Karlheinz Essl

exit*glue

for electric guitar and trombone
2016

Commissioned by Coleman Goepfert

Karlheinz Essl's exit*glue, for e-guitar and trombone, attaches the tube of the talkbox to an auxiliary trombone bell mounted on a microphone stand. This DIY "amplifier" serves to bring the e-guitar somewhat closer in sonic character to the trombone. The guitar is heard as such, but an odd resonance emerges from the prepared bell, one which interacts with the live trombone in unique and often startling ways. In the passage in Example 242, an EBow and bottleneck interact in a particularly poignant manner with the trombone, whose pitch material circles around the guitar's. In a resonant space, the frequencies tend to blend until momentary disorientation occurs - an intention suggested by the "gluing" or fusing together of two vastly different sound worlds.

in: Seth F. Josel and Michelle Lou: The Techniques of E-Guitar Playing, p. 92 (Bärenreiter 2025)

About

This composition is a drama in sound, performed by two protagonists – a trombone and an electric guitar – that do not have much in common: a breath-driven brass instrument and an electrified plucked string instrument are probably the most diverse instruments on can think of. Nevertheless, both actors try to develop various strategies to approach each other in an attempt to fuse their specific sound worlds (GLUE), followed by situations where they try to break free, showing their idiosyncratic and individual abilities (EXIT).

In this piece, the amplification system of the electric guitar is modified so that its sound characteristics come closer to that of the trombone. Instead of a common guitar amplifier, a device called Talkbox is used: a small stomp-box like device with a built-in amplifier and a small loudspeaker which sends the sound waves through a flexible plastic tube. The end of this hose is attached to a trombone bell that is mounted on a microphone stand.

Requirements

Guitar

electric guitar with Humbucker pickup in bridge position
Talkbox (Dunlop MXR M 222) with a trombone bell attached to the tube, mounted onto a mikrophone stand
volume pedal (Ernie Ball), connected between guitar and Talkbox
EBow
bottleneck

Trombone

bass/tenor trombone (F/B^b)
wah-wah mute
plunger mute

Videos

Juna Winston (trombone) and Coleman Goepfert (electric guitar) performing exit*glue
Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten, imCUBUS
Graz, 6 Dec 2016

Morten L. Pladsen (trombone) and Stefan Östersjö (electric guitar) performing exit*glue
InterArts Center: The Expanded Body - Concert III
Malmö, 11 Apr 2017

Performed by Ensemble Supernovæ
Agustín Nazzetta (electric guitar) and Adríán Albaladejo (trombone)
BKA-Theater Berlin
Berlin 26 Sep 2023

Listen

Juna Winston and Coleman Goepfert performing exit*glue
Graz, Kulturzentrum bei den Minoriten (6 Dec 2016)

Score

The score of exit*glue can be downloaded for free. Please note that the music is protected by copyright.

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Updated: 14 Oct 2025