Something was missing during Charlie Hunter’s concert on Tuesday night at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square.

That something was a string. That’s ironic, given that for most of the guitarist’s career it’s looked as if he’s had too many strings on his instrument.

For years, Hunter was best known for performing on a custom-built eight-string guitar. The thick-necked contraption allowed the Berkeley High School grad to pluck bass notes and fingerpick guitar lines at the same time. In essence, Hunter was able to fill two jobs _ bassist and guitarist. (One wonders if the musicians’ union knows about this.)

Earlier this year, however, the 39-year-old musician had one of the strings removed from his guitar. That might sound like small beans to the uninitiated _ but to jazz guitar geeks, who worship at Hunter’s altar, it’s tantamount to turning the Golden Gate into a single-span bridge.

The switch to a seven-string guitar didn’t hamper Hunter’s ability to dazzle during the first show of a six-night run at the Oakland venue. Watching him perform the bass and guitar parts simultaneously still qualified as one of the true wonders of the jazz world.

Yet, this show had a different feel to it than other recent Hunter gigs in the Bay Area. The guitarist seemed a bit more energetic and excited, picking with a gleam in his eye, and sounded more bluesy than I’ve ever heard him.

The absence of that eighth string, and the corresponding reshaping of the guitar neck, might be partially responsible for that change. The instrument is certainly easier to navigate now, and thus likely more fun to play. Some of the credit should also go to his fellow players.

Hunter is touring with a new trio, which features two great young guns _ keyboardist Erik Deutsch and drummer Simon Lott. The guitarist clearly loves performing with these two lively players, both of whom push Hunter with fresh musical ideas and boundless enthusiasm.

The trio opened the show in grand style with a rambunctious run through the original “Blue Sock,” from Hunter’s most recent offering, 2006’s “Copperopolis.” It took the better part of, say, a second for Hunter and Lott to lock into a mighty groove that lasted through the majority of the song.

The next number got off to a somewhat deceiving start, as Lott softly swirled his brushes on the drums and Deutsch played a soft passage on piano. Hunter further lulled listeners with some of his most delicately soulful playing of the night. But the musical trajectory turned out to be steep and the performers kept cranking the intensity up on this tune until the room felt a balloon about to burst.

The players eased up a bit for the friendly original “Frontman,” also from “Copperopolis,” which seemed built on _ get this _ ’80s New Wave-style keyboard runs. Hunter and Lott once again found each other in rhythmic nirvana, before the drummer ventured out on his own for a spacey solo.

The group would follow with an escalating jam on a tune Deutsch later identified as “Speakers Built In.” Hunter was really channeling the blues by this point, making his guitar wail and moan like there’s no money in the bank and the rent is due. Yet, it wasn’t straight blues _ it was blues mixed with rock and jazz. At times, it was hard not to draw comparisons to Jimi Hendrix.

That tune would finally descend into a bit of Medeski Martin and Wood-style dissonant craziness, as the band members went from jam cruise captains to joyous noisemakers.

Hunter showed he could go the other direction as well, returning with a suitably happy, and surprisingly straightforward, version of the classic “On the Sunny Side of the Street” for the well-deserved encore.

In all, it was a triumphant homecoming for this Berkeley boy.