As artists, our creativities and processes are most often centered on existing tools and longstanding items and instruments that have caught our eyes and sparked our imaginations throughout our lives.
But for some, the existing tools aren’t enough. Some imaginations call for brand new ones.
Such is the case for OKC-based musician, engineer, and now inventor Dano Scarborough, the creator of a new, small, guitar-shaped analog synthesizer that he calls the ResoLute.
Rather than using keys and digital synthesis, the ResoLute is held and played roughly like a guitar, with one hand fingering notes of a fretless, touch-sensitive neck, and the other plucking springs, not strings.
The technology that Scarborough utilizes to create sound through the ResoLute is something decidedly different from the usual vibration amplification of traditional guitars and microphones.
Dano Scarborough: It works based on magnetic resonance. So I use guitar pickups which can sense changes, specifically changes in magnetic field.
And I've mounted some little boingy springs above the guitar pickup, so then I have a synthesizer running inside, and I can pluck the springs and the notes come out.
Brett Fieldcamp: Scarborough made the springs interchangeable, with different sizes and styles sometimes radically altering the resulting sound.
He even created a two-poled magnetic pick that allows players to effectively “strum” the air to manipulate the magnetic fields.
It’s a lot for any traditional guitarist or synth player to wrap their head around, but for Scarborough, it’s another in a long line of left-field instruments and experimentations that he’s undertaken over the years.
Dano Scarborough: I've been making instruments for a long time. I think one of the first instruments I made was like a little harp out of rubber bands.
And I play this weird Japanese flute called the shakuhachi, and they're outrageously expensive, and so I just decided to start making my own. Then I actually went to Japan and bought an actual shakuhachi, and I learned that mine were trash, and I started making good ones after that, because I kind of knew what I was doing.
Brett Fieldcamp: Scarborough’s creative inclinations saw him build and operate a recording studio for a number of years and have even led to collaborations with interactive arts collective Factory Obscura, but the idea for the ResoLute actually began in a much more personal and challenging place.
Dano Scarborough: The story of the ResoLute starts in 2022. Life was really, really, really rough, like a lot of leftover mental health stuff, like from the pandemic era that I was like, still trying to process and heal from, and I ended up getting Bell's palsy.
And a big part of my healing was to just kind of follow my bliss and follow my muse and just play with whatever I wanted to play. And while I was doing that, of course, I, you know, my mind wanders, and I activated, kind of like this weird image that I've had in my head for many, many years about, like, plucking a spring instead of playing a string on a guitar.
I just knew that I had to try it, and when I did try it, it didn't work. And I worked on it some more and worked on it, and when I finally solved one of the most perplexing problems of how to make this machine work, I heard it for the first time, and it was just astounding how alive it was. It's just instant response, and the springs respond instantly, and it feels just like you're plucking an actual string, but it sounds completely different.
Brett Fieldcamp: With the design and functionality locked and the first playable models built and ready for wider production, Scarborough launched a Kickstarter that hit, and then quickly far exceeded, its $17,000 goal in just a few days, priming the hometown invention for curious players everywhere soon.
As currently the world’s only ResoLute player, Scarborough says he’s mainly excited just to see what other players can do with the instrument, and what kind of unexpected potential they’ll be able to unlock.
Dano Scarborough: I don't know what people are going to do with it.
Basically, there's like this really interesting creative realm that is unexplored, that I've kind of opened the door to, hopefully.
Brett Fieldcamp: To see and hear more from ResoLute, including videos, performance clips, and links to the project’s Kickstarter, visit resolutesynth.com.
———————————
KGOU relies on voluntary contributions from readers and listeners to further its mission of public service with arts and culture reporting for Oklahoma and beyond. To contribute to our efforts, make your donation online, or contact our Membership department.
