Âé¶¹´«Ã½

Technology

Double take

By Barry Fox

10 February 2001

Steven Dean of Stoke-on-Trent knows how to turn a six-string guitar into a
twelve-string—without modifying the instrument (GB 2348536). Guitarists
play their instrument with a plastic sliver called a plectrum, or pick, which
has a pointed tip. Dean has designed a thicker pick with two playing edges. This
makes it behave like two picks, spaced slightly apart. The pick strikes each
string first with its leading edge and then, a split second later, with its
trailing edge. This, he says, makes a six-string sound like a
twelve-string—or just doubles up the sound of a twelve-string guitar.

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