BKJ Guitar

  The guitar as we know it has asserted itself in the world as an incredibly versatile musical instrument that thanks to its innovative players over the years has been extended a flexibility far beyond its standard constructions. I found I became very aware of some limitations though in my first year at Uni. I realised at this time so much piano and orchestral music was out of the guitars reach and any attempts to transcribe pieces of this nature had been heavily compromised. This also seems to be the reason why so many legendary composers had left the guitar out of their work, because of it's inability to create the huge sonorous sounds of a piano or an orchestra, unfortunately producing a natural segregation of guitar repertoire to the rest of the world's musical repertoire, a split between guitar music and music, with little common ground. Guitar obviously has matured slowly over its existence and only soared in the 20th century with the innovations in electronic technology and the contemporary music that explored it. Still I have felt a void though between guitar music and the rest of the musical world. I have designed a guitar that I feel begins the journey of closing the gap of these limitations.

I employed the talents of the exceptionally skilled and well respected Australian guitar maker Gerard Gilet to construct the instrument I designed. After lengthy discussions regarding the guitar he was not only supportive but also very excited about the new instrument. Colin Bloxom wired the electronics to my design and Frank Grabesa gave the prototype its final striking paint job. The financial side of such a construction also became a little easier with a contribution from the Australian Arts Council's Music Board.