Seven-string guitar
The changing number of courses in these early guitars may also illustrate an ongoing desire on behalf of players to increase the range of the instrument, a development similar to that gone through by the lute in earlier days.
The seven-string guitar never became as widely accepted in Europe as the six-string instrument, but a number of composers did produce a significant body of work for the seven string.
The Italian guitarist Mario Maccaferri (1899–1993) was a celebrated advocate of bass strings (diapasons or bourdons) and also composed for the instrument.
Despite some brief setbacks in the mid-20th century, during which six-string instruments rose in prominence, the seven-string Russian guitar has remained popular in Russia to this day.
Its invention was popularized by Andrei Sychra, who also wrote a method for the guitar, as well as over one thousand compositions, seventy-five of which were republished in the 1840s by Stellovsky, and then again in the 1880s by Gutheil.
[8] The open D string tuning of this guitar was convenient for many Russian folk songs and dances that were typically within the major key.
While greatly popular in Russia and Ukraine, this type of guitar has only recently been generating some interest outside of its traditional homeland.
The school was owned by Ignác František Held (1766, Třebechovice pod Orebem, Bohemia – 1816, Brest-Litovsk, Russia).
The style of "baixaria" counterpoint and accompaniment technique was developed throughout the 20th century, especially by Dino 7 Cordas and Raphael Rabello.
In the early 1980s, guitarist Luiz Otavio Braga had a nylon string version made, and this has become the norm for most contemporary solo musicians such as Yamandu Costa.
A year later, advances in materials science allowed the La Bella company to begin manufacturing a custom string for Breau's high A.
[11] Seven-string semi-acoustic archtop guitars were used by jazz-guitarist Ralph Patt after he began exploring major-thirds tuning in 1964.
In the early thirties the National String Instrument Corporation offered seven-string versions of their solid-body lap-steel guitars.
[18] In 1987, Fender signed an agreement with Alex Gregory to produce a Stratocaster-style guitar that featured a high A-string.
[21] Vai was drawn to the idea for much of the same reasons seven-string classical and jazz players were—the extended range the additional string offered.
(Kirk Sand and Lenny Breau solved the breaking high A string problem by shortening the scale length to 22.75", Vai's Ibanez is 25.5".)
This was somewhat offset by a growing stigma that a seven-string guitar was a "nu metal" instrument, fit only for heavy riffing.
[23] In the 1990s, several other heavy metal guitarists began using seven-string instruments (notably John Petrucci, Trey Azagthoth, and Erik Rutan), seeing the possibility for detuned riffing while preserving the full upper range of the guitar for solos.
However, he later started using new Manson custom seven-strings to play new songs "Supremacy", "Survival" and "Liquid State" on Muse's 2012 The 2nd Law album tour.
Dino Cazares uses custom seven-string Ibanez guitars; Christian Olde Wolbers has his own signature Jackson seven-string guitar, Jeff Loomis has a signature model made by Schecter and Stephen Carpenter has several of his own models released by ESP.
Modern metal bands such as Trivium (on The Crusade and Shogun), Dream Theater and Haken commonly use this tuning.
