See and Hear a 31-Tone (Microtonal) Halo Guitar Played by Stephen James Taylor

I remember the first time I spoke with Stephen James Taylor about his custom build request. At that time, the concept of having a guitar with more than 12 tones per octave was relatively new to me.

It took some energy for me to comprehend what a 31-Tone, or Microtonal, guitar was at all. And the realization that we would ultimately need to install 62 frets on a single neck was somewhat daunting (it's almost the equivalent amount of work required to build three separate necks). To build his custom guitar was a challenge, but I'm so glad we did because it provided the whole team at Halo an opportunity to learn and grow as a guitar company.

Halo Merus Baritone Microtonal 31-Tone Guitar

It had been a while since Stephen took delivery of his guitar and I had been curious as to how he might have been using his new Halo Microtonal Guitar. I was pleasantly surprised when he shared with me a video of a performance he did recently with his Halo guitar.

Check out Stephen James Taylor performing his song, Quantum 7, on his Halo Custom Shop, 31-Tone (per octave), baritone electric guitar:

After seeing the guitar in action, I wanted to know more about Stephen's thoughts on the guitar in general. Here's what he had to say:

“This is a very complex instrument with 4 pickups across 2 discrete 1/4 inch outs as well as a 13 pin guitar synth output. The combinations are endless. Why 31 frets per octave? Because it has a subset of 12 that sounds a lot like what we are used to while at the same time affording a broader pallet of note choices that blast open areas of harmony, melody, embellishment, and truly original lick creation few have ever explored. Also in 31 the fingered major 3rds and dominant 7ths are nearly perfectly in tune with the natural harmonics of each string. This makes for the sweetest major chords that actually affect the body differently. The staff at Halo did a great job at stepping up to meet a very challenging request. I love this guitar and can hardly put it down. So much virgin territory here to discover!”

As a custom guitar company, our ultimate goal is to equip artists with the perfect guitar that is tailored to their own specific needs so that they may be inspired by it, and as a result create more music!

Halo Merus Baritone Microtonal 31-Tone Guitar

What kind of custom guitar would inspire you to create more music? Let us know in the comments below, or visit the Halo Guitar Customization Tool to start coming up with your own designs! (Design your own custom bass guitar; Design your own custom acoustic guitar)

P.S. If you're like me and you don't know a whole lot about 31-Tone music, try checking out this video below.