u/GiulioCapursoMusic

Hello everyone,

I would like to share my latest releases on Bandcamp, which represent two distinct sides of my instrumental research, developed between Italy and Barcelona.

The project features two contrasting musical directions:

🔹 **Cinquantuno (EP):** An exploration of electric funk-jazz and fusion, focused on solid rhythmic grooves and modern instrumental textures. 🔹 **Mediterraneo (Single):** A warmer, acoustic world-jazz composition inspired by the evocative atmospheres of Mediterranean music.

Any professional feedback or artistic exchange regarding the arrangements and production is highly welcome.

Thank you for your time and listening

"Mediterraneo" is an instrumental world-music piece deeply rooted in Mediterranean culture. It features an organic ensemble blending classical guitar and bouzouki (which I performed), with Marco Berti on double bass. The track is further enriched by the unique, traditional timbre of the friscarulo (a Southern Italian cane flute) played by Rossella Cosentino, all set over a rhythmic foundation of tablas.As an independent musician dedicated to this cultural and musical research, I welcome your insights on this arrangement. If you appreciate my work, I warmly invite you to subscribe to my streaming channel and consider supporting the project through a direct purchase.

• 📺 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GiulioCapurso
• 💿 Purchase/Support on Bandcamp: https://giuliocapurso.bandcamp.com/track/mediterraneo

Thank you for your time and listening.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share the technical layout of my solo live rig, which I engineered to handle full arrangements in real-time without loopers or backing tracks. The focus here was creating a completely independent dual-signal chain and a highly ergonomic foot percussion section.

### 🎸 The Dual-Neck 14-String Guitar & Pre-Mix FX

The instrument started as two separate 7-string guitars. Following my custom blueprints, a luthier and I literally cut and reassembled them into a single, unified poplar body. The wiring and electronics are completely independent, feeding two dedicated audio outputs:

1. **Top Neck (Upper 7-String - Fingerpicked):** Loaded with Seymour Duncan pickups. The discrete signal goes into an **Electro-Harmonix Bass9** bass simulator to handle isolated bass lines on the added low B string. (Feeds Mixer Ch. 1).

2. **Bottom Neck (Lower 7-String - Tapping):** The discrete signal goes into an **Electro-Harmonix B9 Organ Machine** to transform tapped textures into rich organ emulations. (Feeds Mixer Ch. 2).

Both necks utilize standard 7-string tuning with an additional low B string (B-E-A-D-G-B-E).

### 🎛️ Sub-Mix & Master FX Chain

Channels 1 and 2 are blended inside a compact mixer and sent through a shared master effects chain before hitting the house PA:

* **Neo Instruments Ventilator II (Rotary Effect):** Acts as the ultimate harmonic glue, blending the organ textures and guitar tracking into a cohesive rotary speaker emulation.

* **EHX Holy Grail Nano:** For spatial reverb.

* **Digital Tuner:** End-of-chain monitoring.

### 🥁 The 5-Trigger Foot Drum Kit

To achieve an organic live groove, I built custom housing units and mounts out of solid mahogany wood to keep multiple pedals perfectly aligned and stable. I completely bypassed all factory presets and uploaded high-quality, raw acoustic drum samples directly into the internal memory of all five stompboxes:

* **Hi-Hat Nuances (3 Triggers):** 3x **Meinl MPDS1 Stomp Box Digital** (discontinued, rare models) to map separate dynamics for closed, half-open, and fully-open hats based on internal trigger sensitivities.

* **Kick & Snare (2 Triggers):** 1x **Roland SPD-ONE Kick** and 1x **Roland SPD-ONE Percussion**.

The foot rig is scalable. On harmonically complex tracks (like jazz standards), I scale down to just 2 pedals to free up cognitive bandwidth.

Since external links can sometimes trigger auto-filters, I haven't embedded them here, but I have short video clips showing the live acoustic separation, hand independence, and the foot rig mechanics in action.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on multi-pedal foot ergonomics or managing dual-output instruments in a live environment. Let me know if you have any questions about the gear or the build!

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share the signal routing and frequency management architecture of my solo live rig. Managing a full, real-time arrangement without loopers or backing tracks requires treating the instrumentation as discrete sound sources before hitting the master chain to prevent low-end mud, phase issues, and frequency masking.

### 🎸 The Guitar Signal Split & Pre-Mix Processing

The instrument is a bespoke dual-neck 14-string guitar (built from two separate 7-string guitars reassembled into a single poplar body). The wiring and electronics are kept completely independent, feeding two dedicated audio outputs:

1. **Top Neck (Upper 7-String - Fingerpicked):** The discrete signal goes into an **Electro-Harmonix Bass9** bass simulator to enrich the fingerpicked low-end and handle the isolated bass lines played on the added low B string. This feeds **Mixer Channel 1**.

2. **Bottom Neck (Lower 7-String - Two-Handed Tapping):** The discrete signal goes into an **Electro-Harmonix B9 Organ Machine** to transform tapped textures and harmonies into rich organ emulations. This feeds **Mixer Channel 2**.

### 🎛️ Post-Mix Master FX Chain

Channels 1 and 2 are blended inside a compact sub-mixer and then routed through a shared master effects chain before hitting the house PA. The post-mix chain consists of:

* **Neo Instruments Ventilator II (Rotary Effect):** This acts as the harmonic glue, blending the organ textures and guitar tracking together into a unified rotary speaker emulation.

* **EHX Holy Grail Nano:** For spatial reverb.

* **Digital Tuner:** End-of-chain monitoring.

### 🥁 The 5-Trigger Foot Drum Kit

To handle the rhythm section, I engineered custom mahogany enclosures housing 5 discrete digital triggers. All factory presets were bypassed; I loaded high-quality, raw acoustic drum samples from professional external databases directly into the internal memory of each unit:

* **Hi-Hat Nuances (3 Triggers):** 3x **Meinl MPDS1 Stomp Box Digital** (discontinued) to map separate dynamics for closed, half-open, and fully-open hats based on internal trigger sensitivities.

* **Kick & Snare (2 Triggers):** 1x **Roland SPD-ONE Kick** and 1x **Roland SPD-ONE Percussion**.

### 🎚️ The Audio Engineering Challenge: Low-End Separation

The biggest engineering hurdle with this setup is preventing the **EHX Bass9** sub-harmonics from fighting with the transient punch of the **Roland SPD-ONE Kick**. Since the low B string on the guitar generates sustained low-end frequencies, it easily masks the kick drum.

To maintain clarity and headroom in a live PA environment:

* I apply aggressive high-pass filtering (HPF) on the tapped organ channel to keep the midrange pristine and free of mud before it hits the Ventilator II.

* The Bass9 output and the Roland Kick are separated via careful notch EQing to ensure the kick drum retains its transient "thump" and fundamental punch without getting drowned out by the sustained bass lines of the fingerpicked lower B string.

Since external links are often restricted, I haven't embedded them here, but I have short video clips demonstrating the acoustic separation and hand independence in action.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on handling sub-mixing, phase, and frequency separation when managing heavy sub-octave guitar tracking and electronic kick triggers simultaneously. Any feedback on the signal chain is welcome!

>To perform live as a solo artist, I needed a highly customized live rig. I designed a dual-neck 14-string electric guitar from scratch and built it in close collaboration with a luthier. It was crafted completely to my specifications—built to measure, just like a tailored suit. I paired this instrument with a custom digital foot drum kit.
The guitar started as two separate 7-string guitars. Following my custom blueprints, the luthier and I literally cut and reassembled them into a single, unified poplar body. For the electronics, I loaded the instrument with three Seymour Duncan 7-string pickups. Despite merging everything into one physical body, we meticulously kept the wiring and electronics completely independent, maintaining two separate, dedicated audio outputs.
Managing a full arrangement without loopers requires a heavy reliance on both independent fingerpicking and two-handed tapping techniques. Both necks utilize standard 7-string tuning with an additional low B string (B-E-A-D-G-B-E), rather than the all-fourths tuning (like Stanley Jordan's setup) often used for heavy tapping.I will leave the full signal chain routing, pedal breakdown, and demonstration links in the comments below to comply with the sub rules!

Un saluto alla community. Volevo condividere con voi l'intervista andata in onda su Radio Città Fujiko, dove ho presentato il mio ultimo EP incentrato sulla mia chitarra custom a 14 corde a doppio manico.

Ci tengo a specificare che questo disco nasce da una collaborazione in studio con altri musicisti. In questo lavoro mi sono concentrato esclusivamente sulle possibilità armoniche del doppio manico, escludendo la foot drum per lasciare spazio all'interazione con la band. Quando si affronta uno strumento così fuori dagli schemi, l'approccio è necessariamente quello dell'autodidatta: devi reinventare la tecnica da zero per far coesistere mondi diversi.

Ci tengo a sottolineare che la mia vera identità artistica e la mia natura profonda rimangono quelle della one-man band. Dal vivo gestisco tutto da solo in tempo reale, suonando contemporaneamente la chitarra doppio manico a 14 corde e la foot drum, senza loop station o basi pre-registrate. Questo approccio viscerale sarà infatti il cuore assoluto del mio prossimo EP, che sarà interamente in solitaria.

Potete ascoltare l'estratto della trasmissione e i brani direttamente cliccando sul link e sulla copertina qui sopra.

Grazie a chiunque vorrà dedicare qualche minuto all'ascolto di questo capitolo del mio viaggio musicale.

Hi everyone, I wanted to share the technical specs of a project I've been developing. Since this instrument didn't exist, I designed it from scratch and built it with a professional luthier.

* The Architecture: It's a 14-string electric double-neck guitar. Both necks feature a standard 7-string tuning (with an additional low B).

* The Range: Thanks to this specific layout, it covers a full 8-octave harmonic range, which is exactly the same range as a grand piano.

* The Playability: I use a mixed technique combining simultaneous two-handed tapping across both necks and intricate finger-picking to navigate the layout.

* The Periphery: I also use a custom wooden foot drum housing 5 digital stompboxes loaded with real acoustic drum samples to play the rhythm section live in real-time.

I'd love to chat with fellow guitarists and builders about neck balance, managing the massive string tension, or the luthier process behind a 7+7 build. Let me know if you have any questions!

[Instrumental]