12 string guitar owners - how much do you use 'em?

scarry67

Worth noting, I think, that 12 strings, acoustic or electric, sound far better to someone listening than to the player. Must be the travel of the sound and the lack of fingers straining… When my pal played my former Rik 360 12 from across the room I swooned. When I played it, I tended to focus on the difficulty. 

TheBigDipper

scarry67 said:

Worth noting, I think, that 12 strings, acoustic or electric, sound far better to someone listening than to the player. Must be the travel of the sound and the lack of fingers straining… When my pal played my former Rik 360 12 from across the room I swooned. When I played it, I tended to focus on the difficulty. 

That's certainly true for any acoustic that lack a soundport. Sometimes I'll play facing into a corner just to get the reflections from the soundhole and top. Sit it on your lap with the soundhole pointing at your face and it will sound much better. 

But if I want to hear my Ric 330-12 in all its glory, I just use an amp. :-) 

NicoAdie

I don't have a 12 at the moment, but when I did I always thought it sounded much better tuned down at least a whole step, nice and sonorous.

ICBM

NicoAdie said:

I don't have a 12 at the moment, but when I did I always thought it sounded much better tuned down at least a whole step, nice and sonorous.

Most vintage 12-strings were intended to be tuned down at least to D if not lower, simply because light enough strings for E standard were not available until (I think) the middle to late 70s. If I remember correctly Leadbelly tuned his Stellas to C, and Leo Kottke used C#.

My ‘71 Martin certainly sounds much better in D or C#.

stonevibe

I've just been offered a 12-string '71 Martin as a trade for some of my guitars. I'm not sure I would use it often enough to warrant the trade.

Kittyfrisk

ICBM said:

NicoAdie said:

I don't have a 12 at the moment, but when I did I always thought it sounded much better tuned down at least a whole step, nice and sonorous.

Most vintage 12-strings were intended to be tuned down at least to D if not lower, simply because light enough strings for E standard were not available until (I think) the middle to late 70s. If I remember correctly Leadbelly tuned his Stellas to C, and Leo Kottke used C#.

My ‘71 Martin certainly sounds much better in D or C#.

Another plus for Eko over engineering. Mine has been tuned to E standard since 1981 & nothing has moved or broken 

ICBM

Kittyfrisk said:

Another plus for Eko over engineering. Mine has been tuned to E standard since 1981 & nothing has moved or broken 

Yes, but I’m guessing you don’t use 11 or 12 gauge strings…

Bear in mind that even a 12-string set of 10s is roughly equivalent tension to a 6-string set of 14s at the same pitch.

I use 11s on the Martin in D - it sounds better like that than with 10s in E.

MartinB

I like the low tuned sound. Blind Willie McTell's later recordings were at A standard, dropping down to open low G (same intervals as normal open D) on the slide numbers, it's a great sound. And some of Leadbelly's are around B standard.

Those older 12 strings were often an extra long scale, so it probably flops around less than a modern 12 at that pitch.

Open_G

NicoAdie said:

I don't have a 12 at the moment, but when I did I always thought it sounded much better tuned down at least a whole step, nice and sonorous.

My previously owned Washburn 12 string acoustic was certainly easier to play in that configuration. It spent much of its life like that with a capo on fret 2. 

CaseOfAce

Just saw the New York Times feature (it's unfortunately behind a paywall) on artist Larry Bell's collection of 300 (!) 12 string acoustics.
Good grief.

maltingsaudio

Kittyfrisk said:u

ICBM said:

NicoAdie said:

I don't have a 12 at the moment, but when I did I always thought it sounded much better tuned down at least a whole step, nice and sonorous.

Most vintage 12-strings were intended to be tuned down at least to D if not lower, simply because light enough strings for E standard were not available until (I think) the middle to late 70s. If I remember correctly Leadbelly tuned his Stellas to C, and Leo Kottke used C#.

My ‘71 Martin certainly sounds much better in D or C#.

Another plus for Eko over engineering. Mine has been tuned to E standard since 1981 & nothing has moved or broken 

Same as  my Fender!

MSedg

CaseOfAce said:

Just saw the New York Times feature (it's unfortunately behind a paywall) on artist Larry Bell's collection of 300 (!) 12 string acoustics.
Good grief.

Single-handedly keeping Stringsdirect in business

SixStringSage

I had a nice sounding Washburn 12 string but I sold it a couple of years ago. I very rarely played it, and when I did i always found it much more limiting than a 6 string. For me, they’re quite niche and I decided if I actually needed one for a project, I could borrow or rent one. 

boogieman

My first decent acoustic was an Eros 12 string dread. I can’t remember why I went for a 12 rather than a 6 string, but I knew next to nothing about guitars back then so perhaps it just looked prettier or sounded fuller? I remember it was £40, which was not an insubstantial amount of money in 1970 when I got it. I played that thing to death, eventually dropping it down to 6 strings as the neck had started to bow. It then sat unloved at my mum’s place for 30 years, but I had the idea I’d resurrect it at some point. By the time I got round to it, the neck was not only bowed but had also twisted, the bridge had cracked right across the pin holes and the top was bellied up. So it went to a charity shop. It had gone the next day so somebody braver or dafter than me must’ve bought it. 

I got all nostalgic at that point, caved in after a few weeks and bought a Chinese made Guild 12 string from Peach. It’s a well made and nice sounding thing but it hardly gets much use. My fingers kill me after 30 minutes even though it’s got light strings and is tuned down to D. 

boogieman

Here’s the old girl. I always like the scratchplate design on these, perhaps that’s why I bought it? Note the lack of headstock logo… I scraped it off as it was only painted on and looked a bit naff.  If you zoom in to the bottom bout you might also see the “invisible repair” my old man did after I dropped it once. Stevie Wonder would’ve been glad to see it. 

ICBM

I love the artfully shaped bridge .

guitarjack66

A 12 string is on my 'to buy' list. 

icu81b4

I had two, a Yamaha and a Leo Kottke model, the Yamaha was only good for slide whereas the LK model was a much better instrument. 

So I gave the Yamaha away to my mates son. 

Then once I stopped going to open mic sessions I sold the LK as I needed to trim down the collection. 

Shame really, as it was a fabulous guitar. 

BUT, I have Line 6 Acoustic Variax, and that works ok in a mix, although rubbish for slide stuff. 

Also, I had an affliction that whenever I picked up a 12 string I couldn’t stop myself from playing the opening bars from ‘Give a Little Bit’ !  So annoying! 

TheBigDipper

icu81b4 said:

<snip>

Also, I had an affliction that whenever I picked up a 12 string I couldn’t stop myself from playing the opening bars from ‘Give a Little Bit’ !  So annoying! 

Hah! I find myself playing the beginning of "And You & I". 

On topic - the 12-string is coming to the next open mic I do with my neighbour as we tackle some REM songs with 12-string (me) and mandolin (him).