Collaboration / Instruments / Development
History and Origins
The Brahms Guitar began with repertoire. Paul Galbraith was seeking a broader register and a different balance of voices for music that exceeded the practical limits of the conventional six-string guitar.
Working with the English luthier David Rubio, that musical search became a new eight-string instrument in late 1993 and early 1994.
Before the Brahms Guitar
Extended-range guitars have appeared in many forms throughout the instrument’s history, including nineteenth-century multi-string guitars and earlier plucked instruments such as the lute and theorbo, which offered a wider bass range than the modern six-string guitar.
Paul Galbraith recalls hearing Narciso Yepes perform Bach on a ten-string guitar as a child, and later becoming increasingly interested in the possibilities of a wider register while preparing Bach’s lute works. The Brahms Guitar grew from this search, with a distinctive solution: rather than extending the guitar only into the bass, it adds one string on either side of the traditional six-string tuning.
Narciso Yepes with his ten-string guitar.
1993–1994: The First Instrument
Galbraith and Rubio developed a fan-fretted eight-string guitar with one additional bass string and one additional treble string. At the time, Galbraith was deeply engaged with the music of J. S. Bach, and the concept emerged partly from his search for greater registral freedom in the articulation of contrapuntal textures.
The name “Brahms Guitar” was given to the instrument by David Rubio, after hearing Galbraith perform Brahms, particularly the Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 21a. Rubio’s prototype established the design’s essential musical and structural identity.
Paul Galbraith with a six-string guitar by David Rubio.
David Rubio in his Cambridge workshop.
The 1990s: A Public Voice
Galbraith introduced the instrument through concerts, recordings and interviews. Its sound became associated with his transcriptions and interpretations of Bach, Haydn, Brahms and other repertoire.
The instrument also entered ensemble practice through the Brazilian Guitar Quartet, where its extended range contributed to a four-guitar texture combining eight- and six-string instruments.
Paul Galbraith performing on the eight-string Brahms Guitar built by David Rubio in 1995.
Brazilian Guitar Quartet, Essência do Brasil, Delos, 1999.
Later Development
Martin Woodhouse continued the design with a sustained series of instruments and introduced structural solutions found in many later examples, including a tailpiece system and new string-length solutions. Other makers interpreted the concept through their own construction methods.
Redmond O’Toole and the Dublin Guitar Quartet helped extend the Brahms Guitar into contemporary chamber music, arrangements and new commissions. Players in Brazil, Europe and North America gradually formed a small but diverse community of use.
New eight-string Brahms Guitar model by Martin Woodhouse, May 2025.
Research, Editions and New Repertoire
From the 2010s onward, the Brahms Guitar began to receive greater attention in makers’ archives, academic writing and practice-based research. At the same time, new compositions, arrangements and recordings contributed to a broader understanding of its repertoire and musical possibilities.
As part of his doctoral research, Giacomo Copiello contributed to the academic study of the Brahms Guitar by developing new solo repertoire and undertaking an extensive investigation into the instrument’s history, design and documented sources.
Public interview with Paul Galbraith by Giacomo Copiello, during Laura Mondiello’s International Guitar Masterclass, Ponte in Valtellina, Italy, 29 July 2023.