
Noise-guitarist extraordinaire Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, is apparently the happy recipient of this custom built Moonlander guitar from experimental luthier Yuri Landman.
The instrument, one of just two in existence (Landman owns the other,) is a bi-headed stereo drone guitar armed with a whopping 18 strings––6 standard and 12 sympathetic.
While the six standard strings are meant to be played traditionally, the twelve sympathetic strings produce a natural reverb (or drone,) that resonates in specific frequencies depending on how the instrument is tuned.
According to Landman, the standard tuning for the droning strings is a circle of fourths divided over two octaves. He got his inspiration from the Theorbo and other early European lute-type stringed instruments.
As if that weren’t enough, the Moonlander also boasts four output jacks corresponding with four hand-wound singlecoil pickups––one doing traditional bridge pickup duties, two of them rotated in order to isolate signals for the top three and bottom three strings (yep, isolated stereo outputs,) and a fourth to capture output of the drone strings.
And if you think the Moonlander is strange looking, wait until you see the Moodswinger.
You can read more about Yuri Landman’s instrument’s at his website, or check out the Moonlander page over on Wikipedia.
Can’t wait to hear what Ranaldo does with this thing…
- Fender’s Thurston Moore & Lee Ranaldo Jazzmasters Due In Stores Soon
- Hear The Fender Super-Sonic 112 In Action!
- Video Demo Of The New Electro-Harmonix Stereo Electric Mistress
- Rare Find: Myrareguitars.com
- Rare Find: Fetishguitars.com
- Gretsch Recreates ‘56 Stereo Chet Atkins G6120… With Faux F-Holes!
- Rare Find: Lordbizarre’s Electric Guitar & Amp Museum
- Rare Find: Not-So-Secret Stash Of Electro-Harmonix Video Demos
- Love At First Sight: Fender Introduces Super-Sonic 112 Combo
- See The Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man With Hazarai In Action
- REVIEW: The Rickenbacker 620
- Rare Find: Hawaii’s Jake Shimabukuro & Ukulelia


October 4th, 2007 at 11:40 am
wow…and I thought his custom Koll guitar was nice…I’m guessing he won’t be taking this out on the road though…
October 4th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
would be cool if he did…
October 4th, 2007 at 6:07 pm
I have no idea what I would do with this. But I need it. Sooo bad. Whoever thought of that ridiculous double headstock? My new hero.
Anybody else expect that wikipedia link to point to, I dunno an actual moon lander?
October 5th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Sure beats stickin’ your amp inside the piano.
October 7th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
I never thought of sticking an amp inside a piano. But if I had a piano I’d be trying it right now.