Ed O'Brien is first in line for the wheel-strummed Circle Guitar

Ed O'Brien was the first artist to order a Circle Guitar, an instrument whose strings are strummed by a motorised wheel, Guitar Player reports, and he will get the first one made when production starts this year.

Circle Instruments spent four years on it. The wheel holds up to 16 magnetic picks and is driven by notes drawn in a DAW or played on a MIDI controller, so it stays in time with other MIDI equipment; its creator says it plays rhythms no human hand could. It costs £7,995, about $10,000, and is still being tested, with a waiting list and the first deliveries due in July.

With the picking hand free, a player can mute strings or fret chords with both hands. O'Brien, in the company's promotional video, calls it almost a different instrument, and says that there's a familiarity with the left hand, but the right hand is freed up. It's like learning a new language, really.¹