Post by Deleted on Jan 22, 2017 19:15:49 GMT
I've had a 12 string Epiphone acoustic hanging in my dining room for years now. Occasionally I get it down and love the huge racket it makes but can't really find a proper use for it either live, on my lap or for recording. The string spacing makes finger picking really difficult. It's all too tight. If I try to plectrum pick it I get all stuck and uneven playing as sometimes the plectrum will emphasise the wrong one of a pair of strings. And strumming it is a bit difficult to tame.
So I looked at it sadly today telling it that it was actually the nicest toned acoustic I have and it is such a shame that it won't behave a bit better.
An idea dawned on me. Just make it into a six string. Take six strings off. But I've already got three other six string acoustics and if I make this one the best one I'll have no use for one or two of the others and that doesn't seem very fair on them. And anyway, maybe once it's a six string it won't be the best one. So I pondered a bit more. Make it a nine string? I tried it by taking one of each of the top strings off but it was still bitchy to play.
And then it clicked. Have yourself a dedicated Nashville tuned guitar. Same tuning as a standard six string so no new chord shapes to learn but for the 'bottom' three strings take off the thicker ones. Now the so called bottom strings are actually pitched higher than the top ones because the E A and D are an octave higher than they would be in standard tuning. Plucking through an Em chord illustrates the effect perfectly as it seems to be three strings repeated. And there's still the same slightly phasey sound that this guitar always had as a 12 string.
Since I've not recut the nut and the bridge pin holes must remain where they are I had to decide whether to shift all the strings to the left or the right but either of these actions would leave a top or bottom E a long way from the fretboard edge. I decided instead to just shift the G across by one bridge pin hole in the direction of 'bottom' but leave it in its current nut slot and I am happy with the string spacing for the moment.
There were some rattles from the unused machine heads and at first I thought I might have a problem there as each row of machine heads are attached to a single plate but, fortunately, once the shafts were unscrewed the pegs came out easily. I'll leave the neck to settle for a while to see if the reduced tension will require some truss rod adjustment and, if I really like it, I'll clean it up put some new strings on instead of these neglected monstrosities.
Now it doesn't rattle and I can have fun playing all the stuff I know but with a 12 string sound.
So I looked at it sadly today telling it that it was actually the nicest toned acoustic I have and it is such a shame that it won't behave a bit better.
An idea dawned on me. Just make it into a six string. Take six strings off. But I've already got three other six string acoustics and if I make this one the best one I'll have no use for one or two of the others and that doesn't seem very fair on them. And anyway, maybe once it's a six string it won't be the best one. So I pondered a bit more. Make it a nine string? I tried it by taking one of each of the top strings off but it was still bitchy to play.
And then it clicked. Have yourself a dedicated Nashville tuned guitar. Same tuning as a standard six string so no new chord shapes to learn but for the 'bottom' three strings take off the thicker ones. Now the so called bottom strings are actually pitched higher than the top ones because the E A and D are an octave higher than they would be in standard tuning. Plucking through an Em chord illustrates the effect perfectly as it seems to be three strings repeated. And there's still the same slightly phasey sound that this guitar always had as a 12 string.
Since I've not recut the nut and the bridge pin holes must remain where they are I had to decide whether to shift all the strings to the left or the right but either of these actions would leave a top or bottom E a long way from the fretboard edge. I decided instead to just shift the G across by one bridge pin hole in the direction of 'bottom' but leave it in its current nut slot and I am happy with the string spacing for the moment.
There were some rattles from the unused machine heads and at first I thought I might have a problem there as each row of machine heads are attached to a single plate but, fortunately, once the shafts were unscrewed the pegs came out easily. I'll leave the neck to settle for a while to see if the reduced tension will require some truss rod adjustment and, if I really like it, I'll clean it up put some new strings on instead of these neglected monstrosities.
Now it doesn't rattle and I can have fun playing all the stuff I know but with a 12 string sound.
)
(good luck with it tho) 
