# Five-string guitar



## distressed_romeo (May 31, 2007)

We've had a lot of talk about instruments with eight or more strings, but has anyone here ever been interested in trying the reverse approach, and going with five strings?

Everyone knows about Keith Richards' five-string telecaster tuning (GDGBD), but did anyone ever own one of the old Schecter Celloblasters (tuned CGDAE or AEBF#C#)? Any idea if there's anyone still making five-string guitars like this (I'm doubtful, due to Alex Gregory allegedly owning the patent on that idea)?

I've often thought the 'five strings tuned in fifths' idea was interesting, although with the advances in string-making technology recently, it's not going to be long before it's feasible to use fifths-tuning on a six or seven string...


----------



## distressed_romeo (May 31, 2007)

Five string electric guitar - US Patent 6300549

I was right about the patent thing...

This displays such a high degree of douchebaggery it really defies belief...


----------



## eleven59 (May 31, 2007)

Never met someone who had one of those Schecter Celloblasters, but I remember them looking very strange. 

You could do a similar tuning on a 6-string: FCGDAE


----------



## OzzyC (May 31, 2007)

distressed_romeo said:


> Five string electric guitar - US Patent 6300549
> 
> I was right about the patent thing...
> 
> This displays such a high degree of douchebaggery it really defies belief...



That really sucks.

[offtopic] Are you so desprete to have replys that you just decide to double post so you can say that someone commented on your thread.  [/offtopic]


----------



## distressed_romeo (May 31, 2007)

OzzyC said:


> That really sucks.
> 
> [offtopic] Are you so desprete to have replys that you just decide to double post so you can say that someone commented on your thread.  [/offtopic]



Not really...I just post as I think! I keep forgeting my posts don't automerge anymore!


----------



## MetalMike (May 31, 2007)

distressed_romeo said:


> Five string electric guitar - US Patent 6300549
> 
> I was right about the patent thing...
> 
> This displays such a high degree of douchebaggery it really defies belief...




 The "maestro" is at it again! I honestly despise the man.


----------



## JJ Rodriguez (May 31, 2007)

The person describing the 7 string doesn't sound like he's ever picked one up for more than 5 minutes, or has only talked to 10 year olds trying to play Korn songs.


----------



## distressed_romeo (May 31, 2007)

JJ Rodriguez said:


> The person describing the 7 string doesn't sound like he's ever picked one up for more than 5 minutes, or has only talked to 10 year olds trying to play Korn songs.



He also doesn't seem aware of either the Russian seven-string guitar, or the jazzers who'd been using the low A string for years before he came up with his high-A stratocaster. You'd think if he was going to make all these grand statements he'd at least do his research properly...


----------



## playstopause (May 31, 2007)

distressed_romeo said:


> this (I'm doubtful, due to Alex Gregory allegedly owning the patent on that idea)?



You are beeing SO disrespectfull to the MAAAAAAestro right now.


----------



## Leon (May 31, 2007)

a guy in String Cheese Incident plays a 5 string, i believe.


----------



## distressed_romeo (May 31, 2007)

Leon said:


> a guy in String Cheese Incident plays a 5 string, i believe.



Who does actually play them? I know Ryan Shuck does/did, and Billy Corgan apparently owns one, although I've never seen/heard anything more about it...

Oh, IIRC Reeves Gabrels experimented with them, although I don't think he ever recorded with them.


----------



## metalfiend666 (Jun 1, 2007)

I don't know if it's still there, but one of the shops on Denmark Street had a BC Rich Ignitor Pentar in purple sparkle. It looked very cool.


----------



## FortePenance (Jun 1, 2007)

Ed Roman Guitars, World's Largest Guitar Store - World's Largest Online Guitar Resource - (702)798-4995

I can't find the page, but I remember Ed Roman built a 5-string guitar for a customer. There's been a 1-string guitar used in Nashville but yeah, I'm not sure about 5ers.


----------



## Michael (Jun 1, 2007)

I've seen that Scott Ian 5 string Jackson. It'd be interesting to try, but I don't really like the idea of limiting myself to 5 strings.


----------



## metalfiend666 (Jun 1, 2007)

Ah, but the point about 5ths tuning is it'll actually give you more range for less strings and open up different chord possibilities


----------



## spreadpanic (Feb 17, 2009)

Derek Trucks (current leader of the Allman Bros. as well as the Derek Trucks Band and the Soul Stew Revival) plays a 5 string guitar, as well as the 6 string. He typically plays it as a slide guitar... I saw him sitting in with Widespread Panic this summer and he played the 5-string on 2 songs, and he also makes an appearance on Jimmy Herring's solo album Lifeboat.


----------



## Triple-J (Feb 17, 2009)

Does anyone own/know anything about the Jackson Scott Ian 5 string? 
I've been trying to track down info on it but there's virtually no photo's or production dates/pricing on the net all I found out about the tuning is that it's either C# or G#


----------



## ohmanthisiscool (Feb 17, 2009)

I have pics of the ian 5 string and will post soon as I but them on photobucket so here is a raincheck.

Hier ist Pics:











Ian tunes it dropped Db so (Db,Ab,Db,Gb,Bb) I think. I know he tunes his 4-strings Db,Ab,Db,Gb.

I also have some pics of the celloblaster, a-5x, and c-5x if you want me to upload them I will.

I also heard that Robert Smith of the cure had a schecter 5 string, assuming it was a c-5x.


----------



## ixlramp (Feb 17, 2009)

distressed_romeo said:


> ...although with the advances in string-making technology recently, it's not going to be long before it's feasible to use fifths-tuning on a six or seven string...



Fifths on a 6 is already feasible  (and perhaps even on a 7?)

Pentasystem is no longer going, and 5 strings in fifths is such an obvious idea the 'maestro' should cancel that patent!


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 17, 2009)

ixlramp said:


> Pentasystem is no longer going, and 5 strings in fifths is such an obvious idea the 'maestro' should cancel that patent!



...And ideally jump out of a window.

I'm still interested in the five-strings-tuned-in-fifths idea, especially after experimenting with New Standard tuning and playing the mandolin...

Wonder if Rotor would make me one a few years down the line...


----------



## sworth9411 (Feb 17, 2009)

I had (sorry to get rid of) a Gibson 5 string acoustic from the 60's The gentleman I sold it too was wicked excited and called it a Gibson Tenor guitar(?).....made a few grande for it so who knows......It felt like a banjo neck to me but I would be interested in grabbing an electric specificly for tuning it to 5ths....

Sorry got rid of it ages ago so no pics


----------



## Shinto (Feb 17, 2009)

I'm sorry, but who is Alex Gregory?


----------



## Triple-J (Feb 17, 2009)

Shinto said:


> I'm sorry, but who is Alex Gregory?



I can't even begin to explain but the bottom line is "Maestro" Asshole Gregory is a man so pretentious he makes Yngwie look like Mother Teresa.

Here's his myspace page you'd be well advised to take everything it says with a VERY large pinch of salt though!

Maestro Alex Gregory on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

BTW: ta to ohmanthisiscool for the Jackson pics


----------



## Bloody_Inferno (Feb 17, 2009)

Triple-J said:


> I can't even begin to explain but the bottom line is "Maestro" Asshole Gregory is a man so pretentious he makes Yngwie look like Mother Teresa.
> 
> Here's his myspace page you'd be well advised to take everything it says with a VERY large pinch of salt though!
> 
> ...


 
 Alex Gregory.... Alex who...? The Mestro... OH THE MAESTRO! Oh, he doesn't like being called Alex, Ok Mr Maestro! 

This is the same guy who released an album cover of himself pissing on the graves of Vai AND Malmsteen as well as threatened to sue Ibanez for 'stealing' his idea of the 7 string Fender Strat. 

Even funnier of those BC Rich Celloblaster ads "THE INVENTOR OF THE 5 STRING!" 

Anyways, you could do what the dude from Crazy Town does, much like Keith Richards and get a 6 stringer with a fixed bridge and just take one string off. 

Or go the extra mile and follow the path of Max Cavalera, Wes Borland, Paul Gilbert and the Presidents of the USA....


----------



## auxioluck (Feb 17, 2009)

The Presidents of the United States of America played a 4 string guitar. Sounded kinda neat.


----------



## Shinto (Feb 17, 2009)

[myspacevid]9174697[/myspacevid]
His tone is horrid... not to mention that he seems to be playing out of time (or is that just me? )
Also, why would any guitarist want to be called Maestro... even Yngwie doesn't do that.


----------



## Variant (Feb 17, 2009)

Both Max Cavelara & Wes Borland have had 4-string guitars in the past. Whatever works for you, I guess. I feel very limited by six, but can still write and play plenty of stuff on one... so yeah.


----------



## distressed_romeo (Feb 17, 2009)

Max Cavalera rarely plays anything except low-tuned power chords anyway, and Wes Borland's instrument was mainly designed for tapping and tuned F#F#BE if I remember correctly. Didn't the Presidents tune in to open power chords, or something wierd like that, and put bass strings on the bottom of some of their instruments?

So far I'd say the best solution without going custom or using Octave4plus strings is to tune either FCGDAE (like Holdsworth did on the Synthaxe occasionally) or CGDAEG (like Fripp always does).

Actually one of the shops at Denmark Street has an electric mandola (C (a tone below a guitar's fourth string) GDA tuning). It would be kinda cool to crank it up through a Dual Rectifier!


----------



## Konfyouzd (Mar 27, 2009)

i can see the point in adding strings but what exactly would be the point of removing strings? i remember seeing these back in the day and just being confused...


----------



## distressed_romeo (Mar 27, 2009)

Konfyouzd said:


> i can see the point in adding strings but what exactly would be the point of removing strings? i remember seeing these back in the day and just being confused...



The idea is to get more range out of few strings. I imagine the smaller neck will make the four-note-per-string fingerings you'll be doing a lot of in 5ths tuning a little more comfortable.


----------



## hufschmid (Mar 27, 2009)

I was considering building a 4 string guitar at one point for those who only play E A D G strings and who never go in solo and the treble side

I think the only problem would be to find a bridge but I now have the solution and know who can make one 

I dont even have to re design the pickups for this since I'm using dual blade design in my humbuckers....

Cool thing would be of course a custom neck fingerboard taper and the players who always claim that they have small hands would be in heaven


----------



## nosgulstic (Mar 29, 2009)

just take out one string from a 6 string and you got a 5


----------



## yingmin (Mar 30, 2009)

distressed_romeo said:


> Five string electric guitar - US Patent 6300549


"The 7 STRING ELECTRIC GUITAR was originally designed for the specific use of a high string added and virtuoso playing."

wut


----------



## Fkizzle (Oct 14, 2009)

I own a CB-5000 5 string guitar and love it, I've had it for about 9 years. it's a great piece of wood. I use an open C# tuning that works well with it. I'd get another one if i could but i now use an Italia D-man baritone which they recently stopped making as well. That is a great guitar!! inexpensive and plays really well though i've had to get it set up a few times. both guitars stay in tune very well by the way. whats up with the patent issue?


----------



## Ironbird666 (Oct 14, 2009)

I'm pretty sure Dan Swano used a five string guitar on the Bloodbath Wacken Carnage DVD. It sounded pretty thick. I don't know though, not sure I'd take a five string over a 6 or 7?


----------



## Scapegoat (Oct 31, 2009)

There is a GORGEOUS Celloblaster in the video of Ty Longly(rip) It's an amazing instrument. Too bad they aren't making them now. I guess you have to keep checking eBay to see if anyone wants to give one up.


----------



## ellengtrgrl (Oct 31, 2009)

I remember when the Celloblasters came out in the late 90s, I was quite interested in them (my because I originally started off in music, playing lower register wind instruments [baritone, euphonium, and valve trombone]), and seriously considered getting one. But back before YouTube, you really had no way to hear them, and I was not about to spend a chunk of change on one, before I had a chance to play it. I never did see one in a music store, so I never got a chance to play one, much less buy it. I'd forgotten about them, until today, when somebody mentioned 5-string guitars in another thread, and I read this thread.

It might be kind of cool to have a Celloblaster as a sort of change of pace/novelty instrument, if I could get it cheap. I doubt it would ever be my main axe, but it might come in handy for breaking out of musical ruts, by making me approach playing, in a different manner. My uncle (guitar generation generation #2 in my family), IIRC, inherited, and still has my grampa's 1920s Vega tenor banjo (like a tenor guitar, it has 4 strings). My grampa prized his tenor banjo as much his 1937 Epiphone Emperor he played in jazz bands.

It might be kind of


----------



## matt-in-mn (Nov 1, 2009)

Tommi lee played 5 string in methods of mayhem, I seen it at ozzfest. i thought the shectors are tuned like a baritone?


----------



## 6or7mattersnot (Nov 2, 2009)

I've got a Pignose PG-something or other with a broken high E that I tuned to Standard B in thirds with a Dropped A. So it's A-E-A-D-G, I think. Sounds pretty Brootal...


----------



## Setnakt (Nov 3, 2009)

> This new instrument is clearly superior to the 7 STRING ELECTRIC GUITAR, when the added string is a lower note.


Clearly superior. Maths are bad for our beloved Maestro.
This patent is written like this guy is in the 3rd grade.


----------



## maniac mikej (Nov 3, 2009)

Shinto said:


> [myspacevid]9174697[/myspacevid]
> His tone is horrid... not to mention that he seems to be playing out of time (or is that just me? )
> Also, why would any guitarist want to be called Maestro... even Yngwie doesn't do that.



He looks like an 80's coked-out Andy Dick. And whatever the hell he's trying to play, is dildos.


----------



## Scapegoat (Nov 15, 2009)

Setnakt said:


> Clearly superior. Maths are bad for our beloved Maestro.
> This patent is written like this guy is in the 3rd grade.



OMFG!!! What a childish slur! I mean, you must be kidding me. The guy who wrote the patent has a PhD, and it was clearly good enough for the US government. 

Sounds to me like you are the one who needs to get an education, little boy!


----------



## Scapegoat (Nov 28, 2009)

Shinto said:


> I'm sorry, but who is Alex Gregory?



Gregory was the first person to invent a 7 String Electric Guitar in the mid 1980s. There were acoustic 7 Strings before that, but no one had apparently ever thought to do an electric 7 string. I read that he did it because he wanted to do violin pieces on guitar. He has invented a bunch of other instruments as well. I am a huge Maestro Alex Gregory fan. He is a very talented guitar shredder. 

By the way, he doesn't "call himself" maestro. He was titled "Maestro" by Queen Elizabeth in recognition of his work as a musical composer.  From what I understand, he used to do a lot of work on British public television.

Funny thing is that for a while Yngwie was going around calling himself "his royal highness" but he had no actual claim to the title!


----------



## whisper (Nov 28, 2009)

for the particular piece played, I wish was not distorted, hard to tell whats going on with distortion.


----------



## Setnakt (Nov 29, 2009)

Scapegoat said:


> OMFG!!! What a childish slur! I mean, you must be kidding me. The guy who wrote the patent has a PhD, and it was clearly good enough for the US government.
> 
> Sounds to me like you are the one who needs to get an education, little boy!


I suppose it's analogous to doctors who have illegible handwriting. PhD or not, maybe he's having a bad day or trying to talk down to stupid people. Either way it's not very eloquent language and it feels very clumsy to read and the arguments are not logically convincing.

Anyway, I looked over my own post, and I didn't see _anything_ that resembled a slur, childish or otherwise...little boy.



> _it was clearly good enough for the US government._


I mean, are you just being really sarcastic here?


> _OMFG!!!_


Lots of things are good enough for the US government that are just totally off-the-wall stupid.


----------



## EBH Jaymz (Nov 30, 2009)

i have a celloblaster. love it. schecter A-5x. i'll put some pics up in a bit. it really changed the way i approached rhythm and layering parts. also "forced" me to got the other way and experiment with "nashville" tuning. bottom 4 strings are the octave strings from a 12 string set tuned up the octave they should be.


----------



## Deadseen (Nov 30, 2009)

Scapegoat said:


> Gregory was the first person to invent a 7 String Electric Guitar in the mid 1980s. There were acoustic 7 Strings before that, but no one had apparently ever thought to do an electric 7 string. I read that he did it because he wanted to do violin pieces on guitar. He has invented a bunch of other instruments as well. I am a huge Maestro Alex Gregory fan. He is a very talented guitar shredder.
> 
> By the way, he doesn't "call himself" maestro. He was titled "Maestro" by Queen Elizabeth in recognition of his work as a musical composer.  From what I understand, he used to do a lot of work on British public television.
> 
> Funny thing is that for a while Yngwie was going around calling himself "his royal highness" but he had no actual claim to the title!



There has been electric 7-strings since the 30ths 

George Van Eps - great jazz guitarists


----------



## foxyguitars (Sep 1, 2019)

necrobump for the grand daddy of Schecter 5 Strings...
this is the FIRST, Cello Blaster Serial Number 1, built by Schecter Custom Shop USA in 1998 !


----------



## vilk (Sep 1, 2019)

Ironbird666 said:


> I'm pretty sure Dan Swano used a five string guitar on the Bloodbath Wacken Carnage DVD. It sounded pretty thick. I don't know though, not sure I'd take a five string over a 6 or 7?


Idk about in Bloodbath, but he recorded Edge of Sanity's Crimson II using a 5 string baritone.


----------

