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Anyone ever played one of these or know how this is tuned and how it works?
Here is a video of Roger McGuinn, formerly of the Bryds, playing it. Song starts at about 1:00 min.

[video][/video]

Pretty cool having that extra G string in there. Fingerings will all be the same. Adds a bit of sparkle there in the G. Roger is really well known for the 12 string. Looks like he added a bit of that sound to this guitar while still maintaining more of that old time dred bottom end.



MarkM

Seven strings have been around since 1805, but Jim (aka Roger, although thats a middle name) McGuinn is the first to my knowledge to combine a standard 6 with a G octave, its normally in standard tuning when Jim plays it

When I saw McGuinn in concert a couple of months ago he explained that Martin makes these guitars specifically to his specifications. He is most famous for playing his Rickenbacker 12 string (360?) and he really liked the rich tones he gets from the doubled G string. He demonstrated that by doubling this string set on his 7 string he can get a lot of the 12 string sound but still play the guitar like it's a 6 string.

The effect is pretty dramatic. He used it on several songs and his set-up was wonderful. He really made his Martin sing!

BTW- Roger McGuinn is a much better guitarist than I ever thought. His days with the Byrds really didn't highlight his talents. He played some really tough fingerstyle pieces and blew everyone away.

Chas is correct that Roger is his middle name but that is not why he uses it. When many of the 60's bands got into far Eastern religions Jim McGuinn got heavily into Subud, an Indonesian religion. His spititual adviser, Bapak, told him he needed a name starting with "R" so he adoped his middle name. McGuinn and his wife are now devote Christians.

Cheers! :cheer:

I love the sound of that 7 string! Makes sense to me. I already remove the octave strings on the low E and A on my 12 string because of the reasons Roger demos in that video.

This is the sound that brought his playing into my consciousness (long before I held a guitar) ... Dig this intro:

If anyone is interested, McGuinn plays mostly using a pick and metal fingerpicks on his middle and ring fingers. Pretty unique style. I've tried it because I love the jangling 12 string sound he gets but it's a lot tougher than it looks! :cheer: