Your next guitar?

[vurt]

I'm totally fine with one electric, one bass and one acoustic. They just have to be good quality. The electric I settled on a decade ago, I'm half way to saving for a custom Lowden acoustic, and the great bass will have to wait until after (will probably order something custom from David King). I have cheapies for now and they do just fine!

No 12 strings? Preposterous!

don't exist.
6x2

[Hink]

Preposterous!

was that jaco's first band

[tapper mike]

Preposterous!

was that jaco's first band

[tapper mike]

I agree with you about VIs. Sometimes I think it might be easier to learn to play the real instrument, at least at a rudimentary level, than to futz around with articulation changes and other parameter manipulations of VIs. I find that a bit of a buzzkill. If I ever do find the discipline to actually compose something with them, I have all that I need right now. So, no more outgoing money, there.

Well in regards to traditional instrument articulation.... The linnstrument does a damn fine job with that and it's all under your fingers. No reaching for knobs or faders or joysticks.

On the other side of the coin....
I love conventional keys/synth based music. I've tried and tried and tried but I've always been mediocre at best bringing music to life on a conventional keyboard. I've thrown good money after bad on every pitch to midi system to come along always to be disappointed even though I've performed as a gigging musician with them. It was always the best I could do with the tools at hand. Again the Linnstrument changes everything. While not a master of the LS I'm able to fulfill musical aspirations with it that were simply unattainable by other means.

[Deep Purple]

No 12 strings? Preposterous!

That's probably the biggest gap in my guitar collection. I keep thinking about it, but have never got round to owning one.

I really should get one.

[SJ_Digriz]

No 12 strings? Preposterous!

That's probably the biggest gap in my guitar collection. I keep thinking about it, but have never got round to owning one.

I really should get one.

I guess I am too picky about guitars. I want a baritone and a both an acoustic and electric 12 string. I've been trying for 40 years, and so far they all suck. I know I could get something cheap ass just to record something for 15 minutes every couple of years. But I want something I want to play regularly. 12 Strings just seem to be awful to play/own. ONE DAY THOUGH.

[Deep Purple]

I never really thought about a baritone once I got a 7 string. I know the concept is different, but with the lower register notes and the range of tones (I tune standard tuning with drop A on the low B) I haven't really given much thought to a baritone.

Every time I play a 12 string I get the thought that I just have nothing else that covers the sound. I have a mandolin and a dulcimer, both of which have strings in pairs, but I just don't have anything that covers the low register and lends itself to picking.

Like you say...one day, one day...

[SJ_Digriz]

I never really thought about a baritone once I got a 7 string.

heh, I can barely play 6 strings ....

[tapper mike]

Re 12 string
I had a matrix which was a lesser Ovation. The neck was solid aluminum which was great for the neck but crap for the top. The solid spruce top buckled and cracked. I also had a guild and... it didn't last long.

[Bombadil]

My Gretsch G5422G-12, post setup, is a lot of fun, plays great, sounds great, and I've played it more in the last 6 weeks than I had with 2 cheap Ricky knockoffs I once owned over 11 years.

My acoustic 12er...is something special. It is a custom Lakewood, and probably an overindugence. Still, you can get a decent acoustic 12er, like a Sigma or Yamaha reasonably cheaply. A lot of the playability comes down to a proper setup.

I'm not sleeping well these days, so I was playing my Gretsch into Logic at 4:00 this morning, doing a cover of the Byrds' 'My Back Pages.' Sounds pretty much like the original version, even though that was a Ricky. As I said, a lot of fun to play, but again, a proper setup is crucial.

[Bombadil]

Re 12 string
I had a matrix which was a lesser Ovation. The neck was solid aluminum which was great for the neck but crap for the top. The solid spruce top buckled and cracked. I also had a guild and... it didn't last long.

I keep an eye out on the neck angle of my Lakewood. It is more than 6 years old now, and the angle is the same as the day I bought it. My best friend had an Ovation 12er, and the neck angle made the guitar unplayable. I then bought a Takamine 12er, and the neck angle was just starting to go south when I gave it away. Still had a few good years in it, though, more than enough to make a guitarless street musician happy. A lot of people tune them down a semitone or more and use capos to reduce the tension on the neck.

I'm going to be trying out some flatwounds on my Gretsch today. Hope they're worth the price!

[Deep Purple]

Neck tension is definitely one of the things I would bear in mind when buying a 12 string, and one of the things that puts me off from looking at used ones.

I know there are some good ones out there, but I'm thinking that I'm going to need to dig deep in my pockets if I'm going to get something that has longevity.

[JCJR]

Long ago traded an old ep for a big body Martin 12 string, dunno the number. Probably made in the 1950s or 60s. It had wonderful tone and neck action but had been kept concert tuned it's entire life and was maddeningly "just a little out". Not far out, just enough that no matter how it was tuned every chord smelled a little too bad to record it in exposed setting in a mix.

I used it a long time strung as 6 string, just had wonderful tone and my fat fingers 6 strings on a 12 string neck just about right.

Showed it to a local respected bluegrass luthier. He admitted it was a little out but advised against major expensive surgery unless it would have been "really messed up" out.

If I got another 12 I'd keep it tuned down and use a capo. Back then in my neck of the woods that's what the folk and bluegrass players did. Plus the reduced tension makes em a little easier to play without chewing fingers to hamburger.

[donkey tugger]

Just to chime (hohoho..funny man) back in here, I always tune my 12 strings down a tone for the reasons already outlined, plus less snappage of that pesky octave G at the slightest provocation. Tried a few different types of capos including some quite fancy expensive ones, and the best I've found to avoid any buzzing on a 12 is the D'Addario type of one like this;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/DAddario-PW-CP ... B009V9W36K

I bought cheapo copies from Ebay made by 'Winco', and they do the trick - one on the electric and one on the acoustic.

[tapper mike]

I never really thought about a baritone once I got a 7 string. I know the concept is different, but with the lower register notes and the range of tones (I tune standard tuning with drop A on the low B) I haven't really given much thought to a baritone.

Every time I play a 12 string I get the thought that I just have nothing else that covers the sound. I have a mandolin and a dulcimer, both of which have strings in pairs, but I just don't have anything that covers the low register and lends itself to picking.

Like you say...one day, one day...

Mandocello?


A good friend of mine owns one of these