High-Stringing or Nashville Tuning
Moderators: rickenbrother, ajish4
High-Stringing or Nashville Tuning
Has anyone ever experimented with high-stringing/Nashville tuning on a Rick hi-gain 6 string in order to get a 12-string sound?
Re: High-Stringing or Nashville Tuning
Wouldn't string tension be an issue here? I have Nashville tuning on my cheap acoustic but wouldn't risk it on a Ric.
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electrofaro
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Re: High-Stringing or Nashville Tuning
There's a couple of other threads about it, and I think the general feeling was the tension's not bad for the neck, although a reset might be necessary.
This is more of a tuning for a spare, not a main guitar.
This is more of a tuning for a spare, not a main guitar.
'67 Fender Coronado II CAB * '17 1963 ES-335 PB * currently rickless
Re: High-Stringing or Nashville Tuning
I high-strung my 430 a while ago, and before doing so posted a question about it that led to the following discussion:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=399433
It worked out fine - I had no issues with the neck, and the fact that the nut was cut for regular strings wasn't a problem either. As discussed in the earlier thread, the string tension isn't significantly different from a normal setup - the extra tension from the higher tunings is mostly offset by the lower mass of the strings.
The sound was good, although best in relatively modest doses. You can get some interesting sounds mixing it with a regular tuned six-string, although my efforts at least never sounded quite like a real 12-string.
As Werner says, you're unlikely to want to use a Nashville tuned guitar as your main instrument. Since the bridge saddles have to be moved a lot to properly intonate the Nashville setup, switching back and forth from regular stringing takes some time and isn't something you'll want to do every day.
I kept my 430 set up with the Nashville tuning for a few months, but after I got a 620/12 I found that I wasn't using the high strung 430 very much, so I ended up switching it back to regular stringing in order to fool around with open tunings and teach myself how to play slide. Without maligning my 430, which has many excellent qualities, I would hesitate to high string a more expensive Rick, not for fear of damaging it but because it would be a waste of such a good guitar - I suspect (admittedly with no real evidence) that a cheap guitar high-strung would sound just about as good. While I will probably fool around with Nashville tuning on my 430 again at some point, if I ever felt the need to have a guitar permanently set up this way I would be tempted to buy a cheap Squier Tele and use it instead.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=399433
It worked out fine - I had no issues with the neck, and the fact that the nut was cut for regular strings wasn't a problem either. As discussed in the earlier thread, the string tension isn't significantly different from a normal setup - the extra tension from the higher tunings is mostly offset by the lower mass of the strings.
The sound was good, although best in relatively modest doses. You can get some interesting sounds mixing it with a regular tuned six-string, although my efforts at least never sounded quite like a real 12-string.
As Werner says, you're unlikely to want to use a Nashville tuned guitar as your main instrument. Since the bridge saddles have to be moved a lot to properly intonate the Nashville setup, switching back and forth from regular stringing takes some time and isn't something you'll want to do every day.
I kept my 430 set up with the Nashville tuning for a few months, but after I got a 620/12 I found that I wasn't using the high strung 430 very much, so I ended up switching it back to regular stringing in order to fool around with open tunings and teach myself how to play slide. Without maligning my 430, which has many excellent qualities, I would hesitate to high string a more expensive Rick, not for fear of damaging it but because it would be a waste of such a good guitar - I suspect (admittedly with no real evidence) that a cheap guitar high-strung would sound just about as good. While I will probably fool around with Nashville tuning on my 430 again at some point, if I ever felt the need to have a guitar permanently set up this way I would be tempted to buy a cheap Squier Tele and use it instead.