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
Ten-string classical guitar of Yepes Ten-string classical guitar of Yepes The ten string extended-range classical guitar, with fully chromatic, sympathetic string resonance was conceived in 1963 by Narciso Yepes, who "ordered the guitar from José Ramírez [III]". This instrument is sometimes referred to as the "modern" 10-string guitar (or the "Yepes guitar") to differentiate it from ten-stringed harp guitars of the 19th century. Today, ten-string instruments to Ramírez' original design remain available from the Ramírez Company, and similar instruments in a variety of designs are available both from the Ramírez Company and other luthiers, notably from Paulino Bernabe Senior. In the early 1960s, luthier José