7 String Acoustic with High G or B?

[JazzyJ]

Hi all,

A few years ago (as far as I can remember) there was a company, possibly Ibanez or Washburn who had two 7 string Acoustic Guitar models - one with an added high G and the other with an added high B string. (I think the model numbers included a 'G' or 'B' to know which guitar you wanted)

So the tuning was EADGGBE or EADGBBE

I'm not talking about guitars with a low B, but ones which 'steal' a single string from a 12 string concept....

If anyone can remember those guitars can you let me know the model number! I can't find them for the life of me, using all sorts of internet searches!

Thanks for any help you can offer

[David Eastwood]

Martin made the HD7 for a while, which had an octave G as the 7th string.

Not sure about Ibanez or Washburn, but it wouldn't surprise me if Ibanez had done something like this in the past, too.

[BongoSTL]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

Martin made the HD7 for a while, which had an octave G as the 7th string.

Not sure about Ibanez or Washburn, but it wouldn't surprise me if Ibanez had done something like this in the past, too.

Roger McGuinn plays one in the great new documentary on Netflix, "Echo in the Canyon"

[JazzyJ]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

Martin made the HD7 for a while, which had an octave G as the 7th string.

That's the type of guitar I'm talking about - it has an added high G. The Martin HD7 is about £3,000 in the UK. I need something to use as a plugin live guitar and so I'll take a lesser quality!

I'm still trying to find the models I saw before, from either Washburn or Ibanez....

[fuman]

Someone made a product where u can anchor an octave string to abridge pin and then to a tuner clamped on to the headstock. I can't remember what it was called.

[JazzyJ]

Originally Posted by fuman

Someone made a product where u can anchor an octave string to abridge pin and then to a tuner clamped on to the headstock. I can't remember what it was called.

That's called 'addstring' and requires cutting your saddle and nut a little bit.

If anyone comes across info regarding a washburn or Ibanez 7 string with High G or Hi B then let me know!

Thanks

[JazzyJ]

The Ibanez AEL108MD is an 8 string acoustic with doubled D & G.

The Ibanez AEL108TD-NT is an 8 string acoustic with doubled B & E.

I think these were the guitars I'd seen, and NOT 7 string ones. I remember thinking that the D&G version would be worth trying.

Thanks for your input everyone!

[Wade Hampton]

Jazzy, it was Alvarez-Yairi that made a 9 string guitar for a while back in the 1980's. They called it the DY 58. It had double high E and B unison strings, and maybe an high octave G, as well. I knew one guy who played out using one back in the early 1980's, but he stopped playing in public years ago and I haven't seen one since.

Alvarez-Yairi DY 58 Nine String Guitar



Alvarez Model 5058 9 String

These were never very common, but you might find one if you look hard enough. There was also a (presumably less expensive) variant in their less prestigious Alvarez line called the model 5058, but I've never seen one of those in real life. The only difference between it and the DY 58 that I can discern is in the shape of the headstock and the binding around the fingerboard on the 5058.

Since I've never seen or handled one of these Alvarez 5058's, only a few Alvarez-Yairi DY 58's, I can't comment on the quality level of the 5058's. But as a general rule the Alvarez-Yairi's were professional quality while the Alvarez models were not.

Digging around a little bit looking for these guitars, I learned that it was folksinger Harry Chapin (of "Cat's In The Cradle" fame) who popularized the idea of stringing a guitar this way. He played a 12 string guitar but took off the octave strings, putting a unison G string on with the G and leaving the unison B's and high E's.

The DY 58 didn't have an octave course on the G, but had this same doubled G unison instead.

In my own experimentation with a similar idea, I did something different.

What I did was convert a Larrivée L-03R into an 8 string by adding octave strings to the D and G courses. Prior to that I had a custom made 7 string guitar with the octave only on the G, but what I found was that it kind of drove me crazy because I'd be playing some nice riff on the G string, then hop over to the D string to continue it, only to have the octave chime instantly go away.

That guitar was made for me by Scott Baxendale, and it had some other issues, mainly a neck profile that I found uncomfortable to play. I traded it in on another Baxendale guitar, and Scott ended up selling the 7 string to one of the guys in the Drive By Truckers - I guess it got used a lot on one of their recent live albums.

Anyway, what I did next was look for a guitar with a wide enough nut to be able squeeze in two thin octave strings, and - perhaps even more important - that had enough space on the bridge to add two more bridge pins.

I found both with the Larrivée L-03R, and one of my luthier buddies here in Anchorage converted it to an 8 string for me.

Initially I put a set of mandolin tuners on it, but they weren't as accurate as I like, so then I discovered that Gotoh minis could fit into the same space. So that's what it has now - it's got 8 Gotoh mini tuners with the stock metal buttons swapped out with aftermarket ebony buttons to cut as much weight as possible.

Now, this stringing I settled on isn't necessarily what you are going to want to do, so my suggestion is that you first consider getting an inexpensive 12 string guitar to experiment with before you commit to finding and buying one of those Alvarez-Yairis or converting a six string guitar to a seven or eight string.

For that matter, if you got a good-sounding 12 string, like a Seagull or Simon & Patrick, you could experiment with the stringing until you decide what you like best, then physically cut down the headstock so that you have a 9, 8 or 7 string guitar. You'd need to replace the nut and saddle with new ones cut for the number of strings you end up with, but that's easily done.

That's your call, naturally, but I think that would be both easier and less expensive than converting a six string, especially if you keep an eye out and buy a used Seagull 12 string off Craigslist.

Just a thought...

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by JazzyJ

The Ibanez AEL108MD is an 8 string acoustic with doubled D & G.

The Ibanez AEL108TD-NT is an 8 string acoustic with doubled B & E.

I think these were the guitars I'd seen, and NOT 7 string ones. I remember thinking that the D&G version would be worth trying.

Thanks for your input everyone!

Well, heck, let's look at some photos of them, shall we?

Here's the AEL108MD:

Ibanez AEL108MD

And here's the AEL108TD-NT:

Ibanez AEL108TD-NT

They're obviously the exact same guitar with the only difference being how the nuts and saddles are cut. If you look at the bridge pin placement on the first one, that's exactly how we have the pins on my converted Larrivée 8 string.

The list on these Ibanez guitar is supposedly around $329, so they'd be a lot less expensive to experiment with than the fairly costly route that I ended up taking.

I suspect that the biggest challenge you'll face will be in finding any in stock anywhere.

Good luck in your quest!


Wade Hampton Miller

[zombywoof]

There was an Add String converter kit available maybe 5 years ago. If I recall it was made in Holland. Not sure if they are still cranking them out or not. Might be worth checking out.

[zombywoof]

Originally Posted by JazzyJ

The Ibanez AEL108MD is an 8 string acoustic with doubled D & G.

The Ibanez AEL108TD-NT is an 8 string acoustic with doubled B & E.

I think these were the guitars I'd seen, and NOT 7 string ones. I remember thinking that the D&G version would be worth trying.

Thanks for your input everyone!

Ibanez also made a 9 string Waylon Jennings model. I have only ever seen one in my lie though.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by zombywoof

There was an Add String converter kit available maybe 5 years ago. If I recall it was made in Holland. Not sure if they are still cranking them out or not. Might be worth checking out.

I don’t know whether Breezy Ridge is still selling them, but John Pearse sent me one of those when they first came out with them. I’ve never used it, so it’s available if anyone wants it.


whm