Big Joe Williams, 9 string guitar

[Tymus]

I’ve just been watching a few films of Big Joe Williams on youtube. I love the ratty look of his home converted nine string guitars, so Heath Robinson! He gets a great sound out of them, it makes me wonder why we’re all looking for that illusive exquisite instrument when obviously that “perfect” sound is in the heart of the musician! His guitars are Interestingly strung (tuned in G) from the bass D G DD G BB DD, notice the third is single but the fourth double, anybody got any ideas why he’s done it this way?

Michael can you guess what I’m thinking?





Tymus.

[Michael Messer]

Hi Tymus,

I am a bit short of time today, but I will return to this thread as I think it is interesting.

Spider John Koerner did it as a seven string guitar with an extra octave G string. Joe's is a strange one, but it sounds wonderful when he plays it.

Shine On
Michael

[snakehips]

Hi there !

He leaves the 3rd string single so it is easier for string bending.
You can string bend on a double course though.

[Tymus]

Hi Snakehips,

That makes sense and from watching his vids again I can see him doing precisely that! I sometimes bend notes on the mando but it does often bugger up the tuning a little, just enough to make it sound bad! Can you see any reason or advantage in having the 4th course double strung, could it be just that he had a spare post on his machines. Why not make it an 8 string with just the plain 1st and 2nd courses doubled?

Cheers Tymus.

[Michael Messer]

I think it was as Snakehips says, to be able to bend the G. But I also think it may not have been as calculated as that and may be related to only being able to fit three extra tuners on the headstock.

Big Joe's guitar does have a great sound, so whatever it was, he was right on the money!

Shine On
Michael.

[Tymus]

Whilst poking about on another music forum I came across this interesting quote taken from “Blues Access” magazine.

Quoted from D. Thomas Moon: The Verdict Of Big Joe Williams.- Blues Access No. 33 (Spring 1998), p. 20-28:

He said that when he'd take a break, people'd be over there messin' with his guitar. He said, "That's what got me to start puttin' strings on my guitar." He said, "I put the seventh string on there" - being the double E - "and that messed up most of 'em for a while. But then one guy kept comin' 'round, and he got used to that extra string. I thought to myself, 'I gotta mess him up a little bit more.' I put the double B on it. I stumped him for a while, but he got used to that. I thought to myself, 'Well, I'm gonna really trick you this time. I'm gonna double the D string, the fourth string.' He couldn't handle it, and he never messed with my guitar again."
Now one thing to keep in mind is that some people think that Big Joe added an octave D on there, like a 12-string, but they were doubled. I used to fix Big Joe's guitars for him, and it was a unison string. When he'd play a 12-string, he'd use octaves in the traditional manner. But on his nine-strings, the strings were always unison. Very few people know this, but Big Joe had two nine-string tunings. He called one "Spanish tuning," which was an open G that he'd capo at the second fret to hit his key. Then he had another G variation. He called it "open G with a 10 chord bass." Sometimes he would call it the "10 card bass." What it was, he'd lower the bottom D when he'd tune the bottom string to a D. He'd drop it on down to a B and make bass runs on it. I think what he was doing was he was calling it a "10 chord bass" at first, and some people didn't understand what he was saying. He started calling it a "10 card bass." He adopted that designation for it too, 'cause they would be looking at it as 10 cards, as in a poker game. He'd go, "Yeah, that fits with what I got in mind too." He'd only tune it down like that once in a while. That's the story of the nine-string.


It would be interesting to read the whole article, if anyone has a copy or knows where to find one!
Tymus.

[Tymus]

Here's a nice little article from Downbeat magazine 1964,