My friend sent me this photo and asked me why her guitar only had five strings.
I explained to him that the thinnest string was just not visible. But I’m not so sure.
It’s an album cover. I have a download copy of the album but not the CD. Possibly the CD cover is easier to distinguish. I’ve actually seen this performer live and she appeared to be playing a 6 string telecaster.
I can’t imagine a blues or rock performer playing without a high E string and it seems kind of weird to pose with only 5 strings on your guitar.
I kind of wonder if possibly this picture is the result of some photo manipulation by a graphic artist who was charged with the task of adding a guitar fretboard to the picture but didn’t realize that (most) guitars have six strings.
At the bottom of the photo, below the letters G & A, you can see a fret protruding to the right, with the high E string faintly visible passing over it. From the angle in the photo, the location of the string happens to correspond with the edge of the fretboard. Farther up in the picture, above the word Taylor, you can’t see the frets protruding – the photo has been cropped right along the edge of the fretboard, making the string undetectable.
That guitar may have six strings, but a six-string guitar strung with only five strings is not that unheard of. In fact, if you’ve heard of the Rolling Stones, you know at least one guitarist who does this.
Keith Richards is famous for playing open tunings on five strings. I believe his quote is: “All you need to play it is five strings, two notes, two fingers and one asshole.”
It just a guitar in a photo shoot. I remember this photo of Ted Nugent on the cover ofFree for All. You don’t notice much on the cover, but if you look closely, you will see that his guitar’s bridge is not in place. When you open up the album they show a time-lapse of him jumping with it - and he is grabbing the strings so they are completely away from the neck, pulled to one side. Took me a while getting comfortable with guitars to realize it was just a photo prop and he didn’t give a shit what was going on with the strings…
Max Cavalera, formerly of Sepultura and now of Soulfly, often play a guitar with only 4 strings. Which is 3 more than he often seems to actually play these days…
To follow up on what Jack Batty wrote, Keith Richards spends a number of pages in his autobiography, Life, talking about the open G tuning that he used for a number of the most famous Rolling Stones song, including most of Exile on Main Street. He says that he took off the bottom string because leaving it there created an unwanted drone.
All you guitar enthusiasts should read Life for the many abstruse passages. on tunings and whatnot. I felt more comfortable with books on string theory.
The rest of you can read it for the drugs and sex.
Blame the graphic artist. If you blow up the photo, the edge of the fretboard has been cloned out, probably because the artist who designed the cover thought it looked to wide.
Here on the Telecaster forum is a great picture of the 6 string guitar. Plus posts by Joanne Shaw Taylor’s mum who half owns the guitar.
She says:
If you have the CD and take the CD tray apart you will see some great close ups of the guitar including the Esquire logo and even see how the celulose is cracking on the body.
I only had 1 banjo at the time, and it was in the shop.
It felt weird to play, but I made it work for a while.
Also, let’s not forget 5 string basses with a low B flat.
David
