Seven String Acoustic Guitars

If you see the Blue Island Beer Club playing in person, you may notice that Bruce and I each have an acoustic guitar with seven strings......what???? Seven strings? What for?

There are a number of seven string guitars on the market but most of them are electric guitars with an additional low string tuned to B below the low E. These are for the shredders of the world who want to go loooow. What we play however, is a seven string with a second G string tuned an octave higher than the normal G string. These two G strings are located close together and are played in unison and sound like a pair of strings on a 12-string guitar. On a 12-string, all the strings are paired, whereas on a seven string, only the G is paired.

The advantage is that a seven string plays and sounds like a six string except that it has a little more jangle. Solos can be played normally or can feature the paired strings for the 12-string jangly sound. Roger McGuinn, founder of the Byrds, worked with Martin to produce two signature models with seven strings. He uses a seven string so that he can quickly switch between his folk/blues songs and his Byrds jangle.

Seven strings are very uncommon and we always are asked about ours when we play them in public.