The Springtime is an experimental electric guitar with seven strings and three outputs. The instrument was created in 2008 by Dutch

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...

Yuri Landman Yuri Landman (born 1 February 1973) is a Dutch inventor of musical instruments and musician who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a number of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars, Jad Fair of Half Japan ...

for guitar player Laura-Mary Carter of

Blood Red Shoes Blood Red Shoes are an English alternative rock duo from Brighton consisting of Laura-Mary Carter and Steven Ansell. They have released six full-length albums, '' Box of Secrets'' (2008), '' Fire Like This'' (2010), '' In Time to Voices'' (2012) ...

Technical information

The string set up of the guitar is 1 bass string, 3 wound guitar strings for the chords and a cluster of 3 unwound strings tuned

off-key Off-key is musical content that is not at the expected frequency or pitch period, either with respect to some absolute reference frequency, or in a ratiometric sense (i.e. through removal of exactly one degree of freedom, such as the frequency of ...

unison In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or per ...

, causing a rapid vibrating tone. Each group of strings has its own individual output for three amplifiers to preserve tonal interference. The sound simulates three musicians at once; a

bass player A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low br ...

, a

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

ist and a solo guitarist or a Greek electric

bouzouki The bouzouki (, also ; el, μπουζούκι ; alt. pl. ''bouzoukia'', from Greek ), also spelled buzuki or buzuci, is a musical instrument popular in Greece. It is a member of the long-necked lute family, with a round body with a flat top and ...

. The instrument also is fitted with a so-called tailed bridge (as on a Fender Jaguar) to increase

overtone An overtone is any resonant frequency above the fundamental frequency of a sound. (An overtone may or may not be a harmonic) In other words, overtones are all pitches higher than the lowest pitch within an individual sound; the fundamental i ...

possibilities. The electronics contain switches to change the 3-way system to

stereo Stereophonic sound, or more commonly stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configuration ...

or mono if fewer amplifiers are available. Landman handed over his prototype to Carter before their sold out gig on May 19, 2008 in the venue Doornroosje in

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

, Holland. This is the first guitar created by Landman which is put in serial production. The reproductions have a red or blank body.

Springtime II

A few months after the first Springtime, Landman built the Springtime II on specifications made up by Lou Barlow.Picture
of Barlow's alternate Springtime Barlow's version has eight tuning pegs, two of them unused, but available for an alternative seven or eight string set up. The other six employ the strings for the instruments in four positions similar to a

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, but the upper two positions are double coursed strings. Because of this the instrument remains a six string guitar. Also the pickup configuration is different and four

single coil A single coil pickup is a type of magnetic transducer, or pickup, for the electric guitar and the electric bass. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single coil pickups are one of the two most po ...

s are present instead of three. The lowest positioned pickup is left out and a regular bridge and neck pickup are placed aside of the rotated pickup duo. The

velcro Velcro, officially known as Velcro IP Holdings LLC and trading as Velcro Companies, is a British privately held company, founded by Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral in the 1950s. It is the original manufacturer of hook-and-loop fasten ...

tape to mute undesired string resonance from the tailed bridge is also not present on this version. Also other alternate versions of the Springtime exist. For

Mauro Pawlowski Mauro Antonio Pawlowski (born 24 April 1971) is one of the key figures in the Belgian contemporary music scene. He was born in Koersel and is of Italian and Polish descent. He started his career as frontman of Evil Superstars in 1992. This gro ...

of dEUS Landman made an alternate version with nine tuning pegs and an additional pick up in the tail to explore the possibilities of creating third bridge sounds. This pick up has a separate output. Also a fifth pick up was added, similar to the bridge pick up present at Barlow's version. Also a red version for Meric Long of

The Dodos The Dodos are an American indie rock band consisting of Meric Long and Logan Kroeber. History The Dodos began playing music together in 2005, when musician Meric Long, who had been gigging steadily in San Francisco as a solo singer-songwriter, ...

is made with an alternate pickup and string configuration. A red Springtime was used by

Placebo A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like Saline (medicine), saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. In general ...

frontman

Brian Molko Brian Molko (born 10 December 1972) is a Belgian-born Scottish-American musician and songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and lyricist of the band Placebo. He is known in particular for his distinctive nasal, high-pitche ...

in 2008, while he was in the studio for recording '' Battle for the Sun''. On the ''Battle for the Sun'' bonus DVD, Molko is seen experimenting with the Springtime and discussing its possible uses with producer

David Bottrill David Bottrill is a Canadian record producer. He has won three Grammys. Formerly, he owned Rattlebox Studios in Toronto, Ontario with producer Brian Moncarz. Moneen, Basia Lyjak, and The Getaway Plan are among the artists to have recorded at th ...

Sources

Additional Dutch sources

Article
on myownmusicindustry.nl
Article
on The Dutch Rock & Pop Institute website
Article
on

VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more ...

's 3VOOR12 website

External links

www.hypercustom.nl
{{Experimental musical instruments Experimental electric guitars Dutch inventions