Eight-string guitar

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eight-string electric guitar made by Agile
Eight-string acoustic guitar with multi-scale fingerboard

The eight-string guitar is a guitar with two additional strings to the usual six or one additional string compared to the seven-string guitar . Such guitars are less common than six or seven-string guitars, but are increasingly being used in music genres of metal and metalcore such as progressive metal , mathcore or djent .

history

Eight-string concert guitars were already in use in the 19th century, for example the Hungarian composer Johann Kaspar Mertz or the guitarist Giulio Regondi used such an instrument. Here the range of the six-string guitar was supplemented diatonic with additional strings downwards . The additional strings were played open and not fingered.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the guitarist Paul Galbraith recognized while looking for an adequate guitar arrangement for Johannes Brahms Variations on his own theme Op. 21a the possibilities of an eight-string guitar. In 1994 he had a corresponding instrument with an extended range in bass and treble made by the English guitar maker David Rubio. This instrument, based among other things on the bridge and fret arrangement of the Orpheoreon , became known as the Brahms guitar . Galbraith added a low and a high A to the guitar in standard tuning and thus got the tuning A – E – A – D – g – h – e'– a ' . In 1996 Galbraith introduced the guitar with his album Introducing the Brahms Guitar .

Mårten Hagström and Fredrik Thordendal from Meshuggah with eight-string electric guitars

Since the album Nothing , which was released in 2002, the two guitarists of the Swedish metal band Meshuggah , Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström, have been using eight-string electric guitars and are therefore considered to be pioneers of this type of guitar in rock and metal. The band tunes down a semitone from the standard tuning F # — H — E — A — D — g — h — e and thus moves with the low string in the sound space of the four-string electric bass in the standard tuning, almost an entire octave lower than usual Tuned six-string guitars.

In March 2007, the first series-produced eight-string electric guitar model, Ibanez RG2228 , was launched by the Japanese manufacturer Ibanez . Guitars of this model have been played by numerous well-known guitarists such as Dino Cazares , Ihsahn , Justin Lowe ( After the Burial ), Misha Mansoor ( Periphery ) or Herman Li .

The two guitarists of the instrumental progressive metal band Animals as Leaders , founded in 2007 , Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes, also primarily play eight-string electric guitars in the E – H – E – A – D – g – h – e (drop- E). Abasi names Thordendahl of Meshuggah as a major influence. Javier Reyes, who also plays classical concert guitar, also uses acoustic eight-string guitars in the same tuning. The German guitar maker Ortega has developed two eight-string concert guitars as signature models with Reyes.

Mood

The standard tuning of the eight-string guitar is F # –H – E – AD – g – h – e ' . A string that is tuned a fourth lower is added to the standard tuning of the seven-string guitar . Many guitarists like Tosin Abasi tune this lowest string (or all strings) down another two half steps ( drop tuning ), so that the lowest string is E (1) , the same tone as the lowest string of a four-string electric bass in Standard -Mood.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Egtauk.co.uk (1994): Graham Wade: A Conversation with Paul Galbraith
  2. ↑ a b c guitar & bass / Simon Hawemann (July 27, 2018): Extended Range Guitars. The history of the ERGs .
  3. ↑ Premier Guitar (December 27, 2018): Rig Rundown zu Meshuggah . In: YouTube.com. At time stamp 07:12, the mood is named and explained.
  4. ↑ Musicnstuff.de (October 11, 2013): Ibanez RG2228A-BK .
  5. ↑ Rolling Stone / Dan Ebstein (July 21, 2014): Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes Teach Prog-Metal to Dance .
  6. ↑ Guitar World (January 24, 2018): Animals As Leaders' Javier Reyes Plays "Suspiro" on Eight-String Classical Guitar .