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Playing 12-string is hard...but so much fun


Lars68

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Posted

As some might remember, I bought the new crazy Gretsch White Falcon acoustic 12-string a while back. Tonight I tried my first recording. It was incredibly hard to record the guitar. No matter what I did it came out thin and loud. Below is a shot at it. I apologize in advance for my singing, which is probably even worse than usual. All my concentration went into trying to finger the chords cleanly. This was a blast!

 

https://soundcloud.com/lars1968/way-up-on-the-hill-12-string

 

Lars

Posted

Sounds good, Lars. The fullness of the sound makes it ring. Twelve-strings are a special kind of beast for me. I'm too sloppy of a player to form the chords well-enough to hold all those strings down and I don't have the discipline to make myself do it. Six strings give me more trouble than I want..... .lol....Sounds like you're getting it down pretty well. [thumbup] [thumbup]

Posted

Neat! My first guitar was a used twelve string my sister and I bought from St Patrick's church/school in Brooklyn NY. I went straight from that to a Japanese Les Paul? Yup.

 

Now, that is a big leap for sure!

 

I'm very happy with my new 12-string toy. It sounds very good, although it is hard to record. The recorded sound of the guitar above is decent, though. It is of course harder to play, but I tuned it down one step and used a capo on the first fret. I understand this is pretty much the norm on 12-strings. Over all, playing is not as difficult as I expected, and I see it as a good way to make my chording better and my hand stronger.

 

I think the special sound suits the song fine. I just need to practice my singing more. At least now I can hear I'm off. Oh well...

 

Lars

Posted

Thing is, there are those songs that scream out for a 12 string, tunes like "John Hardy" that just sound anemic when played on a 6 string. And if you really dig into a 12 string they can produce an absolutely furious sound.

 

I tune my old 12 string down 1 1/2 steps when by myself and bring it up 1/2 a step when playing with others. Problem is the neck on this guitar is so massive I have yet to find a capo that can manage it without there being so much tension on the strings it pulls them out of tune. It is not the board width but the depth of the neck. So, the other guys generally have to tune to me. I am thinking or giving a square neck resonator capo a try. If all fails I will have to fork out the scratch and order a custom Elliot capo.

Posted

Thing is, there are those songs that scream out for a 12 string, tunes like "John Hardy" that just sound anemic when played on a 6 string. And if you really dig into a 12 string they can produce an absolutely furious sound.

 

I tune my old 12 string down 1 1/2 steps when by myself and bring it up 1/2 a step when playing with others. Problem is the neck on this guitar is so massive I have yet to find a capo that can manage it without there being so much tension on the strings it pulls them out of tune. It is not the board width but the depth of the neck. So, the other guys generally have to tune to me. I am thinking or giving a square neck resonator capo a try. If all fails I will have to fork out the scratch and order a custom Elliot capo.

 

 

 

I have the same neck, I believe, with my B25-12N?

 

The Shubb 12 String Capo works as long as it is right on the fret......

 

 

BluesKing777.

Posted

Thing is, there are those songs that scream out for a 12 string, tunes like "John Hardy" that just sound anemic when played on a 6 string. And if you really dig into a 12 string they can produce an absolutely furious sound.

 

I tune my old 12 string down 1 1/2 steps when by myself and bring it up 1/2 a step when playing with others. Problem is the neck on this guitar is so massive I have yet to find a capo that can manage it without there being so much tension on the strings it pulls them out of tune. It is not the board width but the depth of the neck. So, the other guys generally have to tune to me. I am thinking or giving a square neck resonator capo a try. If all fails I will have to fork out the scratch and order a custom Elliot capo.

 

 

1 1/2 steps is quite a bit, isn't it? What does that do to the tone of your guitar? My guitar's neck works fine with a Dunlop capo. I don't play with a lot of power, which helps I guess. The guitar makes so much "noice" I had to turn it away from the mic, and put the mic closer to my mouth as a way to balance voice and guitar (I always record on one track as a way to practice).

 

As a side note, I actually found it even more difficult to sing in tune with the 12-string with so many frequencies going on at once :-)

 

For those of you who want to take the time, which of the two guitars do you like the best for the song? I have two versions up on my Soundcloud page above, the other one is with an Advanced Jumbo. I will continue to work on the song and hope to eventually be able to sing it right.

 

Lars

Posted

I have the same neck, I believe, with my B25-12N?

 

The Shubb 12 String Capo works as long as it is right on the fret......

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

You are probably thinking of the B-45-12 I played. This guitar is my pre-War Regal Jumbo 12. With no truss rod, the neck on this guitar is massive and absolutely dwarfs the neck on the B-45-12 and B-25-12 (and pretty any other guitar I have ever played).

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