The Extended Range Guitar and Lute Gallery
A pictorial history of historical designs for extending the range of
plucked-string instruments, from the 16th century to the present.
|
Site map
9-string Project Home
9-string Project History Page
|
 |
 |
The 16th century Orpharion was the first known fanned fret design. These images
have nine courses. (There are no playable originals in existence.)
Note that the image on the left does not portray a real instrument, but a somewhat lame artist's conception,
because the frets are not set to play in tune.
The reason the design was abandoned and forgotten may perhaps
have had something to do with the fact that on straight fret instruments of the 16th to 18th centuries, the frets were made of gut,
whereas the slanted frets of the Orpharion must be made of wood or metal, because gut strings cannot be tied around
the neck at an angle. Gut strings wear out more quickly on metal frets,
and are expensive, whereas gut frets are somewhat softer.
With modern synthetic strings this is no longer a problem. All other historical fretted instruments up to the
19th century have gut frets tied around the fingerboard, except for those on the body of the instrument, which were generally
of wood (picture below left). Gut frets are also adjustable, although the process can be rather frustrating when
trying to adjust the intonation by ear. Hence the verb "to fret" meaning to worry obsessively. In spite of this, movable frets
were used by choice on ancient instruments, and it was customary to push them up and down the neck slightly in order to
improve the intonation of some notes when playing in certain keys.
|
|
|
|
The Renaissance Lute began to acquire additional bass strings around the beginning of the 17th century.
In this design the bass strings are all as short as the trebles, which was soon found to be unsatisfactory. Such short bass strings
are not very resonant.
|
In Italy in the early 17th century the lute sprouted an extension to the neck and the bass strings
were increased in
length. This instrument is called a "Chittarone", Italian for "big guitar" and cognate with Mexican Spanish "Guitarron".
It may also be called the Archlute or Theorbo; the names seem to have been applied somewhat interchangeably,
and there are many variations
of neck length and number of strings.
The long bass strings are not fretted and can only produce a single pitch (i.e., are not "fully functional" as bass strings).
Because of this, lute players of the 17th century added more and more bass strings
in order to have more usable range. When such long basses are strung with modern strings instead of historical gut,
they are too resonant and require continual
damping by the player. Modern metal-wound strings permit the use of shorter, fretted bass strings and do not require these long lengths, which
are as long as a modern double bass.
|
|
|
| Here are more instruments of the Archlute / Chitarron / Theorbo class.
By the middle of the 17th century, and continuing into the 18th, the extra neck had gotten really long in order to make the basses
very deep and resonant. If you think my fanned fret design is extreme, look at these instruments. Note
in particular the extreme extension of the player's left arm in the two pictures above right,
a difficult posture to maintain for hours at a time.
|
|
To the left are two shorter Baroque Theorbos with the swan-type neck typical of the first half of the 18th century.
The Italian name Liuto Attiorbato uses "theorbo'd" as an adjective: the "theorboed lute."
|
|
After the demise of the lute, which was abandoned during the late 18th century, the six string guitar rose to
prominence. However, its range limitations were obvious to many musicians at the time.
Even as early a guitarist/composer as Carulli (1770 - 1841) had a ten string guitar, and several other early 19th century
players had guitars with seven or eight strings.
At the left is an Italian "lyre-guitar" with nine strings,
a design dating from the classical revival period of the early 19th
century, although this is a late example made around 1915. Despite its different appearance, it has the exact same
functionality as the harp guitars above: six fretted strings and three open basses.
Above is the Harp Guitar Orchestra of Nashville. This is the classic 19th century Italian harp guitar design,
which is not at all
rare in Nashville as you can see. The low basses are unfretted as with the
theorbo and chitarron. (Thanks to Gabe Hizer, who sent this pic.)
Below (left and right) is a modern 7-string acoustic fanned-fret with steel strings and maybe a 4" fan.
Seven and eight string guitars with fans about like this are now a proven design.
|
|
|
|
|
| Above left: The 8-string fanned fret "Brahms Guitar" type, with a moderate
fan with a width of about 2" or less. This has become a popular design among classical guitarists in the last few years, although
it was considered very radical when first introduced.
|
Paul Galbraith's original "Brahms Guitar" design features an end-pin like that
on a 'cello, which rests on a resonator box giving more volume. This extra detail is an integral part of
Galbraith's unique and personal manner of holding and playing the instrument, his way of avoiding the extreme left arm extension
noted in the players of Baroque lutes, above. However, it is not essential to the design and many players of similar eight-strings
do not use an end pin.
|
|
|
Above left:
The Agile 8 string, a factory production model costing only about $500 USD,
which is an amazingly low price indicating that this design is really mainstream now.
This is an optimal fan design for eight strings. Note that the fan on this 8-string is significantly wider than that on the
conservative Bartolex 10-string at right. The Agile company
is responding to the desires of players like those on the sevenstring.org ERG forum,
whereas the Bartolex design at right is aimed at the much
more conservative classical guitar world. Experienced players of fanned fret instruments know that extreme-angled fans are not difficult
to play, whereas classical players are still frightened by the appearance as well as inhibited by musical conservatism.
|
Above right, the Bartolex fanned fret 10 string.
This is obviously some improvement over the straight fret
10-string design originated in the 1950s by Narciso Yepes, who was the founder of a modern school of 10-string classical guitarists.
The low basses on a straight-fret 10 string perform very poorly, and should be somewhat better on this instrument.
However, the fan is not wide enough to make a really significant improvement, in my opinion.
The probable tuning is (low to high) A1 B1 C2 D2 E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4. The total range is less than the range of the
2016 9-string Fanned Fret Harp Guitar, on which the lowest deep bass string
F#1 will be several centimeters longer than the low basses on this instrument, and which also has a high
A4 string
which this instrument lacks. Yepes had a different idea (from mine) about sympathetic vibrations from the basses:
his idea was to maximize them
to give a shimmery resonance to his solo playing, and so he used a tuning with a re-entrant pattern for the basses which would
maximize sympathetic vibrations in all keys: something like
G#2 C#2 F#2 B1 E2 A2 D3 G3 B4 E4, but this tuning is not at all practical for actually playing low bass notes
and so most modern players of this instrument have
reverted to the diatonic pattern for the low basses.
|
|
Above left, another hybrid lyre-guitar, in an extreme modern version with two complete auxiliary harps, one bass and one treble.
This is a serious attempt to maximize the auxiliary ranges provided by the two harps, without making any changes at all in the
fingerboard design. There are 10 auxiliary bass strings and eight auxiliary treble strings; we can only guess at the tuning.
|
Above right, a truly odd artifact from sevenstring.org's ERG forum,
a seven-string fanned fret electric guitar with curved frets and a parabolic fan.
It is unclear whether this type of design offers any advantages. It may have been built just "because it was there", and in order
to find out. It certainly has a unique and dramatic look. The problem of laying out and building the fingerboard with a unique
curve on every fret appears daunting, and might optimally require the use of computer controlled laser cutting machinery which could
handle tolerances on the order of a thousandth of an inch.
To a carpenter's
eye, the uppermost frets appear ever so slightly irregular,
so they must have been bent by hand, obviously an extremely difficult and time-comsuming piece of detailed hand work.
|
|
Left and above right: Two views of a Vik 9-string fanned fret electric guitar.
The perpendicular fret appears to be at fret #9.
The owner of this guitar was extremely helpful with advice on design details for the 2013 nine-string prototype,
posted on the sevenstring.org ERG forum, and we owe him many thanks. In this photo, he is demonstrating that it is perfectly
possible to comfortably make a first-position barre, in response to a typical query on the ERG forum.
|
|
|
An eleven-string fanned fret electric guitar/bass hybrid played by Jean Baudin,
who uses a two-hand tapping technique.
Electric guitars are not subject to design constraints as limiting as acoustic guitars, since no resonating chamber is
necessary.
Interestingly, on this build, the angle of the fan is almost entirely at the nut. The perpendicular fret appears to
be at fret #24. The player intends to play mostly
in the upper registers and to use first position less, the opposite situation from a classical player.
Compare the photo at right.
A possible (?) tuning on this instrument might be something like
D#0 - G#0 - C#1 - F#1 - B1 - E2 - A2 - D3 - G3 - B3 - E4, with a bass range
more than an octave below my tuning for the new 2016 build. However, there are many possible irregular tunings in addition to this
regular one.
And here, of course, is the creme de la creme, the latest high point of classical guitar evolution,
Jack's 9-String Fanned Fret Harp Guitar:
|
A ten-string fanned fret classical guitar designed by Fred Fernseher of Texas, USA.
This is the previously-existing design most
similar to my 2013 9-string Prototype, and which actually attempts to get one step even closer to my old idea of the
virtual 12-string.
Rather than adding just one more string to the now-proven Brahms Guitar type, though, it adds two
more strings, one treble and one bass, so that compared with the standard six-string guitar there are two additional bass strings and
two additional treble strings.
The tuning is (according to Fred) E1 A1 D2 G2 C3 F3 A3 D4 G4 C5
- the core tuning being that of the Renaissance lute in G, with three deep basses and one additional treble.
Significantly different choices (that is, different from the ones made by Jack) were made for several important design variables, which shows
how wide a range there might be in these variables when designing from scratch, without previous prototypes to guide the process:
- The "perpendicular fret" of Fred's guitar is at the 12th fret. On the
Brahms guitar it is at the 7th fret; on the 2013 prototype
9-string it is at the 5th fret; on the new 2016 Fanned Fret Harp Guitar it will be at the 3rd fret.
The choice of the 12th fret is luthier-friendly and luthier-driven - it minimizes the need for design changes in the top bracing
by reducing the angle of the bridge, but it makes it more difficult for the player.
- Ten strings are used instead of nine. This is greedy; the reason is understandable, as I suffer from the same impulse,
but I (Jack) don't believe that the highest
string, a C5 at 54 centimeters, would perform well for my purpose, and I prefer to focus the new 2016 design on gaining full use of the
auxiliary bass strings by extending the longest bass string to 72 c, in which case the use of such a short treble string
is not practical. The design of a successful instrument with only nine strings
is proving to be challenge enough.
- The lowest string, E1, is 68 centimeters (26-3/4") long, the same length as the F#1 on the 2013 Prototype, and
obviously chosen for similar
reasons. However, this length is too short for the string to perform well, based on the information gained from the 2013 Prototype.
Since the highest string, C5, is 54 centimeters (21"), which is about as long as that pitch can possibly be, on this design the bass
strings cannot be extended any longer without making the fan unmaneageably wide.
- The fingerboard width is unknown, Fred didn't publish it.
Like my 2013 Prototype, Fred's design
is an attempt to stretch the fanned fret design type to its maximum.
With ten strings, it appears to have overstretched somewhat. However, that
this extreme range could even be attempted suggests that the 2016 nine string, as planned,
(and obviously subject to the same criticism)
is not so far out as might be supposed. It also shows that with so many variations possible in such a design, that there had to be
a 2013 prototype to guide the way.
|
The 2016 9-string Fanned Fret Harp Guitar Project
9-string Project Home
9-string Project History Page
Site map
|