9 String Guitar With Extra Frets To Avoid Fretboard Irregularities In (drop) Tunings

[A-Branger]

sooooooo thats it?..... you can chug an open A power chord and thats it?, because any fretted chord with a lowA could be done on a A standard guitar

or is there any other open chord that couldnt be done on a standard guitar in another way?..........I guess you could add a low A to an Am open chord too, but its not really necessary or that unique, at least not to justify a custom build like this

so spending that time and money for a custom with extra frets just so you could chug a power chord seems bit far too excessive imo..... if its your thing well cool then


all this assuming its only one string the one who has the extra frets, if there is two strings then you cant play any open chords anymore as it is still tunned in 4ths so you still need to fret stuff......

EDIT: I mean I kinda get it now maybe you want a "traditional E standard guitar", so you can do your open E/A/C/D/G acoustic chords, but being able to have a low A or low EA for riffing........well I think I found the reason and the why of these instruments.... I repplied my own question now hahahah

 

[luca9583]

One quick question: If I would buy an Agile 930 (30'' 9 string guitar) and put a 7-string nut on the higher part of the 2nd fret. Do you think that would work? I think the second fret is at around 26,73''.

I think 30” isn’t quite long enough for your B0 tuning but you can make it happen depending on string gauge. You’ll find that the B0 will sound a bit muddier than the rest of the strings.

A reverse nut might be a good mod for the Agile, or perhaps going for a zero fret at the second fret and then a string tree to hold the strings in line. It all depends on clearance so you can access the “extended” frets easily.

Wow, Could you give me a hint with whom you cooperated on this?

It was a one off guitar made for me by Graham Noden here in London, UK. It was made from a Les Paul Studio body and some spare necks.

Before going for a custom build i would spend a lot of time
messing with scale lengths and capos to really get a feel for what might work.

Here is another example of negative frets:

http://www.sevenstring.org/threads/...anity-and-engineering-now-with-review.283415/

 

[TWF]

There are a couple of 7-string and 8-string classical acoustic guitar models available. With concepts like the Yepes guitar (10-string) or the Swedish alto guitar (11-, 12- or 13-string) [link1 link2] there are even many models with 10 or more strings, although the additional strings are usually played open only here. But there is almost no acoustic 9-string available (prove me wrong).

I am planning to cooperate with a luthier to get a 9-string acoustic built, with negative/extended frets for the lowest two strings. The guitar should be built for the tuning B0–E1–B1-E2–A2–D3–G3–B3–E4 (standard 7-string plus E and B of five-string bass). To compensate the drop between B1 and E1 I want two additional frets on the lowest two strings. I created a mockup of the nut and headstrock (see picture).

Now I need your help: What should the scale length be for the guitar? I was thinking about 690mm (27''), same as Javier Reyes' Ortega 8-string? What would be the scale length / fret positions for the strings with extended frets?

 

[atracksler]

Haven’t they been making extensions for upright basses for a long time?

found these with my Google fu. https://www.kcstrings.com/bass-extensions/

 

[Winspear]

Sounds good, @TWF !
Frets increase by the 12th root of 2. About 1.06.
27 * 1.06 * 1.06 = 30.33

I must say that whilst it's a great system and smart, my general feeling on this design has over time shifted to "Why not just do a 30.33 regular and use a capo on the top 6 strings". More flexible, and certainly a lot easier and cheaper. Though I do get wanting it built into the instrument if that style of tuning and fingering is 100% your thing.

 

[StevenC]

Sounds good, @TWF !
Frets increase by the 12th root of 2. About 1.06.
27 * 1.06 * 1.06 = 30.33

I must say that whilst it's a great system and smart, my general feeling on this design has over time shifted to "Why not just do a 30.33 regular and use a capo on the top 6 strings". More flexible, and certainly a lot easier and cheaper. Though I do get wanting it built into the instrument if that style of tuning and fingering is 100% your thing.

I'd much rather deal with capoing 2 strings than 6, personally. Also, this way lets you have much more elegant solutions like the built in capo on Spuler Paradis guitars.

 

[TWF]

Sounds good, @TWF !
Frets increase by the 12th root of 2. About 1.06.
27 * 1.06 * 1.06 = 30.33

I must say that whilst it's a great system and smart, my general feeling on this design has over time shifted to "Why not just do a 30.33 regular and use a capo on the top 6 strings". More flexible, and certainly a lot easier and cheaper. Though I do get wanting it built into the instrument if that style of tuning and fingering is 100% your thing.

Thank you for your help!

Yes, a 30'' guitar with 2 more frets on each string would be an option, too. But I want the higher 7 to feel as "standard" as possible, as I am really used to that.

 

[j3ps3]

I made this as my thesis when studying guitar building. When capo is in use, it's 26,5-28" scale length and when the capo is open it's somewhere around 32" on the lowest string IIRC. It's cool and all but I gotta say, it would've been easier to just add two lower frets and play it with a capo on the second fret and placing the fret markers starting from the 3rd fret, maybe something similar to what Steinberger uses:

Because why not? You're already using that longer scale length with the neck so all you're doing is just losing some frets when doing the hybrid scale. The problem that you can't play behind the capo is true but I find it just as annoying that I'm missing those frets when I feel like using them. Lack of those two frets on the first six strings doesn't really benefit the instrument in any way, in my opinion. Sure you can play an open power chord and still use the same fingering as in standard tuning from the 3rd fret on but meh.. Different tunings can do the same thing if you're in a rut.

 

[TWF]

I'd much rather deal with capoing 2 strings than 6, personally. Also, this way lets you have much more elegant solutions like the built in capo on Spuler Paradis guitars.

I didn't know about Spuler guitars, but it's great to see the idea in action there. Rick Toone's 8-string "Blur 8XR" he built for Tosin Abasi has a built in capo like that too.

 

[TWF]

I made this as my thesis when studying guitar building. When capo is in use, it's 26,5-28" scale length and when the capo is open it's somewhere around 32" on the lowest string IIRC. It's cool and all but I gotta say, it would've been easier to just add two lower frets and play it with a capo on the second fret and placing the fret markers starting from the 3rd fret, maybe something similar to what Steinberger uses:

Because why not? You're already using that longer scale length with the neck so all you're doing is just losing some frets when doing the hybrid scale. The problem that you can't play behind the capo is true but I find it just as annoying that I'm missing those frets when I feel like using them. Lack of those two frets on the first six strings doesn't really benefit the instrument in any way, in my opinion. Sure you can play an open power chord and still use the same fingering as in standard tuning from the 3rd fret on but meh.. Different tunings can do the same thing if you're in a rut.

Beautiful! If it had 9 strings it would be my dream guitar.

Capos: There is a Swedish system called Chordinero http://chordinero.com/ that allows to use a capo very flexible string by string. They also have an 8 string version now: https://www.instagram.com/p/B3eaH3sAjLt/?igshid=1f5zi1n9jat7q

 

[fcv]

I understand the aversion to the 'drop step', as that was my initial reaction as well, but I've learned to embrace it due to it offering additional options for fingerings. The drop step gives you extra opportunities to reconfigure where your finger go to eliminate stretches or make other changes by moving notes up or down strings. It gives 8/9 string guitars extra utility to make songs easier to play instead of just adding lower range.