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04 Feb 01 - 02:11 PM (#389790) Subject: 7 string guitar? From: jeepman (inactive) While loafing around one of our music stores yesterday I came across a Takamine 7 string guitar. Anybody know about these things? I know 12 strings, but 7? Jeepman |
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04 Feb 01 - 02:15 PM (#389795) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: sophocleese A Russian guitar? We had some guests from Siberia at my parent's place a few weeks ago. I brought my guitar along and the father played it in my regular tuning, which he called spanish style, and then retuned it for another song in russian style and said that he missed the seventh low string of the Russian guitar. |
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04 Feb 01 - 02:32 PM (#389806) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: jeepman (inactive) Ah So! |
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04 Feb 01 - 02:36 PM (#389809) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: wysiwyg Is it chorded or droned? (First thought was, "Counting is SO important in music!") ~S~ |
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04 Feb 01 - 03:42 PM (#389860) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Mooh Hmmm...7's are very popular these days with the rock types into Korn and such like. I've played a couple and they're pretty cool. There has been an acoustic 7 for sale in the local shop and it would be better if it had a decent sound, but it's a rebuilt 6 and the body lacks the low end clarity needed for the low string. There are a variety of ways of tuning these things, even when it's essentially standard tuning. One is to tune the low string to B with the higher 6 tuned at standard pitches, another is to make the 7th string a higher string and tune it to an interval above the high E, another is to tune the lowest 6 strings to standard tuning intervals but starting with A or B or thereabouts and pitch the high string wherever you like. I thought about these things when I got my 6 string baritone with which I am really and truly in love. I'd seriously like a good 7 string but I've got an equally serious cash-flow problem at the moment. Many jazz archtop players have been using 7's for decades and it's a wonder they're not seen more often in the altered tuning universe of folk music. Various kit guitar suppliers will sell you electric 7 string component parts of quality, but acoustic flat-tops of equivalent value seem to be the domain of individual luthiers as of yet. I humbly submit that if anyone would act as kind benefactor, I would gladly acquire a new acoustic (steel or nylon) 7 string and report back to Mudcatville about it later. Experiencing GAS pains...Mooh. |
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04 Feb 01 - 05:46 PM (#389939) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Rick Fielding Some wondrous seven string players: George Van Epps. The chord melody master played a custom Epiphone and then a production Gretsch. Believe he tuned the extra bass string down to A. Bucky and John Pizzarelli. Think they may still use Gretsches. Don't forget Lennie Breau. He used a high A string. Think his classical was custom made. Too hard for me to contemplate. Six strings are confusing enough! |
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04 Feb 01 - 06:25 PM (#389966) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: bigchuck Steve Kaufman, flatpicker extraordinaire has been known to use a 7 string Gallager on occasion. |
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04 Feb 01 - 07:21 PM (#390019) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Dave the Gnome I never saw it, being born after the event like, but my dad used to play a 7 string in a 'gypsy band' when he was a lad in Poland. He generaly got arond playing different tunes on a standard 6 string, in later life, by re-tuning the sixth so I guess the extra string was physicaly above, musicaly below, the sixth. He also mentions an 11 string! 7 string as above with 4 tuneable 'drones' - I would love to see the length of the finger barring that neck;-) DtG |
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04 Feb 01 - 08:12 PM (#390062) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: cowboypoet Rick, far be it from me to argue with an expert, but I think George van Eps tuned the seventh string to a C. whatever he tuned it to, he could make your heart leap or break with some of his phrasing. "Wondrous" is an apt word indeed. |
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05 Feb 01 - 05:03 AM (#390253) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Steve Parkes Back in about 1969, a friend of mine was given a 7-string guitar, supposedly of Russiona origin. It was Spanish-style with steel strings, and conventionally tuned, but with a doubled first. I suppose you played widdly-widdly on the first and do bass on the other open strings. Steve |
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05 Feb 01 - 05:16 AM (#390255) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: English Jon I think Steve Vai had a seven string as well, one for rock fans though. Jon |
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05 Feb 01 - 09:36 AM (#390333) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Grab EJ, Steve Vai certainly had one, custom-made by Ibanez. Remember seeing an Ibanez 7-string in a guitar shop in Preston for a grand - eek! Grab. |
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05 Feb 01 - 09:44 AM (#390338) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: English Jon Theres a 13 string Ramirez in Bowes (pawnbrokers) in Cambridge. Looks fabulous. I think they want about 3500 quid for it. Haven't played it, obviously. But you can tell.. Didn't lutes have seven courses? Could that give us a clue as to tuning? English Jon |
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05 Feb 01 - 01:42 PM (#390532) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Wesley S I was reading about a singer songwriter that I like called Pierce Pettis. I know he plays an Ovation 7 string guitar but I don't know if it was made for him or if it was a production model. I think he tuned his low sting to B or C depending on the song. |
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05 Feb 01 - 04:01 PM (#390697) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Rick Fielding Hey Cowboypoet, argue away. I've been wrong enough times to keep me VERRRY humble! I think I'll hunt down an old Van-Epps album and see what the low note was. You may be right. Rick |
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05 Feb 01 - 05:28 PM (#390808) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Jo King Rick, I know that at least one, if not both, Pizzarelli's play a 7-string Bennedetto. I saw this in AG or maybe in the Bennedetto book. I know little else of the Pizzarelli clan, they may play Gretsches as well. FYI Take care, Jo. |
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05 Feb 01 - 05:36 PM (#390816) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Jo King Oops I spelled Benedetto wrong. Jo |
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05 Feb 01 - 05:39 PM (#390818) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: richardw Don Ross uses a 7 string. He says it is based on a Brazilian guitar. Richard Wright |
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05 Feb 01 - 10:22 PM (#391044) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: ddw Didn't Spider John Koerner play a 7-string? If memory serves, he had a doubled G string because that's where he played most of his melodies. And it seems to me there were some old bluesmen — Big Joe Williams? — who played 7-strings, mostly with doubled treble Es. Or was BJW playing a 9-string? david
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06 Feb 01 - 12:00 AM (#391115) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: cowboypoet Yup, Spider John Played a 7-string National, with a doubled G, one an octave higher like on a 12-string. Easily one of the funkiest sounds I ever heard coming out of a guitar. I was pleased to see that "Blues, Rags, and Hollers" is out on CD (along with all the other KR&G albums). "Good Time Charlie" and "Creepy John" are two of my all-time favorites and I wore out the vinyl long ago. |
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06 Feb 01 - 12:19 AM (#391123) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: catspaw49 Mainly now in rock as Mooh said and mainly electric, but available from a ton of makers including Peavey, Schecter, Rich, Dean, Cort, Dillon, Epiphone, Ibanez, Jackson, Turser, Washburn..............and of course Ovation did have one in their line last year. They've also been built by everyone from National to Gretsch to Guild to Benedetto. Spaw |
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06 Feb 01 - 07:39 AM (#391253) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Grab Seen that one, Jon. Looks very interesting, but I doubt anyone's going to pay that much for it. I think they just keep it there as an "interesting item" and don't really want to sell it, hence the price tag! I've been here 2 years now, and it's not moved from its spot over that time. Grab. |
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06 Feb 01 - 08:12 AM (#391272) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: catspaw49 Since they were brought up............... Spaw |
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06 Feb 01 - 08:13 AM (#391275) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: English Jon Grab: What gets me is how they'll hang a tatty old yamaha on the same hook, Ramirez back to the brickwork, and a dozen or so cheap guitars that could share a hook and any scratches wouldn't matter. I don't suppose it will fetch 3,500 but then, they sold that fiddle they had in there for ages at 2500... unbelievable. Jon
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06 Feb 01 - 11:23 AM (#391397) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Gray Rooster Tom Gruning plays a Gretsch acoustic seven string. He's out of Austin, Texas and about to move to upstate NY as "the music department" at a university or college there (I'll try and find out the name of the school and post back). He's worked with Grammy Award winners and record label hotshots. Tom will be in Dallas, TX at the Son's of Hermann Hall on the 14th of April. Any 'Catter's that want a closer look and a close ear on a seven string master can catch him there and discover what the "fuss" is all about. |
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06 Feb 01 - 11:48 AM (#391423) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Rick Fielding Great stuff folks! Anyone come up with the "definitive tuning" on the bass string? Went back and listened to a cassette of van Epps. I hear that low A note, so he was tuned that low on at least three songs. Wonder if he tuned the bass to the particular song. Either way, seems like you'd have to re-learn just about everything. Rick |
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06 Feb 01 - 11:59 AM (#391432) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Gray Rooster To the best of my knowledge, there is no "right way" to tune the seventh string. I know several rockers that tune to a low A and keep it "legit" on the other 6. Some others "baritone it" and tune it all down starting with a low D. I saw low D (then legit on up)as "a standard" at Kerrville on two seven strings. And another down there tuned to a D9/6 or (depending on the day) a C9. I might try something totally different, say an E6. |
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06 Feb 01 - 02:28 PM (#391535) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Grab Jon, Yeah, they're not much cop at Bowes. They don't seem to take any care of the stuff they get in (you'd've thought that if stuff's going to be on display, they'd at least polish and dust it occasionally!) and it's all wildly over-priced. Still, if they only shift a couple of wildly over-priced instruments a year, they won't be doing too bad, I guess. Grab. |
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08 Feb 01 - 05:17 AM (#392973) Subject: RE: 7 string guitar? From: Steve Parkes There's been an 8 string classical guitar for quite a while: have a butcher's at Paul Galbraith's Brahms guitar (A/C E A D G B E A) and The Pro Arte Guitar Trio, one of whom plays an 8-string. Steve |