GuitarViol

The GuitarViol is a guitar-formatted, six-string viol (bowed guitar) invented by guitarist/luthier Jonathan Eric Wilson and is his modern interpretation of the Arpeggione.[1] It has six strings, 24 frets (a.k.a. “stopping points”), and is tuned E2–A2–D3–G3–B3–E4 (standard tenor guitar tuning),[2] though some models are tuned to B1–E2–A2–D3–F#3–B3 (baritone guitar tuning). It is most often played in a semi-diagonal, guitar-like playing position and bowed with an underhand (palm up) “German” bow grip manner similar to Viola da Gamba. GuitarViols exist in solid body electric, semi-acoustic, and acoustic configurations.[3] Since the early 2000s, GuitarViols have been predominantly used by media composers in TV/Film/video game soundtrack industry.[4] Notable examples of prominent GuitarViol use include movies such as 300[5] and all seasons of Game of Thrones (with the exception of the main theme introduction track).[6] Wilson himself can be heard in Borderlands (video game)[7] and his solo film library album “GuitarViol” (Lakeshore Records 2012).[8]

GuitarViol
String instrument
Classification Bowed string instrument
Hornbostel–Sachs classification321.322-71
(Composite chordophone sounded by a bow)
DevelopedLate 20th century
Related instruments

GuitarViols are built under the TogaMan brand by GuitarViols inc. (founded by Jonathan Eric Wilson) in Fillmore, CA. The “TogaMan” is a reference to a toga/tunic tenor viol player portrayed in Paolo Veronese’s “Noces de Cana” painting that depicts a similar bow grip and playing position seen in GuitarViols today.[9]

Notable media composer GuitarViol players include Tyler Bates,[10] Loga Ramin Torkian,[11] Kevin Kiner,[12] Ramin Djawadi,[13] Heitor Pereira,[14] Charlie Clouser,[15] Gary Lionelli,[16] Brian Tyler,[17] Jeff Cardoni, and Justin Melland,[18] among others.

References
  1. "What's That Thing?". Electronic Musician. 2007-04-28. Retrieved 2019-02-15. Bates added an extra sonic dimension by employing an obscure custom instrument called a GuitarViol, a hybrid viola-electric guitar designed by luthier Jonathan Wilson. Like the score itself, the GuitarViol is a marriage of contradictions: It’s fretted, yet it can be bowed, and its onboard electronics (EQ, preamp, and BOWD Horizon bridge/pickup system with adjustable string saddles) are sensitive to glissando runs yet offer guitar-hero vibrato.
  2. "Review: TogaMan GuitarViol". Premier Guitar Magazine. 2008-10-15. Retrieved 2019-02-15. the GuitarViol, it takes the familiar concept of a guitar (same tuning, frets, strings) and marries it with a violin ... The radius starts at 7.5" at the nut and projects to the bridge at 2.5". At the 24th fret, it’s 3.25".
  3. "10 Questions with Jonathan Wilson of Togaman Guitars". Guitar Muse. 2011-05-11. Retrieved 2019-02-15. I now build fully Acoustic and ElectroCoustic models but initially I designed a solid body because I was after something that would work for my looping application. Sometimes my earlier semi-hollow model was acoustically loud enough that it obscured my loops if the soundman at a venue was too slow on the fader.
  4. "Guitar In Pictures". Guitar Player Magazine. 2012-04-15. Retrieved 2019-02-15. [Tyler Bates:] I frequently use the Boss Loop Station to explore ideas in a more stream-of-consciousness fashion, because it allows me to create an ambient soundscape, a chord progression, or a rhythmic figure that I can then live with for a while—and sometimes those loops actually make it into the final score. The TogaMan GuitarViol—a hybrid instrument tuned like a guitar but bowed like a viol—is also a huge part of my sound.
  5. "Tyler Bates - Movie-Music Maestro". Electronic Musician. 2009-04-01. Retrieved 2019-02-15. [Tyler Bates:] By using delays and different bowing techniques, motifs and thematic ideas often emerge in a crude form. I frequently extrapolate elements from these little space jams that ultimately become central to the orchestral aspect of a score. The GuitarViol was all over 300.
  6. "Why Do String Players Still Love Schubert's 'Arpeggione' Sonata?". Strings Magazine. 2018-04-01. Retrieved 2019-02-15. all seasons of Game of Thrones (not the intro theme though) with an acoustic model GuitarViol
  7. "Guitarviol". Prepared Guitar. 2015-03-01. Retrieved 2019-02-15. Some examples of the GuitarViol's use in Film include 300, the Black Swan, Clash of the Titans, TV's True Blood, CSI Miami, CSI New York, and Video games such as Medal of Honor and Borderlands (Borderlands features Jonathan himself playing the GuitarViol)
  8. "Barry Cleveland's March Faves". Guitar Player Magazine. 2013-03-13. Retrieved 2019-02-15. Wilson designs and builds Guitar Viols—hybrid bowed instruments tuned like guitars. They are the rage in Hollywood, being featured on major movie, television, and video game soundtracks. But Wilson also plays Guitar Viols and other instruments, and here he takes them on a musical fun ride that jumps from the Beatles to Vivaldi to Gregorian chant, along with originals spanning new age to metal—all with skill, enthusiasm, and aplomb. Lakeshore.
  9. "Builder Profile" (PDF). Vintage Guitar Magazine. 2010-05-01. Retrieved 2019-02-15. [Vintage Guitar:] Where did the TogaMan name come from? [TogaMan Guitars:] It is inspired by the toga/tunic figure in “Noces de Cana” a painting by Paolo Veronese that depicts the water-to-wine wedding scene in the Bible. In it, a man is playing a guitar-sized viol in a guitar-like playing stance. It provides a quick history lesson.
  10. "Guitar In Pictures". Guitar Player Magazine. 2012-04-15. Retrieved 2019-02-15. [Tyler Bates:] I frequently use the Boss Loop Station to explore ideas in a more stream-of-consciousness fashion, because it allows me to create an ambient soundscape, a chord progression, or a rhythmic figure that I can then live with for a while—and sometimes those loops actually make it into the final score. The TogaMan GuitarViol—a hybrid instrument tuned like a guitar but bowed like a viol—is also a huge part of my sound.
  11. "Barry Cleveland's May Faves". Guitar Player Magazine. 2012-05-14. Retrieved 2019-02-15. Playing a small orchestra’s worth of stringed instruments— including electric guitar and GuitarViol—and accompanied by master vocalist Khosro Ansarl, Torkian has crafted a sublime musical experience rooted in ancient soil, yet yearning for the heavens.
  12. "KEVIN KINER - INSTRUMENTS". KevinKiner.com. 2019-02-15. Retrieved 2019-02-15. Electric Guitarviol: As the name suggests, an electric version of the Guitarviol. It has a solid body, as opposed to the hollow-bodies of the acoustic Guitarviols.
  13. "CLASH OF THE TITANS – Ramin Djawadi". Movie Music UK. 2010-04-02. Retrieved 2019-02-15. The score makes use of an 80-piece orchestra recorded in London, a choir of 40 vocalists, and opera singers, as well as various ethnic blown and plucked instruments, including a solo cello and a guitar viol, both of which were played by Djawadi himself.
  14. "The Acoustic Stylings of Big-Screen Guitar Ace Heitor Pereira". Guitar World Magazine. 2017-08-02. Retrieved 2019-02-15. What makes Heitor a rare bird in this business is that he uses tons of guitars (and ukuleles, mandolins, Jonathan Wilson’s GuitarViols—every kind of stringed instrument imaginable, along with his own voice, percussion, piano, various synthesizers, loopers, etc.).
  15. "Composer Charlie Clouser". Mix Magazine. 2016-09-01. Retrieved 2019-02-15. When it comes to more delicate passages, such as those for solo cello or GuitarViol (a cello-guitar hybrid handcrafted by TogaMan Guitars), Clouser likes to perform those live. “Like many composers, I find that it’s easier to get gigantic, epic sounds from in-the-box orchestral simulations than it is to get delicate, exposed solo instrument passages,” he says. As for that GuitarViol, Clouser explains, “It has a guitar fretboard but an arched bridge of a cello and it’s played with a bow. It allows people who can work a guitar fretboard but maybe not a cello fretboard to achieve cello-like sounds and playing techniques.”
  16. "Color and audio post for Hulu's The Looming Tower". Post Perspective. 2018-06-07. Retrieved 2019-02-15. I did use the Guitarviol in that and in other places in the score, too. It’s a very weird instrument, because it looks like a cello but doesn’t sound like one, and it definitely doesn’t sound like a guitar. It has a weird, almost Middle Eastern sound to it, and that makes you want to play in that scale sometimes. Sometimes I’ll use it to write an idea, and then I’ll have my cellist play the same thing on cello. The Guitarviol is built by Jonathan Wilson, who lives in Los Angeles. He had no idea when he invented this thing that it was going to get adopted by the film composer community here in town. But it has, and he can’t make them fast enough.
  17. "Award-Winning Composer Brian Tyler Shares What He's Learned". BMI. 2018-08-15. Retrieved 2019-02-15. The renowned conductor and multi-instrumentalist, who plays piano, guitar, drums, bass, cello, world percussion, synth programming, guitarviol, charango, and bouzouki (the list goes on and on…) graciously gave us his insights. Get ready for his inside tips on when to follow, and break, the rules.
  18. "Award-Winning Composer Brian Tyler Shares What He's Learned". Synthtopia. 2018-08-15. Retrieved 2017-05-21. In the beginning of this cue, the characters are experiencing a tremendous loss. They are devastated. So, their pain is represented by the Guitarviol. It’s blown out with lots of reverb, this helps illustrated how they are lost in a world of memories.
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