Eight-string Guitar - Classical Acoustic Guitar

Classical Acoustic Guitar

Roy Connors, of the 1960s folk singing group The Highwaymen ("Michael, Row the Boat Ashore", "In Them Old Cotton Fields Back Home"), patented the eight-string guitar in 1966 and holds U.S. Patent #3,269,247. While with The Highwaymen, Connors used this guitar exclusively during concerts, and on television and during public appearances. Nick Reynolds of The Kingston Trio, upon seeing one of The Highwaymen's shows at The Cellar Door nightclub in Washington, DC, had an eight-string guitar modeled and built after Connors's eight-string. Eight string variations are also found in classical nylon strung instruments. They are generally tuned with two extra basses (EADGBE) that vary in pitch depending on the piece being played. Another common variation is to add an extra bass and treble string. The extra treble is almost always tuned to A, while the added bass string usually falls on A, B, or C.

The classical guitarists Paul Galbraith and Alexander Vynograd are two of the most notable eight-string players who use the extra high and low string tuning. Galbraith generally tunes (B)EADGBEA which puts standard six-string guitar chord voicings and scale shapes within the neck and allows him to directly read lute tablature (a whole step higher). Vynograd chooses to tune AEADGCEA (notice the B string is tuned up a half step) which allows him to play the top six strings like a guitar a fourth higher. Vynograd writes his music on a grand staff in a different key and plays as if the guitar was tuned EBEADGBE.