What to do when weird ideas start popping into your head?

el_Bajo_Verde

el_Bajo_Verde

May 18, 2016
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Minneapolis, Minnesota
#1
Lately I've been wanting to have a stringed instrument capable of both bass and guitar ranges.

I thought about getting a 9-string electric and downtuning two of the bass strings, then later thought about getting a 9-string and tuning it to open C (C-G-C-E-G-C-G-C-E) then about getting a 7-string guitar and tuning it in fifths, and then getting a 7-string bass and tuning it in fifths...

I know I could master the instrument I choose if I put my mind to it, but my mind is filled with so many ridiculous ideas! Does this ever happen to you guys? How do you bring yourself back to reality?

Obviously people are capable of doing well on such instruments, here are some examples:

9-string guitar open C


12-string fretless bass (oh man!)


I do have an 88-key keyboard, but there's just something I love about holding and playing a stringed instrument!

No, I will not get a harp.
 
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#4
I find a looper and an octaver with a bass or guitar can scratch the itch well enough. Still flirting with the idea of a 5-string bass tuned E-C but the cost keeps me grounded 'till there's more cash to play with.

As for these 9-12 stringed beasts, well...
While learning to play one would surely be a challenge, I think I'd have a harder time coping with being one of the people who played them. Watching them work always strikes me as just the slightest bit unsettling.

Like, what's this first guy all about? Sitting on a railroad track jamming on his 9-string electric, just chilling in nature with his monster guitar, all alone with six cameras pointing at him to capture the full extent to which he's alone and chilling. Cat needs nine strings and six camera angles to chill right.

As for the second, his song is gorgeous and he's plainly some kind of string-deity who has transcended physical boundaries, but he's also a guy in jeans sitting in the corner of a very empty room eclipsed by an enormous pointed plank that looks like it eats souls and which relegates its master to the corner of his own movie just to fit on screen. It just really feels like there's a tragic origin story here somewhere.

Nah, but, for real, the people who can play these things are better musicians than I'll ever be and I applaud them for having creativity so boundless it transcended traditional instruments.

I'm just saying, like, the kind of polyphony they're achieving here can also be accomplished by having a friend.

--^@
 
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#6
Sell the house, buy a pedal harp. Or sell the car and buy a big celtic harp. If it's a really crappy car, there are smaller harps.

Or pay attention to what 3 strings can do by listening to some katzenjammer.
 
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#9
I use to play the acoustic guitar in a open tuning style in the key of open G, and many others. This allows for the Travis style picking where the thumb is alternating the E, A and D strings, while the other 3 fingers are playing on each of the G, B, and E strings. With the alternate tuning you can play guitar and bass lines at the same time to cover or create songs, in many styles of acoustic music. And the best part is you don't need to use a lot of barre chords and still play up and down the neck.
 
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#10
el_Bajo_Verde said:
Lately I've been wanting to have a stringed instrument capable of both bass and guitar ranges.

I thought about getting a 9-string electric and downtuning two of the bass strings, then later thought about getting a 9-string and tuning it to open C (C-G-C-E-G-C-G-C-E) then about getting a 7-string guitar and tuning it in fifths, and then getting a 7-string bass and tuning it in fifths...

I know I could master the instrument I choose if I put my mind to it, but my mind is filled with so many ridiculous ideas! Does this ever happen to you guys? How do you bring yourself back to reality?

Obviously people are capable of doing well on such instruments, here are some examples:

9-string guitar open C


12-string fretless bass (oh man!)


I do have an 88-key keyboard, but there's just something I love about holding and playing a stringed instrument!

No, I will not get a harp.
Click to expand...

Don't have any experience with anything more than a 6 string guitar and a brief moment on a 5 string bass. But if you have a dream, go for it. It sounds like a good idea with the 9 string of your trying to get the sound you want, you could also get a double neck, one guitar, the other bass. It has been done before. I suppose it would save time switching from guitar to bass, but make sure if you use a guitar amp, that it can handle to extra low end, and if you use a bass amp, make sure you get a nice sound on the higher register. Sometime you don't, so make sure it sounds right throughout.
 
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