12-string Manifesto, part 2



One of the main reasons/joys/marvels of adding 12-string instruments back into my palette is the ready availability of additional tunings and registers.  Think of this as if a paint artist suddenly added more brushes of previously unavailable shapes and new paint colors to which he'd not had access.  It's very artistically expansive, removes limitations, and provides vast new territories into which the artist can expand.  This is incredibly enriching to that artist's art and output.  And thinking and concepts.

Regarding 12-string tunings, the original or most commonly-used tuning is concert E.  This tuning provides octave strings for the low E, A, D, and G strings; with the B and high E getting a unison string.  The B and high E are too high in pitch for any guitar strings to be tuned an octave above them, so due to this physical and material limitation, a unison was added.  Back when I was still using 12-strings for album recording sessions and concerts in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I kept my 12-string in concert E tuning.  During the last year in which I used a 12 which would have been around 2004, I  dropped that tuning a whole step into D tuning.  The relationships of octave and unison strings remained unchanged, but I found D tuning to provide a darker and richer 12-string environment.

And then in 2005/2006, I migrated to or evolved to the 12-string Baritone guitar and abandoned conventional 12-strings until late in 2021 as I mentioned in the post 12-string Manifesto, part 1.  In the past four months with 12-string instruments, I've been experimenting with various registers and non-standard tunings of my own invention.  It's going extremely well and I'm encouraged by my findings and the results.

All this by way of saying that I've not played a 12-string in concert E tuning since around 2004.  

Last week I bought an older Martin 12-string that required a bit of work, and now that the work is complete, I wanted to put the instrument in concert E tuning so it could acclimate to and stabilize with its new neck work and bridge work, and be on the mend, so to speak, before moving it into one of my baritone tunings.  I've been practicing with it just to see how the new work and adjustments are working out.  Quite well thus far.  

But the concert E tuning is having an unexpected effect on me.  It's a brighter sound than my usual tunings, of course.  I'm liking it.  It would never be one of "my" tunings, but it's an interesting contrast.  I may do some small recording projects with it before I move it into baritone tunings, which is where it will live going forward.

And I'm mildly surprised.  Concert E tuning.  Who knew?

-kk

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