Free Download Audio Ollie - Bryce Jacobs: 7 Octave Guitar Vol. 1

A one-of-a-kind instrument built into a powerful live loop engine.

Bryce’s dedication to film music led to the development of his own guitar design, a guitar that was based on the range and capabilities of the piano. With the ability to accurately record existing piano music onto this guitar, the instrument became a new and exciting platform for writing and performing music in any style, giving rise to hybrid-oriented music.

After moving to Los Angeles, Bryce quickly landed a position at Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions, where he contributed to the writing and production of many hit films, video games, and television shows. During this time, he worked very closely with Grammy-nominated and Emmy-winning composer of Game of Thrones fame, Ramin Djawadi.

This relationship led to work on projects such as Warner Brothers’ Clash of the Titans, MGM/UA’s The Elusive, Electronic Arts’ Medal of Honor and Need for Speed, Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and many more. In addition to this, Bryce has also contributed music to Rango, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Puss in Boots, Savages, and Race, all of which utilized the 7-octave guitar.

The guitar as we know it has established itself around the world as an incredibly versatile musical instrument, with innovative players pushing its flexibility well beyond the limits of standard designs over the years. In my first year at university, I became aware of some of its limitations.

I realized that so much piano and orchestral music was inaccessible to guitars at the time, and any attempts to transcribe such works were severely compromised. This is also probably why many legendary composers did not use the guitar in their works, due to its inability to create the powerful, loud sounds of a piano or orchestra.

Unfortunately, this leads to a natural segregation of the guitar repertoire from the rest of the world’s musical repertoire; a division of guitar music into pieces that have little in common. Clearly, the guitar has evolved slowly throughout its existence, and only reached its peak popularity in the 20th century, thanks to innovations in electronic technology and the modern music it featured in. And yet I felt a void between guitar music and the rest of the musical world. I designed a guitar that I believe begins to overcome these limitations.

I enlisted the talents of an exceptionally experienced and respected Australian guitar maker, Gerard Gilles, to build the instrument I designed. After much discussion about the guitar, he was not only supportive but also enthusiastic about the new instrument. Colin Bloxom wired up the electronics for my project and Frank Grabeza did the final painting of the prototype. The funding for this build was provided by a contribution from the Australia Council for the Arts. I currently use the guitar in a variety of textures to create my own compositions.