Russian guitar Russian guitar The Russian guitar (sometimes referred to as a "Gypsy guitar") is an acoustic seven-string guitar that was developed in Russia toward the end of the 18th century: it shares most of its organological features with the Spanish guitar, although some historians insist on English guitar ascendancy. It is known in Russian as the "semistrunnaya gitara" (семиструнная гитара), or affectionately as the "semistrunka" (семиструнка), which translates to "seven-stringer". These guitars are most commonly tuned to an open G chord as follows: . In classical literature, the lowest string (D) occasionally is tuned down to the C. Although in a
Brahms guitar Brahms guitar Commonly referred to as the cello-guitar, the Brahms guitar was invented in 1994 by classical guitarist Paul Galbraith in collaboration with the luthier David Rubio. It was originally conceived in order to perform Johannes Brahms' Theme and Variations Opus 21a. David Rubio's protégé, luthier Martin Woodhouse, has innovated the design and continues to build Brahms guitars. The instrument is an eight-string guitar, adding both a high and a low string to the conventional six string guitar. The tuning adds a low A (a fifth below the standard low E, and a high A (a fourth above the standard