De verhouding muzikant - instrument is precair. Leendert van der Valk onderzoekt hoe dat voelt. Deze week: Merel Bechtold over haar elektrische gitaar.
Interview with Merel about her guitar in Dutch newspaper NRC.
Translation below.
Guitar with the right oempf
The woodworm that likes to hide in the Central-African black limba (a type of wood), causes discoloration in the wood. Little holes are visible in Merel Bechtold’s guitar. Per her request, the guitar builder went looking for a piece of wood with a lot of brown-orange colors. She had the front painted sleek white. However, if you look closely you can see the nerves of the wood. “If you listen to an album you can still hear new things after thirty times. I wanted the same effect for this guitar.”
Bechtold (29) played the guitar on many international stages, with different metal bands such as Delain and MaYan, and soon with her new band Dear Mother. She was immediately sold when guitar builder Koen van de Meij approached her four years ago and she saw his designs. “Real fast metal-guitars. And when I played a test model of the Magistra guitar, everything was right: the looks, the feeling, the sound that is determined by the type of wood. Everything sounded more brutal, thicker. It has the right oempf I look for. And she isn’t that big, I myself am also not that big.”
Her guitar is a she, she smilingly corrects if you say “he”. Bechtold got to design her herself and gave her seven strings. An extra string for low playing, as metal guitarist like to do. In the neck of Central-African wengé wood she had a pearl blackbird inserted, for her name and as a sign of freedom. (Merel is Dutch for blackbird, translator note) On the neck the frets (metal strips that form squares), are laid out in a fan shape. That way she can ram the lower strings, while the strings are at a normal pacing for the screeching solos on the higher strings.
The odd shape can be confusing, but in metal you’re not supposed to think to much anyway. De often complex structures of her songs are imbedded in her muscle memory. “It is purely about techniques, everything has to be right, there is no room for improvisation.” And yet she had the dots that mark the positions on the neck done in glow-in-the-dark. “We often start our shows in the absolute darkness. It is nice to know what square you’re at. But most of all it’s a really awesome sight.”
She is not a guitar romantic. Her first one she traded with a colleague at the post office, a loyal fan. “I don't attach any sentimental value to that.” Everyone is allowed to play her Magistra. When she travels she always takes her along. She also did so in November 2020, when she traveled to her girlfriend in Manchester for two months. She ended up in lockdown and was not able to go home for half a year. She got to train her muscle memory for the songs of the delayed album of Dear Mother.
On stage she often stands in a rock pose, her long hair draped over the guitar. That’s when she notices the white lady is pretty heavy, but she did not dare to make changes in the wood, afraid it would change the sound. At home she usually plays seated. When playing the test model she noticed the guitar was designed by a man: the highest point poked her breast. For her own guitar she had a beautiful curve designed. This in now imbedded in the mold for the Magistra guitar.
