. I was turned onto PM many years ago, though I've never seen him in person. He normally plays a jazzy hollow body electric, but one of his latest albums has lots of solo acoustic stuff on it.

He's also been experimenting with a variation of 'high strung' tuning on the 6-string (someone please correct me if I'm inaccurate here), where he tunes the middle 3 strings (D-G-B) an octave higher than normal. It sounds quite chimey and cool!

Kenn, i wonder, how often does he have to change the strings if he tunes them that way?! Or does he use the strings of such a quality they cannot be torn easily? (a silly question, i know, but i really want to know it...)

I picked up this Bunker Touch Guitar off eBay a while back:



One is supposed to play the bass with one hand and the guitar with the other simultaneously. It's going to take some time for me to learn how to play it ... and learn what all those switches do!

I saw Pat play that on TV. He makes some pretty weird faces when he plays. He's an animal.