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Here’s a demo of a special, one-of-a-kind guitar made by Victor Baker. Just playing the first notes that come to mind, or not, first thing in the morning, yesterday. 2 minutes in length. The guitar is an eight string guitar arch top version of a Brahms guitar.. it’s play normally with a cello end pin, like the Brahms guitar is. For those that don’t know, the classical guitarist, Paul Galbaith made the Brahms guitar his own.
My teacher made all of his students go see Paul Galbraith perform, many years ago. I had no idea who he was “any relation to Barry”? I asked. NOPE. He performed at a guitar festival to a very small crowd of basically a guitar students in the small church in Wicker Park, a neighborhood in Chicago. I talk to him afterwards about his instrument. I realized it’s really the perfect guitar for a solo guitar, playing, incorporating George Van Epps, seventh string with Lenny Breau‘s seventh string. 6 main strings are the same, with George’s low A and Lenny’s High A. You get a clear division between bass-tenor-soprano. You get 4 different stringsets for drop 2 voicings; 3 different string sets for drop 3, drop 2 and 3, and drop 2 and 4. That’s’ one more each than the normal 6 string guitar (I don’t include the low A in this computation, just calculating by adding the Lenny Breau high A). With the Low A and High A, you can a 10th that is 3 octaves apart!
It’s not easy to play or control, by any means. I’m still learning a lot anyway this is played through a fender Princeton reverb tone master. I’ve become a total convert on the Brahms guitar concept. I’m having Erich Solomon build me a 8 string acoustic archop version. that will actually be my first acoustic steel stirng guitar (I don’t count jazz boxes with magnetic pups).
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11-21-2022 12:16 PM
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Smokin!
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I was a friend of Paul’s when he was going through changes leading towards playing with a cello spike in the base of his guitar. We spent a lot of time talking about such things in his house, in cafe’s and on the phone. It was an intense period as I was having some lessons with him, yet trying to resist his more “out there” ideas, but he certainly gave me a lot to think about. At one point I did try out the cello-spike idea, but I never got on with it. He moved away from Edinburgh, and I haven’t seen him for over 30 years.
The problem with the so-called Brahms Guitar is the quality of tone from the high A string. The fan fret idea goes back to the 16th-century English orpharion, a wire-string lute. I can understand your reasoning, Navdeep, of uniting Lenny Breau and GVE. Lots to explore there, and I hope to hear more from you when you’ve got to grips with it all. Best wishes for your journey!
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w/all due respect I must be tone deaf or something. it sounds terribly out of tune and I couldn't figure out what you were trying to do. sorry!
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Great, the other day I felt like wanting a 8 tuned like this for Christmas.
Originally Posted by NSJ
Like you described, not really what I heard, is it normal ?
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What a nice man, he was, very generous with his time. I’m no expert on classical guitar but I love his Bach cello suites and he plays a very different Chicane. Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
The problem is as you describe. I have a Brahms guitar and the problem is with the high A string. Originally I solved it with a ukulele string. But I was finally able to find a string that didn’t snap.
Paul Galbraith now gets his guitars made by the same guy I had build my Brahms. Martin Woodhouse in Cambridge, England. Mr. Woodhouse inherited the work space and tool from the original maker, David Rubio, who worked with Paul to build the original one. Alas Mr. Rubio passed away.
Paul said you also need the cello box that you pace the end pin on, it creates a certain kind of ambience like a reverb that adds to the sound. He told me that it makes a big difference as well. Nice to hear that you stayed with him. I really like his music. As for this performance. I didn’t really intend to do anything. I just picked it up and started playing. I usually do that first thing in the morning and see what comes out. I have a lot of work to do to get better at it. It’s not an easy instrument at all.
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No worries! I wasn’t’ trying to do anything. Just picked it up and whatever came out came out. It clearly took me a minute to get anything going, in hindsight. In listening back, it was mainly in A minor, I think. I’m been trying to add some Carnatic music ornamentations, which is the result of the slides you heard. That probably added to the dissonance. Originally Posted by wintermoon
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NSJ , these builder's "special design order" instruments must cost a pretty penny....
Show us the whole instrument
S
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Hi,It’s a beautiful guitar. People stop dead in their tracks and ask about it. I once had a sanitation worker in Santa Cruz stop what he was doing and asked if it was a Chapman Stick LOL Originally Posted by SOLR
NSJ , these builder's "special design order" instruments must cost a pretty penny....
Show us the whole instrument
S
Just chiming in to say that Victor Baker’s prices are probably a lot less and more fair than a lot of other builders.
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Oh wow , thx! that's some innovative design , the p-up, the position of the knobs and the fret work , not his usual everyday build..... Originally Posted by NSJ
Enjoy
S
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There was a recent thread about Galbraith on the Delcamp forum: Paul Galbraith plays Nocturnal by Benjamin Britten - Classical Guitar
(Lead to a spin-off about this kind of position: Franz Halasz playing position with Guitarlift - Classical Guitar)
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Sorry, I love interesting archtops therefore: Was the guitar in tune? Is it supposed to sound like that?
If yes - I hope you enjoy it but it s not my cup of tea.
If not- I would love to hear more of it but with the strings in tune.
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Wow, Navdeep, what an adventure! I periodically think about experimenting with a Van Eps style seven string, and it's almost overwhelming to think about adding something like that. You're adding two strings! Mind blown. Keeping that in tune and intonated, especially the high A, is going to be a challenge. Eventually, you will find the best combination of strings to solve that. The high A must be an .008 or something?
I had never heard of Paul Galbraith before this morning (I don't follow a lot of classical guitar). I went to YouTube and checked out a few things. His Adagio Sonata K570 by Mozart is one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard.
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Hi, Sorry for the delay in responding. I tried logging in repeatedly and it wouldn’t accept my PW. Very strange. So I just created a new account.
Just to clarify, yes, the B string was detuned. I kind of forgot to retune it when I made that playing example . It’s just basically first notes of the morning whatever comes out whatever comes out on sometimes I detune certain treble strings to work on Indian classical music lines, which is almost all single line music. The B string is the best string, I have found, along with the E string, to use the ornamentations.
Sorry if anyone was offended. I’m so used to trying to play different styles at once, and it’s all a learning experience.
A big learning curve. I have pretty big designs and aspirations for this guitar, but I’m finding myself re-learning a lot of stuff I knew on the 6 string at the same time trying to play a little bit of Indian classical music.
I should be more careful, next time. the good thing is, a couple of really good pros I know liked it on my FB page.
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Originally Posted by NSJ
I've play a 7 string guitar tuned E-A-D-G-C-F-Bb for about 12 years, with a high Bb string at 25.5inch scale. The high Bb string snapped very easily, so I have played my 6 string tuned in fourths E-A-D-G-C-F in recent years.
Stronger strings were available from Octave4plus, if they are still in business.
I am currently in the process of building/assembling a new 7 string with a low B string.
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I saw that Aquila now have a set made for tuning a guitar a 3rd higher; maybe there's something in there that can be of use?
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