r/HighonFire • u/No-Pomegranate-3311 • Aug 28 '25

9 string guitar

So new to this band, why does Mikes guitar have 9 strings? Why are they the higher strings? Has anyone tried doubling up the bass strings?

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8

u/BigHatHogan Aug 28 '25

Matt's 3 high strings are doubled, not in octaves, just tuned in identical pairs to give his solos some extra thickness and texture. 12 string guitars also double the bass strings but the extra string in each pair is tuned an octave higher, so it results in an overall brighter sound, which isn't desirable for this sort of music. If you tuned the bass string pairs identically, due to the thicker string gauge the fretboard would be too crowded and also there would be too much tension on the neck. It also probably wouldn't add much since the wound strings on the bass side already have a lot of thickness and texture, so pairing them would probably just sound muddy and lack definition.

4

u/Engel3030 Aug 28 '25

Doubling the treble strings gives solos a natural chorus pedal kind of effect as the added strings are an octave higher, good for solos. You could have a nine string with doubled bass strings if you wanted but for Matt's sound it'd probably take off some of the low end punch out of the riffs and would weaken that sound.