8 String Baritone Guitar Tricone Resonator guitar

This is the ellis 8 string baritone guitar tricone resonator. It started with Andrew Ellis in collaboration with James Michael Thompson. They experimented with the design of the 7 string resonator which was made for Jeff Martin of the Tea Party. This led to building what is truly a unique instrument, a world first. This 8 string baritone guitar is designed for bottleneck and finger-style playing.

James Michael Thompson had been playing a regular National style resonator guitar. He was asked to demonstrate the ellis guitars unique 7 string resonator guitar at the Frankston Guitar Festival in March 2005. Shortly after, the pair discussed coming up with something more interesting.

Thompson was using extremely low tunings. At the time so the first consideration was to use a baritone scale length or not. The low tunings also meant that the six string resonator had to be tuned low. So that adjacent strings differed greatly in pitch. This made some shapes difficult when playing finger-style guitar. Which lead to the main unique feature of the instrument. It was decided that a standard open tuning (open A) would be used with an additional low string. On the bottom tuned to a low A. Then as an additional feature the high E string. It was doubled up much like the strings on a twelve string guitar. This gives the option of having solo lines. Which stand out even more against the rich low end of the guitar. It is these features that make the guitar an even mix between a bass and regular guitar.

Andrew Ellis of Ellis Guitars then spent a lot of time putting together the 8 string baritone guitar. Although the task must’ve seemed daunting at times, he persisted to end up with a truly original piece of work.