Post by jono1uk on Oct 3, 2019 20:18:21 GMT
Never heard of this guy until last week -- apparently the guitar he plays is 9 string!
here is the info about it.
from D. Thomas Moon: The Verdict Of Big Joe Williams.- Blues Access No. 33 (Spring 1998), p. 20-28:
(start of quote)
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.
(end of quote)
here is the info about it.
from D. Thomas Moon: The Verdict Of Big Joe Williams.- Blues Access No. 33 (Spring 1998), p. 20-28:
(start of quote)
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.
(end of quote)