EXplaining EXtended range guitars (e.r.g.'s), EXamples and EXperiments.


Started making my first e.r.g. in 1993, a seven-string chambered solid-body baritone
guitar, which was completed a few years later with two matching home-made pickups.
Eventually played it once more on the "Old McDonald had a phaser" demo.
With the exception of a traditionally made violin, featured in "La Cucaracha",
all building activities remained focused on the e.r.g.'s since then.

Musically speaking, an extended range could be defined as the one containing more notes than
the one regarded as "standard". Apart from the obvious extra higher and lower pitched notes,
microtones with intervals smaller than semitones might be included as well.

By increasing the number of strings on the guitar, its range may be extended along with
the larger amount of chord voicings that become possible.

How is all of this still relevant to contemporary musicians in today's musical environment ?
Is just a 7-string instrument from 1993 without fancy split pickups going to make a difference ?
Why bother playing a fretless instrument ?

Creating "sound images" by covering standards, evergreens, traditionals or whatever else you
prefer might help as a starting point to answer questions like these for yourself, especially by
keeping things simple, like in the following short musical example:

Click to play

Background accompaniment performed on the described seven-string e.r.g. with chords and bass
parts played simultaneously (trackmix 1), while being an attempt to respect both the original
melody and the quality of the traditional song "Down by the riverside".
Three different sounding melody and lead parts were all played on the fretless guitar (trackmix 2),
which also helped to get a more flowing watery sound effect during the last part.

Using separate pickups for the higher and lower strings
Instead of altering the existing pickup configuration on the 7-string mentioned above, a second body
has been used along with the 7-string neck to carry out experiments with two separate pickups.
On the Greensleeves / When the Saints demo, chords and basslines were played at the same time on
the three different sounding baritone guitar parts, with an octaver pedal added for the bass parts.
Although newer octaver pedal versions allow doing so with a single pickup, the delay and panning
effects on the chords during the third part (00.39 - 00.57) still require using separate ones.