safety reminder. Murrell continued to introduce upgrades to the Guitorgan design that included analog synthesizer interfaces and even MIDI in the mid-1980s. Others In the mid-'70s, Godwin produced the rare Organ (Guitar) in two versions. The flagship model had 19 switches and 13 knobs, while the lower model had 16 switches and 4 knobs. Features The Guitorgan converts a standard electric guitar through the addition of electronic organ components. The most critical part of making a Guitorgan is to separate each guitar fret into six segments, creating independent contact switches for each string. The organ notes are keyed when a string touches a specific segment, thus, making the ground connection necessary for the organ circuit to produce output. TTL logic circuitry determines the highest fret segment making contact on each string, and prevents simultaneous organ notes on the same string to activate; only the highest organ note played on a particular string will sound. The organ section in a Guitorgan is a 6-note polyphonic circuit, which allows full guitar chords to be played. The guitar section always remains playable, but organ notes can be played alone or simultaneously with the guitar. The idea behind being a "Guitorganist" is to use the Guitorgan's expression pedal to creatively and accurately bring the organ in and out of the musical foreground while playing the guitar at the same time (and vice versa) as if there are actually two separate musicians playing. Uses Some of the sounds produced by the Guitorgan can be heard in Teisco Del Rey's "The Many Moods of." Bill Dillon is another practitioner of the Guitorgan. He has performed on many Sarah McLachlan albums and appeared with Counting Crows. Woody Jackson's guitorgan playing can be heard on Orchestra Superstring's self-titled album and many film soundtracks Ocean's Thirteen, Ocean's Twelve, Fun with Dick and Jane and The Devil Wears Prada. See also Guitar synthesizer References Bibliography Electric guitars Electronic organs 1965 works 1966 introductions