VIDEO: Guitar Hack - Get a Japanese Koto Sound with a Door Handle

I'm always searching for the next unusual sound that can be coaxed from a guitar, so when I saw Kaki King's video for "Bowen Island" featuring a Passerelle Bridge at the 17th fret, I got inspired to make my own.

Using a hand crafted floating bridge, she is able to get convincing tones similar to the Japanese koto.

First, let's see the Kaki King's original video before we make a hack version!

To make my own version, I started with a brushed nickel handle I purchased at Lowe's.

Without changing anything to the handle, I was able to approximate King's passerelle bridge on my own acoustic by slipping it under the strings, adding plywood for support.  Here's the full demo video.  Enjoy!

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on June 4, 2020 at 9:58am

Well my response never transferred and now I have to type it all over again because you can't copy/paste.

Her designed bridge was putting all the string pressure in the center of the guitar and pressing the whole top down. That will damage a acoustic style guitar. Your bridge spread that pressure to 2 points closer to the sides that won't get as much vibration response, but it will last longer without damage to the top.

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