12 string minus some strings

[Aclempoppi]

Hi Everyone ! I know this might seem sacrilegious. But do any of you folks pull unison strings on your guitars? I'm thinkin' maybe the low E, A and D strings. My direction would be, Country Blues, American and English(Scottish-Irish) folk type of music. Also slide work weighs in on my question. This is in a band context, so the number of strings are a real concern, for me. Thanks, Art

[iiipopes]

I have been known to take a regular 6-string and occasionally tune to "Nashville" tuning. I've also been known to string my 320 with 9-40 and tune it to G# "terz" tuning. But I have not taken just the unison strings off of my 360-12WB FG ckbd.

[Clint]

I'm not sure what your question is. The low E, A and D strings have ocaves, not unisons. So which strings do you want to ditch, the fundamentals (fat ones) or the octaves (thinners ones)? Either way, I don't see any major problems in experimenting with different configurations. Maybe some truss rod tweaks or intonation adjustments down the road, but you'd have that anyway, right?

[Aclempoppi]

My bad!!! Yeah the octaves of the three lowest strings( E,A, and D). I'm a newbie with the 360-12, and my background is mostly Blues work. It was just an idea. Not sure the tension on the neck would be a good idea. Just wondering!! Yeah , I have used Nashville tuning on an acoustic. But it's been so many years ago, I can't even recall the string gauge or tuning for those lower strings. If you can remind me, I'd appreciate that! The neck's reaction to pulling those strings, on the 360 would be a real concern. Thanks, Art

[Aclempoppi]

Yeah forget that idea, about pulling the octaves. Had an "Ah Ha" moment(for good or bad). Given my Blues influences, Blind Willie McTell and Lonnie Johnson(both 12 string players) can inform my efforts with the Ricky. Mark Knopfler is also a big influence for me. And that music translates well to the 12 string!!! So please pardon my bogus post! Art

[jdawe]

Yeah , I have used Nashville tuning on an acoustic. But it's been so many years ago, I can't even recall the string gauge or tuning for those lower strings. If you can remind me, I'd appreciate that! The neck's reaction to pulling those strings, on the 360 would be a real concern.

This is what the D'Addario Nashville set uses:

Plain Steel .010, .014, .009, .012, .019, Nickel Wound .026

The bottom 4 strings are tuned like the octave strings on a 12, so chord fingerings remain the same.

The tension difference between a Nashville-strung 6 and a regular-strung 6 is fairly small, but the difference between a 12 is substantial. There was an earlier thread on this in which John Hall noted that the difference was something like 100 lbs. So if you strung your 12 that way you'd likely need significant truss rod adjustments, whereas if you restrung a 6-stringer you probably wouldn't.

[Aclempoppi]

Thanks for the reminder JD !!! I think that when I tried the Nashville tunung, I only changed the 3 lowest strings. But yeah, I understand the drill. Thanks again, Art

[jdogric12]

Or you can just get one of these

http://www.rickresource.com/register/vi ... lebrity%3D