GUITAR-JO
GUITAR-JO is an electric guitar accessory that makes your guitar sound like a banjo. Six individual dampeners are lowered so that they gently touch the strings; that contact with the strings gives your guitar a banjo twang.
HOW IT STARTED: The creator, Jon Langberg, wanted a banjo sound for a song he was doing for a musical performance. He didn’t want to buy a banjo and learn it, so he tried to find digital guitar effects, which he soon found fell drastically short.
Jon discovered that dampening guitar strings using a cloth produced a sound similar to a banjo. However, the results were inconsistent, with the cloth often falling out of place while playing. He designed and built a plexiglass dampening device that attached to his guitar with suction cups. The plexiglass contained Velcro® on its underside, which could be lowered onto the strings (or raised if too much pressure was applied). It produced a sound that was much more consistent with that of a real banjo. It was developed over time to a 6-pad device to allow for more individual control. The device now attaches using microsuction material, which does not leave any sticky residue.