Luthier Jim DeCava builds custom guitar from Mark Elf

We recently received this e-mail from luthier Jim DeCava:

Last week, Mark Elf stopped by my shop and picked up his new Mark Elf Custom Classic. Travel took it's toll on his other guitar, and it was time for a new one.

Here's Jim and Mark with the new guitar:

And Mark giving his new guitar a test run:

To learn more about Mark Elf, check out his website.

Archtop Guitars with Varied Amount of Strings

We featured on our Facebook Page this week a 14-stringed guitar created by luthier Jean-Pierre LaPlante. It was a commissioned project for a talented artist, Felix Martin. This post sparked a lot of discussion. So, for this blog post, we’re going to explore the various string amounts on archtop guitars.

Number of Strings
Archtop guitars come in all shapes and sizes. They are beautifully crafted and colored. As most guitars, Most standard archtops have six strings. However, they are created to have more in certain circumstances. Here are some of the more uncommonly utilized numbers of strings:

• Seven- String Archtops
• Eight- String Archtops
• Ten- String Archtops
• Twelve- String Archtops
• Fourteen- String Archtops

More than Average
Archtop guitars with more than six strings were made popular in the 1960s when major-thirds tuning was introduced. Because this type of tuning limits the scope on a standard six-string guitar, jazz guitarist Ralph Patt began using a seven-string archtop guitar to widen the range. Guitars with more than six strings are still widely used today in jazz and rock.

More strings are added to an arcthop guitar in a variety of ways. One way is to leave the neck the same size and add a bass string on the side.  Another way is to increase the width of the neck, which allows for more than one string to be added. Larger or smaller strings can then be added to the sides of the standard six strings. Depending on how many strings the artist needs, additional necks may need to be added to accommodate the number of strings.

Why More Strings?
Why so many strings, you ask? More string allow for a wider range of notes to be played. This allows artists to get more creative in expressing themselves musically. They allow for non-traditional tuning techniques. More strings allow musicians to explore a deeper bass range. Also, they just look so darn cool.

Browse our extensive collection of archtop luthiers on our website.