(MUSE) Matt's Manson Guitar

Total Guitar
July 2001 - Issue No #85

It's difficult not to imagine Hugh Manson as Q to Matt Bellamy's James Bond. The Devon-based guitar builder has poured enough gadgets and pyrotechnics into the second Muse six-string to put 007's tech wizard to shame.
 But what Hugh's most excited about is the way that this guitar's features will require a totally different approach to playing, thanks to the sustainer pickup at the neck. "This sustains either the fundamental notem the harmonic or both" explains Hugh, "and that means you can do a whole lot with the left hand." So while the sustainer pickup is holding the note for you, Matt will be able to use one of three built-in effects: a Zvex pitchshifter, a theremin copper plate below the sustainer pickup or a revolutionary MIDI effect. 
 "The MIDI is controlled by a pad similar to the mouse pad you might find on a lap top computer and it can do anything you want it to. I think Matt's original idea was to use it to control a whammy effect. The thing is, no one has done this before. No one has included this type of effect on a guitar."
 And this is just the kind of advance that Hugh feels will suit Matt's playing, "He can get a note working with the sustainer and then use both hands to control the theremin, MIDI and ZVEX. I don't know if it's guitar playing but the potential is quite amazing. And it takes a player of Matt's level to take advantage of it. He's one in a million," says Hugh. The respect is certainly mutual. Matt's been coming to Manson's Guitars in Exeter since he was a teenager, he bought his first guitar from them and has already had another tele-esque custom built by Hugh. "That was an aluminium-clad model featuring a transducer pick up in the bridge" says Hugh. "It's the kind of pick up you'd get on an electro-acoustic but you can play through a TOOW Marshall and it sounds fantastic."