I recently acquired a CD of a gent named Göran Söllscher playing baroque music (Weiss, Pachelbel, Bach, Couperin, etc.) on an 11-string guitar. The cover of the CD reads

Göran Söllscher | eleven-string baroque
and I made the mistaken assumption that Söllscher was playing a baroque guitar. Then it occurred to me that I've seen baroque guitars—smallish, both upper and lower bouts about the same size, not quite as nipped in at the waist as modern guitars, and with five courses (double strings, like a lute or 12-string guitar). Looks like THIS. But the photo in the booklet shows an instrument that looks like a modern guitar with a cutaway, a wide fingerboard (about 3¹/₂ inches at the nut, and eleven single strings. It sounds like a regular classic guitar—until Söllscher gets down on those bass strings, and then

RUMMMMMMBLE!!
The instrument was made by Georg Bolin, a Swedish luthier. Googling through cyberspace reveals that there are a few of these things floating around made by Bolin, and by other luthiers who have copied Bolin's design. I haven't a clue as to what one of these beasts might cost, but I imagine it would run a bit more than a couple of nickels.

I found a picture of one being tuned by a fellow named Odd-Arne Jabobsen (I don't know if "Odd" is part of his name or a descriptive adjective, but that's a whole nother question). Anyway, this is what the critter looks like:   TWANG!!

I'm having a horrible GAS attack!!

Don Firth