E Tuning, part 1

I've spent many years away from standard concert E tuning on guitar.  I've found that I gravitate to, and feel more at home in, Contra and Sub-contra tunings.  And in some cases, extended baritone tunings.  These tunings feel like home to me; like a warm blanket on a cold night.  Aside from my classical guitar, I don't have any instruments in concert E tuning.

However...

Lately I've been internally hearing, and starting to compose, some new 12-string pieces that occur in concert E tuning.  This excludes my own invented intervallic tunings that could be in the register of concert E tuning.  For this blog post, I refer to 12-string concert E octave tuning.  It's a very pure tuning.  So pure that in the past I've heard and perceived it as pedestrian and maybe even slightly boring.  That's certainly been my perception of it in in my music.  But contrast concert E 12 tuning against my vast palette of intervallic tunings in baritone, Contra, and Sub-Contra registers, and the previous misperception of mundanity falls away, leaving a singular purity in its place.

The problem is that my 12-string instruments are all set up for other tunings.  You can't take an instrument and simply retune it into another register.  The string gauges must be perfectly optimized and determined for the new tuning.  Often a new nut must be made; same for the bridge saddle.  The truss rod is adjusted to accommodate the new tuning and string gauges.  It's more than a re-tuning; it's setting up the instrument for that tuning in that register, and it's a long-term commitment.   I also love these other 12-string registers and tunings, and could not be without them.  They all have their place, and they're all in use.  Think of it as an artist and his palette of paint colors.  An artist has a purpose for each color; they wouldn't surrender one or more colors merely to have access to one other color.  Instead, the missing or required color would be added to the palette.

Which is where I am at present.  I've been considering adding another 12-string to my palette.  One that is dedicated to concert E octave tuning, and that tuning and register only.  

It's kind of a big step to acquire an instrument just for one specific tuning, but it's been done before by me, and many times.  I guess the factor that gives me pause is that I've had no interest in or use for concert E tuning for many years, and now I suddenly find a need for it.

Maybe it's just getting my head around that fact.

More E tuning thoughts to come.

-kk