7 strings, 8 strings...nah, 11 strings! - Page 2

Mikael Jurman · #16 11-13-2005, 07:22 AM

Hehehe, I knew I'd get your attention with that one! Some info on alto guitars:

Swedish luthier Georg Bolin and professor Per-Olof Johnsson collaborated in the 70's on making a guitar on which you could play lute music from the baroque and rennaissance without having to transcribe it too much. they started with 8 strings, 9 and so on untill the "standard" 11 string was established. The story could have ended here, with the alto guitar being nothing more than an obscure experiment. Enter Göran Söllscher.

Göran Söllscher was the wunderkind student of Per-Olof. In 1978 he won the Concours internationale de Paris, considered at the time as being the Olympics for guitarplayers. He did so playing the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro BWV 998 by J.S. Bach. At this time it was a bit unconventional to play Bach on the guitar - it was supposed to be played on the lute. Söllscher, however, got away with it. The alto guitar got quite a bit of exposure and every young Swedish classical guitarplayer promptly ordered their own alto guitar.

Playing alto guitar is kind of like going from classical guitar to electric guitar or from electric guitar to bass. You think you know it but you don't. The alto is basically a guitar tuned in G with extra basses tuned as follow: G, D, Bb (a), F, C, G and basses F, E, D, C, B. However, I think you should approach the alto as an alto guitar and not just as a guitar with more basses. The hardest thing for me to adjust to was the narrower string spacing compared to a classical guitar.

The electric alto guitar is obviously totally custom made. Body wood is walnut, the neck is made from 11 pieces of mahogany and 2 tuss rods for extra strength. The Floyd was $1200, the pickups £1000 and the machine heads $700. Strings are .08-.80. There you go.

Some links about the "regular" alto guitar:
http://home.swipnet.se/musikteknik/alt.html
http://www.andersmanagement.com/sogsollscher.htm

Mikael

fettouhi · #17 11-13-2005, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikael Jurman

Hehehe, I knew I'd get your attention with that one! Some info on alto guitars:

Swedish luthier Georg Bolin and professor Per-Olof Johnsson collaborated in the 70's on making a guitar on which you could play lute music from the baroque and rennaissance without having to transcribe it too much. they started with 8 strings, 9 and so on untill the "standard" 11 string was established. The story could have ended here, with the alto guitar being nothing more than an obscure experiment. Enter Göran Söllscher.

Göran Söllscher was the wunderkind student of Per-Olof. In 1978 he won the Concours internationale de Paris, considered at the time as being the Olympics for guitarplayers. He did so playing the Prelude, Fugue and Allegro BWV 998 by J.S. Bach. At this time it was a bit unconventional to play Bach on the guitar - it was supposed to be played on the lute. Söllscher, however, got away with it. The alto guitar got quite a bit of exposure and every young Swedish classical guitarplayer promptly ordered their own alto guitar.

Playing alto guitar is kind of like going from classical guitar to electric guitar or from electric guitar to bass. You think you know it but you don't. The alto is basically a guitar tuned in G with extra basses tuned as follow: G, D, Bb (a), F, C, G and basses F, E, D, C, B. However, I think you should approach the alto as an alto guitar and not just as a guitar with more basses. The hardest thing for me to adjust to was the narrower string spacing compared to a classical guitar.

The electric alto guitar is obviously totally custom made. Body wood is walnut, the neck is made from 11 pieces of wood and 2 tuss rods for extra strength. The Floyd was $1200, the pickups £1000 and the machine heads $700. Strings are .08-.80. There you go.

Some links about the "regular" alto guitar:
http://home.swipnet.se/musikteknik/alt.html
http://www.andersmanagement.com/sogsollscher.htm

Mikael

I thought that thing looked familiar I have classical guitar album with a danish artist that uses one their classical 11 strings

.

Regards

André

pawel · #18 11-13-2005, 07:28 AM

If you don't think of it as an electric guitar, but as an electric bouzouki/lute/altguitar, it makes perfect sense. It's not meant to be used to play Meshuggah

Mikael Jurman · #19 11-13-2005, 07:29 AM

Aaah, that would be Carsten Gröndahl. Nice guy! Organises the Malmö guitar festival.

www.carsten.nu Some sound clips on that one.

Mikael

fettouhi · #20 11-13-2005, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikael Jurman

Aaah, that would be Carsten Gröndahl. Nice guy! Organises the Malmö guitar festival.

www.carsten.nu Some sound clips on that one.

Mikael

Right, I have his debut album from what 1995 is it or something, very nice

.

Regards

André

Chud · #21 11-13-2005, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikael Jurman

The Floyd was $1200,
Mikael

*shivers*
You could get a perfectly good guitar for that!

C.

Devo · #22 11-13-2005, 10:13 AM

I would dearly love to give it a go!!!!

The only fault I can pick with it is that it suffers from gibson-itis.... too many switches and dials for only two pickups!

Tis quite beautifully made and very unique!

man I want one bad! is it for sale do you know?

Mikael Jurman · #23 11-13-2005, 10:19 AM

Don't think it's for sale. The insurance value is 100.000 SEK ($12.000). I'd think twice before ordering machine heads at $700 and pickups at $1000. Sounds like a ripoff. But then again, if you'd order it from our friend Ed Roman you'd pay an arm, a leg AND a king's ransom...

Mikael

fettouhi · #24 11-13-2005, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikael Jurman

Don't think it's for sale. The insurance value is 100.000 SEK ($12.000). I'd think twice before ordering machine heads at $700 and pickups at $1000. Sounds like a ripoff. But then again, if you'd order it from our friend Ed Roman you'd pay an arm, a leg AND a king's ransom...

Mikael

and you still end up with a piece cr*p.

Regards

André

Flobanez · #25 11-14-2005, 01:32 AM

All I can say is wow.

Serratus · #26 11-14-2005, 12:16 PM

That is a mad guitar - not sure about the styling, but that's just my taste. And the trem is just mind-boggling - I would imagine it's a cause for major celebration when you actually get it in tune lol!!!

littlegreenman · #27 11-14-2005, 09:17 PM

Getting an 8 string (or more) floyd isn't hard. If you're willing to spend the $$$ you can have anything you want. I could put an 8 string floyd on the Leviiiathan's, but how many people would be willing to pay an extra $800 to $1000 for a floyd on that guitar? Not many probably, I could probably end up doing them for half that price IF I ordered 50, but will I find 50 people to pay an extra $500 for an 8 string floyd right away, I doubt it and I can't invest $25,000 into 50 trems.
When it's a one off custom, no big deal, but for the same reason I don't use Ibanez Edge trems, you don't want to offer something you can't get on a regular basis.
If somebody really wants an 8 string floyd, I can do one, no problem, but the hipshot trem I offer with locking tuners is almost as good