Previously, Hunter played a custom-made, eight-string guitar made by luthier Ralph Novak of Novax Guitars. He played chords and lead guitar solos on the bottom five strings (tuned ADGBE), and simultaneously played bass lines on the top three strings (tuned EAD). With the addition of a Hughes & Kettner Tube Rotosphere (a Leslie rotary speaker simulator), his unique style produced a sound similar to that of a Hammond organ—an instrument he set out to imitate. In 2006, Hunter removed the top guitar string and had the neck of his guitar reworked and now plays a modified 7-string on the formerly-8 string body. Hunter has mentioned that because of his small hands, he had to move out of position to make use of the 8th string and thus wasn't using it much. A change in Hunter's style away from the organ sound into a more blues and distortion based sound happened at the same time. After removing the 8th string, Hunter retuned all of the strings up a half step: F-Bb-Eb on the bass and Bb-Eb-Ab-C on the guitar. As of 2008, he had once again retuned up another whole step: G-C-F on the bass and C-F-Bb-D on the guitar. Discography As leader/co-leader Charlie Hunter Trio (Prawn Song, 1993) Bing, Bing, Bing! (Blue Note, 1995) Ready...Set...Shango! (Blue Note, 1996) Natty Dread (Blue Note, 1997) Return of the Candyman (with Pound for Pound) (Blue Note, 1998) Duo (with Leon Parker) (Blue Note, 1999) Charlie Hunter (Blue Note, 2000) Solo Eight-String Guitar (Contra Punto, 2000) Songs from the Analog Playground (Blue Note, 2001) Right Now Move (Ropeadope, 2003) Come in Red Dog, This is Tango Leader (with Bobby Previte) (Ropeadope, 2003) Friends Seen and Unseen (Ropeadope, 2004) Earth Tones (with Earl "Chinna" Smith and Ernest Ranglin) (Green Street, 2005) Copperopolis (Ropeadope, 2006) Mistico (Fantasy, 2007) Baboon Strength (reapandsow, 2008) Gentlemen, I Neglected to Inform You You Will Not Be Getting Paid (Spire/reapandsow, 2009) Public Domain (2010) Not Getting Behind Is the New Getting Ahead (with Scott Amendola) (2012) Pucker (with Scott Amendola) (2013) Cars/Williams/Porter/Ellington (with Scott Amendola) (2014) Dionne Dionne (with Dionne Farris) (Free & Clear, 2014) Let the Bells Ring On (There, 2015) We Two Kings: Charlie Hunter and Bobby Previte Play the Great Carols (with Bobby Previte) (Rank Hypocrisy, 2015) Everybody Has a Plan Until They Get Punched in the Mouth (GroundUP, 2016) Charlie Hunter/Carter McLean Featuring Silvana Estrada (with Carter