Pitchfork has a fantastic interview with Yuri Landman, Sonic Youth fan turned guitar maker, who builds multi-stringed, multi-bridged instruments for Lee Renaldo and a bunch of other bands I've never heard of. The interview is full of treats like this: "It's basically a two-string guitar with a built-in thumb piano. The strings of the guitar can be bent by a brake cable from a moped, which is connected to a foot pedal. When amplified, the thumb piano, which is mounted to the guitar body, has a very low and impressive sound, almost like a vibraphone.". There's a fantastically in-depth explanation of one of Yuri's guitars here on Wikipedia, and this clip of Yuri's band Avec-A is also very cool. PS: Was anyone in Amsterdam for the the Output Festival to see the Instrument Expo? (Thanks, Ben)
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