Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello all. I haven't posted in a while.
I'm mainly interested in making archtops, but lately my interest has expanded a bit to the Classical guitar (as it was also the guitar and style in which I was trained). I have a few books that cover the construction of "Classicals" and although I've never had a go at it, I've read through said books enough to have a very basic understanding of how it's done.

Lately I've regained my interest in playing pieces mainly from the Baroque period. As you all know, this stuff has to be transcribed to be played on our "normal" guitars because either the composer did not compose the work for the guitar, or most likely because the guitars simply were not in existence yet. The "5 Course" being the norm back then.

So! After playing a lot of these pieces, I've noticed how the addition of an additional lower string (lower than the Low E that is) would eliminate a lot of the awkwardness inherent to a lot of the "guitar transcriptions" of these beautiful works, IMHO.
Most of the luthier books I have (or have seen) do not address the considerations one must make if building the guitar with the additional string (even though 7-string Classical guitars seem to be fairly common).
I wanted to ask if anyone here on the board has built a 7-string before? Also, there must be instructional books or videos covering this, right? Are there any particularly good ones I should look out for? I would love to hear what you guys think of this, as I've seen some beautiful Classical builds on this forum! Also, regarding the 7th string..... I have extremely limited experience with it. What is the typical pitch used on a Classical, Low B?

Thanks,
John

There is no published guidance on adding extra strings in book form at this point that I know of.

There is info on 10 string guitars that has appeared in this forum and others that may give some guidance on how much bracing has to be beefed up. I'd guess that for 7 strings the change is minimal. Search for threads that include Michael McBroom (I always hoped that he would publish a 10 string plan, but he didn;t as far as I know.) There is a GAL plan for a 7 string Russian guitar that may be helpful as well.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

John,

The Brazilian makers I know of make no changes to the guitar other than fretboard width and the peghead and bridge. In other words, the top thickness and fan bracing are the same as with six string guitars. The 7th string on the bass end doesn't have enough tension to merit structural changes. Most folks tune the 7th string to either DO or SI.

I helped a friend build a 7 string nylon with a high A ... Lenny Breau fanatic .... multiscale too, 635 to 650 .... we pretty much kept all the fans the same

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

For what it's worth, in the case of a cut-away, many builders don't bother changing their molds. They just fair the side of the fretboard in to match the inside of the cut-away.