A nine-string guitar is a guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 with nine strings instead of the commonly used six strings. Such guitars are not as common as the six string variety, but are used by guitarists to modify the sound or expand the range of their instrument by adding three strings. Unlike seven- and eight-string guitars the nine string guitar is often employed with three pairs of coursed string

Course (music)

A course is a pair or more of adjacent strings tuned to unison or an octave and usually played together as if a single string. It may also refer to a single string normally played on its own on an instrument with other multi-string courses, for example the bass string on a nine string baroque...

s similar to a twelve string guitar

Twelve string guitar

The twelve-string guitar is an acoustic or electric guitar with 12 strings in 6 courses, which produces a richer, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar...

. Often the three wound strings are single and the three thin strings are doubled to six strings. This allows dry power chords on the upper three and a more spheric chorus

Choir

A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

 sound when all strings are played. Some examples of this type of nine-string guitar are the Vox Mark IX

Vox Mark III

The Mark is an electric guitar made by Vox. The instrument is also known as the Vox Teardrop, but this is not the official name. The Vox Mark came in three variations, a 6 string , a 9 string and a 12 string...

 and the Vox Phantom IX

Vox Phantom

The Vox Phantom is an electric guitar, originally released in 1962 by the Jennings company. It is unique for its distinctive, pentagonal shape, which became part of the iconic representation of the British Invasion...

. Agile manufactures a 9 string guitar without coursed strings, much like the 7 and 8 string guitars.

Notable Nine-String Guitarists

Mississippi blues singer and guitarist Big Joe Williams

Big Joe Williams

Joseph Lee Williams , billed throughout his career as Big Joe Williams, was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar...

 spent most of his career playing nine-string guitars he had adapted himself from six string instruments, with the first and second strings doubled in unison and the fourth doubled in octaves. His grave marker reads "King of the Nine-String guitar".

Canadian born Kurt Szul has been playing on a nine-string guitar of his own design since 1989. Instead of using the conventional standard tuning plus lower and or higher A, B or G stings, he has developed his own tuning (based on a symmetrical augmented chord or major thirds tuning). He has adapted his unique sound to play jazz, funk, bossa nova, Latin, electronica, rock, blues, and African genres. Kurt has formed bands and performed in many cities around the world, including Tokyo, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Melbourne. Kurt now resides in Los Angeles, CA where he performs professionally and as a session player.

See also

• Eight-string guitar
• Brahms guitar
  Brahms guitar
  Commonly referred to as the Cello-Guitar, the Brahms guitar was invented in 1994 by classical guitarist Paul Galbraith in conjunction with the luthier David Rubio. It was originally conceived in order to perform Johannes Brahms' Theme and Variations Opus 21a.The instrument is an eight string...
  
  
• 10-string guitar
• Seven-string guitar
  Seven-string guitar
  A seven-string guitar is a guitar with seven strings instead of the usual six. Some types of seven-string guitars are specific to certain cultures . The standard 7-string guitar tuning is BEADGbe...
  
  
• Russian guitar
  Russian guitar
  The Russian guitar is a seven-string acoustic guitar that arrived in Russia toward the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, most probably as an evolution of the cittern, kobza, and torban...
  
  
• Harp guitar
  Harp guitar
  ]The harp guitar is a stringed instrument with a history of well over two centuries. While there are several unrelated historical stringed instruments that have appropriated the name “harp-guitar” over the centuries, the term today is understood as the accepted vernacular to refer to a particular...
  
  
• Major Third
  Major third
  In classical music from Western culture, a third is a musical interval encompassing three staff positions , and the major third is one of two commonly occurring thirds. It is qualified as major because it is the largest of the two: the major third spans four semitones, the minor third three...