The secret to Paul Galbraith’s Tone: Fishing lines on the treble strings

[Navdeep_Singh]

Well, I’m off to Bass Pro Shops for the first time in my life. I just got a 2nd Brahms guitar, wanted two, with one as a backup. This one is four (4) years older, made of different woods and a fingerboard that’s actually wood. I had some issues with my “G” string on my Brahms guitar, it is very staccato, the sound practically dies as the note is plucked.

No tonal issues with this guitar. The prior owner is an actual classical guitarist who released a couple albums with this guitar-he noted it was his main guitar for ten (10) years. He also disclosed the secret to Paul Galbraith’s tone on the treble strings (GBE): he uses fishing lines!

“This is part of the secret to Paul’s tone, he is using fishing line for the treble strings”


G string:


Seaguar Fluorocarbon (KF) leader (fishing line): ‘Big Game’ 90lb test, 0.91mms.
Also for the B & E strings:
Seaguar KF: Blue label, 60lb test, 0.74mms [B string];
Seaguar KF: Blue label, 50lb test, 0.66mms [E string].

I’m off to Bass Pro Shops for the first time ever in my life, this week, to re-string the three treble strings on my original Brahms guitar.

Both were made by Martin Woodhouse, in Cambridge, England. Martin inherited the late David Rubio’s luthier equipment, when the original luthier who made the Brahms guitar for Paul Galbraith passed away. Mr. Woodhouse now makes the same guitars for Paul Galbraith.

Good enough for Paul, good enough for me. I met Paul at a concert he gave at a small church on North Avenue, in Wicker Park, Chicago, IL, many years ago. It was very poorly attended. Mainly by guitar students. Including all of the then students of Jack Cecchini. (Including me). Jack demanded all of students go see Paul, as he felt Paul’s ideas on his Brahms guitar were the way to go, for classical guitar students. Jack had reservations that such an instrument would work for jazz guitar, but for classical guitar, absolutely.

Paul was very very friendly and encouraging. He also mentioned another secret to his tone: the wooden “Cello box” his endpin connects to, adding certain ambiance and reverb(?) to his sound.

So far, no pedals or other electronic gear required.

[Jim Soloway]

Lenny Breau used fishing line for the high A string on his classical 7-string.

[Cunamara]

Galbraith is a superbly effective guitarist at what he plays. I listen to his "Allemande" album often, it is so well-recorded and beautifully played.

The resonance box seems to be important to his tone. Very interesting about his strings! I hope they work well for you.

Are you still playing the Solomon and the Victor B?

[Navdeep_Singh]

Galbraith is a superbly effective guitarist at what he plays. I listen to his "Allemande" album often, it is so well-recorded and beautifully played.

The resonance box seems to be important to his tone. Very interesting about his strings! I hope they work well for you.

Are you still playing the Solomon and the Victor B?

Yep. My world is all based on the practical 8 string applications of the Brahms—I have another very special guitar on the horizon (still being built) that will be my #1 electric guitar when it is finished. Acoustic archtop: Solomon Classical guitar Brahms guitar. Backup electric: VB Tele 8 string..

Since Lenny Breau is referenced, I think his 7 string deserves special merit and mention. Elsewhere I wrote:

It is more or less common to play a 7 string guitar. But what remains a total anomaly and practically a novelty is the Lenny Breau 7 string. Lenny and Luthier Kirk Sand described the musical necessity for such an instrument, and Kirk added details about the process of building the Lenny Breau 7 string, with the additional high “A”. Lenny wanted such a guitar for over 15 (!) years and met Kirk at a NAMM show in 1982. Lenny was not a “gear head”, he knew what he wanted, but didn’t know anything about how guitars are built and why, technically, things could happen or not happen. He didn’t know that the guitar had to be a “short-scale” instrument, otherwise the top string would instantly snap when attempting to increase the note value by a P4. In any event, when he got the guitar later in 1982, he took to the instrument like a fish to water—-it became his only electric guitar until the end of his short life (Lenny was murdered in 1984, shot and left to drown in a LA swimming pool). When the guitar was finally built, Kirk said that Lenny started playing it,right away, instantly, like he was playing it his entire life.


Kirk talked about the MELODIC possibilities of the Lenny Breau 7 string. The high “A” allowed one to have not three but now four (4) main melody strings. Moreover, one could continue a line in position without the necessity of shifting or changing position. This is what clearly excited Lenny and why he wanted such a guitar for 15 years!


But, in discussing Lenny’s 7 string guitar, Kirk didn’t mention the OTHER musical secret weapon of that guitar. The additional high “A” string tuned a P4 above the normal high “E” string gives you an additional string set to play all the chord voicings we normally use. Ergo, we get an additional 25% coverage when playing triads (from 4 string sets to 5 string sets); an additional 33% coverage when playing drop drop 2 voicings (from 3 string sets to 4 string sets); an additional 50% coverage when playing drop 3 AND drop 2 and 4 voicings (from 2 string sets to 3 string sets).


Kirk Sand is still around today, building guitars for musicians. On his website, I don’t’ see any reference to Lenny Breau style 7 string guitars. (EDIT: someone is still making Kirk Sand guitars, but it’s not him, as he apparently passed away a couple years ago).


TOO BAD THIS MUSICAL INSTRUMENT REMAINS LOST IN THE SHUFFLE. As with many other things, Lenny was way ahead of his time; along with Oscar Peterson and Ed Bickert, they formed the trio of the greatest Canadian jazz musicians. Along with Ed, they formed the duo of the greatest Canadian guitar players who ever lived.


At the end of his life, Lenny was living in Nashville and would give lessons. One of the people to pop in for a lesson was the multi- millionaire rock star, Andy Summers. Lenny charged him his normal teaching rate, and I believe showed him his thoroughly systematic use of harmonics. Which was also way ahead of his time.


Like Lenny’s 7 string guitar!

[Rob MacKillop]

Many lute players have tried fishing line strings, but the general consensus is they are not quite as good as nylgut, and a lot worse than real gut.

Paul and I became friends in Edinburgh during his transition from sitting on a table with crossed legs cradling his guitar, to getting his first spike. He is a very persuasive character, and before long I had one as well. However, I never really clicked with it, and was happy to return to the footstool. He moved away from Edinburgh, and I haven’t seen him in 30+ years. I do remember very well the intensity of his experiments.

[pcjazz]

A small correction to Navdeep's account of Lenny Breau's high-A 7-string: Kirk Sand provided Lenny with two such guitars. The first was a nylon-string classical, adapted from a 7-string guitar Kirk imported from Spain and converted to high-A. This was the guitar that Lenny strung with fishing line for the high string. The second was a custom-built electric guitar with a short scale to allow for a steel string tuned to the high A.

Fishing line is no longer necessary for high-A classical tuning because several manufacturers now supply nylon or nylgut strings in the appropriate gauges. On my high-A classical I use D'Addario NYL021 rectified nylon for the top string. It intonates better and lasts much longer than the fishing line.

[Tom Karol]

Fluorocarbon strings (i.e., fishing line) are commonly available in the Ukulele world.

[pcjazz]

I had some issues with my “G” string on my Brahms guitar, it is very staccato, the sound practically dies as the note is plucked.

Try replacing the G string with a Savarez 543J. This is what Kirk recommended to me and it works! Fishing line is for fish.

[Navdeep_Singh]

Many lute players have tried fishing line strings, but the general consensus is they are not quite as good as nylgut, and a lot worse than real gut.

Paul and I became friends in Edinburgh during his transition from sitting on a table with crossed legs cradling his guitar, to getting his first spike. He is a very persuasive character, and before long I had one as well. However, I never really clicked with it, and was happy to return to the footstool. He moved away from Edinburgh, and I haven’t seen him in 30+ years. I do remember very well the intensity of his experiments.

I A/B’d both Brahms guitars, mine with the normal nylon GBE strings and the new one with the PG fish lines, and the Paul’s fish lines win out, hands down. The other strings (including the high A) are conventional D’dario hard tension nylons.

[Rob MacKillop]

I believe you. I was referring to lute players.

[Fawkes]

Hi Navdeep congratulations on the 2nd Brahms. I was very interested in that one but I would have needed to see it in person to know if it was right for me.

It's worth noting that Galbraith and Woodhouse have evolved their practice over time, and the string lengths have changed quite a bit over the history of the model as well.

The former owner of your current guitar gave you information in line with Galbraith's practice on his former concertizing guitar, a 2000 David Rubio 613/653. (Although in 2013 Galbraith stated in an email to someone on another forum that he was using the .93 "Big Game" for the 4th.) By 2013 he was tuning down a tone, so the first string was actually sounding at G (I picked up somewhere that he made this change after a string broke during a concert).

For the first string, Galbraith, desiring to use the "thickest possible" string, was using extra high tension nylon E strings. Woodhouse confirmed in 2018 that he himself was also doing this for the first string tuned a tone down, which he was then making 600 mm.

In 2019 Woodhouse standardized a new design with 585/645 mm strings. Galbraith bought one in that year. In 2020 Woodhouse reported that Galbraith was using a .77 mm Jinkai nylon fishing line for his first string (at any known density of nylon this is twice the normal tension for a top string!). In the one recording on that instrument which I've figured out the tuning for (posted in 2023), Galbraith was tuned 1/4 tone down from A 440. Someone may want to check if I got that right, it's the video of Schumann's Album for the Young, Bunte Blätter.

In 2024 Woodhouse reported using D'Addario normal tension E for the first string, and extra-high tension carbon for 2/3/4.

I briefly looked into the fishing line issue recently and found that some of the old products are apparently no longer available. For a test set to try on my 650 mm 10 string with normal frets I ended up using D'Addario Pro Arte singles for the top 2, bought an HT carbon set for the B for the 3rd, a Pyramid carbon for the 4th, and then the pre-2019 Galbraith D'Addario basses worked for the rest. Jury is still out while I figure out tone production on the new setup.

Anyway thanks for an excuse to dump some of the information I have been collecting somewhere. Hopefully it is of some use.

[Cunamara]

Interesting reading. Pretty much all of the string products available from guitar retailers are oriented towards "normal" guitars. Even a Van Eps style 7 string is easily accommodated with a little trial and error with standard products. The Robert Fripp "New Standard" tuning, on the other hand, faces challenges and compromises (the high G instead of the B it really ought to be). Something more outré like the Brahms guitar by Galbraith and his collaborators is going to take some creativity to find things that work.

A steel string Brahms guitar would also seem likely to face challenges, particularly difficulty in keeping the high strings tuned and intonated; probably the whole thing would be need to be tuned down a whole step to avoid breaking the high string all the time, but that creates other problems at the low end. The low G, in that case, would probably be pretty darn floppy.

[pcjazz]

A steel string Brahms guitar would also seem likely to face challenges, particularly difficulty in keeping the high strings tuned and intonated; probably the whole thing would be need to be tuned down a whole step to avoid breaking the high string all the time, but that creates other problems at the low end. The low G, in that case, would probably be pretty darn floppy.

Fanned frets?