Lenny Breau/7-string tuning

[Andrew Hoyt]

Hi all,

I just bought my first Lenny Breau CD (Live at Bourbon St.) and have
been blown away. Some of the best jazz guitar I have ever heard! Check
out this CD and see if you agree.

Besides his extensive use of harmonics, Breau plays a lot of very high
notes on his 7-string, often at the top of chords. These notes have a
bright ringing quality, somewhere between that of a normally plucked
string and a harmonic. I am thinking that his high notes are coming from
a seventh sting on the top, tuned higher than E (unlike most 7-stringers
who add a bass string lower than low E). Does anyone know what tuning
Breau used for his 7-string?

Thanks,

M. Andrew Hoyt

[TomLippinc]

His high string was tuned to a high A (a p4th above the high E string). His
main guitar (I'm pretty sure the one used on that recording, though he had
another one before that one) was a solid body electric custom built by Kirk
Sands. It also was a shorter scale length than normal (something like 22
1/2"). I think both of these factors had something to do with the sustained,
chime like sound of those high notes and harmonics. Also he did a lot of
things that combined harmonics with regular plucked notes, hammer ons and pull
offs.
By the way, if you hadn't guessed, I'm a huge Lenny Breau fan also. That's
right, I'm over 8 feet tall (just kidding).

Tom Lippincott

[Bob Valentine]

In article <19990218041105...@ng113.aol.com>,

TomLippinc <tomli...@aol.com> wrote:
>>Hi all,
>>
>>I just bought my first Lenny Breau CD (Live at Bourbon St.) and have
>>been blown away. Some of the best jazz guitar I have ever heard! Check
>>out this CD and see if you agree.
>>
>

>His high string was tuned to a high A (a p4th above the high E string). His
>main guitar (I'm pretty sure the one used on that recording, though he had
>another one before that one) was a solid body electric custom built by Kirk
>Sands.

Cool, I was wonderring if anyone used a greater-than-6 string for higher
strings.

>By the way, if you hadn't guessed, I'm a huge Lenny Breau fan also. That's
>right, I'm over 8 feet tall (just kidding).
>

Makes those short scale necks a little harder to manage.

What are the (2 or 3) definative Lenny Breau recomendations for someone
trying to have 'a couple of great CDs by every guitarist on the planet'?

Bob Valentine

>
>Tom Lippincott

[TomLippinc]

>What are the (2 or 3) definative Lenny Breau recomendations for someone
>trying to have 'a couple of great CDs by every guitarist on the planet'?
>
>Bob Valentine

For starters, I'd definitely get "The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau". A real
classic, a sort of good cross section of all the stuff Lenny did, and it's from
a really high point of his career when he was sort of "on the way up", before
he'd started getting really screwed up from drug abuse. If I had to pick
another, I'd say off the top of my head probably the "Live At Bourbon St."
double CD that the other poster mentioned, though "The Living Room Sessions" is
pretty great, too.

Tom Lippincott

[PicLands]

I don't know the tuning of his guitar but I think he uses an A there on the 1st
string Geo.
Barnes used that years ago.
Arnie L.

[Keith Murch]

I was fortunate enough to have seen Lenny many times. He did tune to a high
A on the top of the Kirk Sands guitar. I talked to him about that, and he
wanted the extra high string to allow him to play chords in lower positions
with high melody notes on top. It opened up new possibilities for him.
Before he had the Kirk Sands guitar, he played a Baldwin guitar, and got
sustain out of that too. I would say the reason for the sustain was because
he played with a VERY light touch, and turned the volume up to compensate.
Keith Murch

>His high string was tuned to a high A (a p4th above the high E string).
His
>main guitar (I'm pretty sure the one used on that recording, though he had
>another one before that one) was a solid body electric custom built by Kirk

[jazzfolk]

Lenny's choice of a string for the high A was a .008 on the electric. The
.009's were breaking on him too often so he used the 8 which didn't last too
long either! I often wonder why he didn't tune the guitar down a whole step
a la Ted Greene and use a heavier guage for the high A. On the 7 string
nylon classical he played he used Stren 25 lb test fishing line for the
high string. He said it made a superior string! Lenny's playing was
perfection IMHO.

Steve

[Ken]

I am also a huge fan of Lenny's!

Can anybody comment on the new Video from Segment Multimedia: "The Guitar
Style of Lenny Breau? It sounds interesting but you never know!

Did Lenny play a 6 string or 7 string on "The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau" ?

Do people feel his style is adaptable to plain old 6 strings?

Thanks so much.

Ken

TomLippinc wrote in message <19990218041105...@ng113.aol.com>...
..

>By the way, if you hadn't guessed, I'm a huge Lenny Breau fan also. That's
>right, I'm over 8 feet tall (just kidding).
>
>

>Tom Lippincott

[jazzfolk]

>Can anybody comment on the new Video from Segment Multimedia: "The Guitar
>Style of Lenny Breau? It sounds interesting but you never know!

I found this video very inspiring. Paul Bourdeux does a very nice job in
summing up Lenny's approach and has gotten down many of Lenny's techniques.
The ones not covered are Lenny's Flamenco stuff(too broad to cover in the
video) and the Atkins style. It makes sense that he leaves these out because
they are widely available in other books and videos and are not innovations
of Lenny's. He covers the 2 note comping style Lenny invented for the guitar
and suggests that Lenny often used three notes but doesn't get into it much.
Lenny didn't get into teaching the 3 note thing too often to his students
either. Bourdeux gives good insight to Lenny's approach to playing scales
which is explained as a 3 note per string fingering. Bourdeux really makes a
good case for these fingerings because he really rips around the guitar with
them. Other areas he covers are the harmonics and Lenny's specialialty chord
voicings which are mainly ones that contain some open strings. My only
complaint, I wish it was longer(not really an option since it's already over
90 min.) It is a great intro to Lenny's style.

>Did Lenny play a 6 string or 7 string on "The Velvet Touch of Lenny Breau"
?

He played a six string on this record and I think that a normal 6 string is
fine for his style. Just listen to anything he played on an electric up
until the "Quietude" album which was reissued as the Bourbon St. Cd set.
This was I believe his first electric 7 string recording though he had
played his nylon 7 string on previous Lp's.

Great to hear all the enthusiasm about Lenny Breau!

Steve

[BNice108]

i was fortunate to study with lenny, in fact i was with him only a few days
before he was killed. he tuned the top string on his 7 string to a high A like
the note found on the 5th fret of your E string. the scale length of his guitar
is shorter to make this possible.
good luck
chong hae
chon...@juno.com