The first electric seven string guitar appeared in the 1930s when guitarist George Van Eps ordered one built from Epiphone (later in 1968 Gretsch released one of the first regular production seven string guitars, a Van Eps signature guitar). According to Van Eps’ friend Howard Alden, Van Eps first thought about altering the tuning of his guitar, as others had done before, but his father dissuaded him from doing so, after which Van Eps decided to get a “lap piano,” a seven string guitar with the seventh string tuned down to A1. His new guitar allowed him to incorporate bass lines and new voicings to his playing.
As he developed this new way of playing, he influenced many guitarists such as Bucky and John Pizzarelli, John Greene, Howard Alden, and Jimmy Bruno who wanted to get the extended range and freedom pianists enjoy.
“I needed the extended range to play some things I had been hearing like piano solos by Thelonious Monk. (…) And also, I had admired George Van Eps’ playing for years.”
-Howard Alden
Today, in the “jazz” (a discussion on the term “jazz” coming on another blog post) tradition, seven string guitars seem to be more and more common. In the conservatory I attend there are now at least 4 students and one professor with seven string guitars. I personally use mostly a seven string classical guitar but play chord-melody arrangements of standard tunes on it. Here is an example of how this approach might look today:
Coming up I’ll write about some other uses of the seven string guitar, including acoustic guitar examples and the most well-known use of seven string guitars in rock and metal!
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