Warr Guitars
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Warr Guitars is a company that manufactures the Warr Guitar, a musical instrument developed by Mark Warr.
[edit] Description
The Warr Guitar resembles a standard electric guitar, but is designed for two-handed tapping techniques like a Chapman Stick, as well as more traditional guitar or bass guitar techniques (like strumming, pizzicato, slap and pop or using a plectrum). Because of the placement of the instrument's strapholders, the Warr Guitar may be played in a more upright, Stick-like position, or horizontally, like an electric guitar.
The instrument may be strung and tuned in a variety of ways. It may be built with anywhere from seven to fifteen strings. The strings may be arranged such that the lowest is in the center of the fingerboard or the lowest string is nearest the player. The fingerboard may be fretted, fretless, or a combination of the two. The instrument is built with custom-designed Bartolini magnetic, piezoelectric, or a combination of these pickups. If piezo pickups are used, onboard MIDI electronics may also be added, to allow the player direct triggering of Roland or Axon synths from their instrument. The neck is constructed of multiple, quartersawn laminates of varying thickness. Instruments built with ten or more strings have two embedded, dual-action truss rods and dual 1/4" outputs.
[edit] Warr Guitar Players
Warr guitar is a relatively rare instrument; however, it can be used in any genre, from jazz to metal. The Warr guitar provides such a complete sound that one Warr guitar player can fill the role of bass player and one or even two guitar players.
Behold... the Arctopus is an instrumental metal band that consists of a Warr guitar player, a guitarist, and a drummer.
Trey Gunn plays Warr guitars on a number of King Crimson albums.
The flexible lineup of progressive rock/metal band Gordian Knot is based around Warr Guitarist Sean Malone.
Jared Melville (former synth player of Our Last Night fame) frequently brought his Warr guitar on stage and would play a number of various Winger tunes.
Markus Reuter plays a Warr Guitar in his work with Centrozoon and Tuner (as well as on his solo recordings).
