This is interesting…and a testament to human ingenuity…and to the love of GEETAR!
Check it out!
Pretty cool in a freak show kind of way but it doesn’t look very practical. Wonder why he chose 27 strings? The “bass” strings don’t look very functional. Most of them are quiet far away from the porthole and have no accessible frets so I’m not sure how you would really tune this thing or do much of anything with it. When he’s playing it you can see he’s pretty much playing the standard 6 string portion 99.9% of the time.
Either way pretty creative and good on him for following through with his vision.
Let me introduce you to the harp guitar. The OP link’s guitar is obviously based on that, but with even more strings.
Only 27 strings? Pikers.
The ‘extra strings’ idea has been around for a long time. Still, that’s a lovely piece of craftsmanship that he’s made.
Overall, the vid clip is fascinating because it presents that design as something “weird” and “new” - “he’s built the first 27-string guitar.” I can totally see how someone not steeped in guitar geekery or history could accept that as reported.
A few thoughts:
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As others have mentioned, “harp guitars” had a rich history as a split-off evolutionary branch leading to the modern guitar. Orville Gibson, the founder of Gibson guitars (it was purchased from him and grew after he left) hand-made a number of them when he was a one-off maker. Here’s a linkto the harpguitars.net website with photos of these iconic Gibsons…
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They are currently experiencing a resurgence, I would argue due to the internet collecting a bunch of far-flung harp guitar nuts, just like a lot of acoustic and obscure music is getting more visibility. On the various high-end acoustic guitar message boards I scan, there is the odd harp guitar thread. Here’s one where guitar geeks argue the merits of the harp guitar with a ton of photos: Harp guitars: Pretty pointless or World of difference - The Acoustic Guitar Forum
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The non-standard-six strings - e.g., in the OP’s case, the other 21 strings - are not typically played in the same manner as the guitar’s main six - they are plucked to sound as drone strings underneath the chords and notes you are playing on the main 6. Or the extra strings add resonance with their sympathetic vibrations as you play the main 6. I have not played a harp guitar so can’t relate any first-hand impressions.
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By the way, there is NO set recipe on how many extra strings get added. I have seen all kinds - just a few strings to over a dozen…
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If you are looking at a design and playing approach that incorporates extra strings as more than harp/drones, look no further than Charlie Hunter - he plays an 8-string instrument which combines the highest 3 strings of a bass with the lowest 5 strings of guitar. Here is a demo - this guy is NOT Charlie Hunter, but he gives a great walk through a CH guitar and then demos it with great technique. You should search for Charlie himself on youtube and be amazed. The guy’s technical chops boggle my mind…
Hope this helps.
One other one to add - Napoleon Coste (June 27, 1805 – January 14, 1883) used a 7-string guitar with a ‘floating’ (ie off the fretboard) low ‘D’ string. This was so he could play pieces in D Major or d minor but still finger his G chords in the usual way. The modern guitarist playing Coste’s music has to choose between dropping the 6th string down to a ‘D’, earning some really hard fingerings in the process or leave the 6th tuned to ‘E’, which results in having to pop the bass note up the octave. Often.
(If you follow that wiki link, you’ll see that Coste had quite an interesting collection of guitars as well…)