Hit me with your rhythm stick.
The Jasperbridge is like no guitar you’ve ever seen, because there is no other guitar like it. It brings together the familiarity of a standard electric guitar neck with a unique "reversing" body firmly supported on a floor stand, enabling this remarkable instrument to be played with drumsticks or percussion beaters. It's a whole new world of creative possibilities for guitarists of all levels, whether life-long players or beginners. This is the world's first Percussion Guitar.
But which side are the strings on?
The genius of the patented Jasperbridge body is that the strings are BOTH sides of the guitar! The unique design takes the strings from the front of a standard guitar neck and brings them through a carefully-designed “tunnel” to the other side of the guitar body. So while your left hand plays chords in the same way as a regular guitar, your right hand is free to play drumstick rhythms, using the natural bounce of the strings to give a great rebound feel.
Designed by guitarist Tom Shaper, the Jasperbridge includes a single specially-modified humbucking pickup and simple volume and tone controls conveniently located at the end of the body to suite the entirely new playing position required. The standard slim 24 fret neck gives an instantly familiar feel to any guitarist, despite being played away from the body. Jasperbridge includes a robust quick-fit stand and can be played either standing or sitting.
Playing a Jasperbridge is a whole new experience. Most players will start of playing basic rhythms, hitting all six strings simultaneously and producing a totally unique chord sound and feel. But once you've mastered the basics you will soon discover the real potential of the percussion guitar, playing single strings, pairs and groups, different rythmns, slides and scrapes. Why not try open tunings, riffs, jazz chords...
A number of famous guitarists have been known to play their regular electric guitars with a drumstick - especially Buddy Guy and John Mayer, both of whom have regularly used a drumstick to play awesome guitar solos and riffs in live performances. Check out their technique on YouTube and imagine how you could do this on the Jasperbridge!
The Jasperbridge has a neck like a standard guitar and standard strings which come through the body of the Jasperbridge and face you when you're playing. The pick-ups are modified resulting in a "different" sound when you play. You can hear all the notes of a chord simultaneously rather than each note being strummed successively. So we have a guitar-like instrument that is on a stand suspended in front of you. Your left hand is on the neck of the guitar and the strings, while the right hand strikes the strings which are coming through the body directly in front of you. In other words, the strings are on both front and back of the instrument. You have a drumstick, or maybe a soft mallet, or maybe even brush from a drum kit, and you start to hit the strings, singling out one string, one note, or hitting a few.
