Blues In My Fingers - Lonnie Johnson instrumental on a 10-string guitar

[bkm241]

Excellent sound. Love this style of blues

[potatoepeter1]

daddy has stove his pipe, very good

[simpletunes2]

That's a great sound with the two strings removed. Has a real 'Bronnzy' feel.

[Folkmill]

Cool! Love the reflection of the headstock in the pane behind you. It caught me by surprise and I wasn't sure what it was until I watched in full-screen. One thing your comprehensive notes and replies overlook, though, is the tendency for the 3rd course descant - often .008" diameter - to snap, on 12-strings strung "normally"; and thus removing a 2c follows. I get round it by using a lighter-gauge, wound 3c in unison--a solution I read in a library book on the history and development of guitars.

[rayoll]

another gem..the switches in feel into and back out of the march feel are terrific...I had run across the removed string idea a while back but I haven't spent any time on it. I've been playing more open G 12 than "straight" tuning lately

[icespeckledhen]

Great, its good to a 12 string guitar being picked, even if its not a full set

[JesseMathews]

Mr Stovepipe another fine job you did on this one! I Like ! :)

[CerylTrini]

The stovepipe is still smokin' .... ;)



[UkesterBrown]

Hmmmm. Never had thunk of that. I figured 6 and 12 were enough, but people have to try something new all the time and you made that baby cry in a good way....

[ulnartwitch]

I could watch you endlessly. Thank you for posting this!

[Tim5768393]

Prachtig gespeeld Carl! Die 12 string klinkt stukken beter als die van mij :-) Groeten Tim Pan Alley

[fatcatbuzz]

What is the reason for not using the G and B strings on the 12-string? Is it to get a different sound when you bend the strings? I would have never thought of doing something like that my self. Is there other guitarist that do that as well?

[daddystovepipe]

@fatcatbuzz

It's to make things easier; note the frequent bending of the second string - with a double course this would be very difficult because bending a double course can lead to sounds that are off-key (if one of the strings is bended more than the other - listen to the note at 2.12 and you'll hear what I mean)

If you play a double course third and fourth string from above (hitting the thinnest G string first) you get that jinglyjangly sound which does not belong in this style of play.

[fatcatbuzz]

@daddystovepipe That's what I was trying to figure out. I have two 12 strings and always just keep all the string on myself, even when I do a lot of bending. I listen to a lot of The Byrds and Roger McGuinn bends his string on some songs, but he also keeps all of the strings on. But, I noticed with the style you were playing in this song that maybe those particular strings were not necessary or at least made is easier. It also gave the tune a different sound.

[daddystovepipe]

@fatcatbuzz

Lonnie Johnson did remove strings from his 12-string guitar - in his famous photo (wearing his pinstriped trousers - you can see that picture on this screen - 4th in the right hand corner) you can see that the first and second course have only one string (you'll need a good quality reproduction to see it) - this setup is also very clearly audible in several of his recordings between 1926-32

There are examples of 9-string guitars made in the 20ies.

[fatcatbuzz]

@daddystovepipe That is very interesting. It funny, sometimes when you think all there is to know about guitars and something like that comes up. Are they really built as 9 string guitars or just 12 string guitar with out 3 strings to give it a different sound?

[daddystovepipe]

@fatcatbuzz

they were built as 9-string guitars - removing strings from a 12-string guitar can get you in a bit of trouble with the string spacing....it's not equal in that case.

[fatcatbuzz]

@daddystovepipe That's pretty interesting. I actually never knew this information about the 12 string and will look up those pictures. I really like old blues guitar and never know about the removing of a string to give it a different sound. But, it does make a lot of sense after seeing your video. So, thanks for showing me a different way of looking at the 12 string guitar.

[ddanze]

Nice. Is that a Taylor with harmonic strings on the inner 4 or the top (treble) 4 strings?

[daddystovepipe]

@ddanze

hi David, please check the description.