Lenny Breau and George Van Eps

[George Beasley]

I was talking with Kirk Sand yesterday, and the subject turned to Lenny, and his 7-string guitar. We talked about having a high A string vs a low string. Kirk said the high A string is a lot harder to master, and that the low string is much easier for most people. He then stated that he had often thought about making an 8 string guitar, with both a high A and a low A.....sort of a Lenny Van Eps model.

He then sent the following picture from his archives. I thought some of you might find this interesting.

Enjoy,
George

[cgprnd]

I never thought I would see those 2 in the same picture.

Rande

[rhirvine]

I got to see both men perform (not together) in the southern CA Los Angeles area. I seem to remember that Lenny used all of his fingers (right hand) which would be advantageous with that high A string. I have developed my little finger so that I have some facility with it but it doesn't help my playing very much but then the real trick is what you can do with your chording hand on the fretboard. In my case not nearly as much as I like.