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#1
12-12-2019, 01:56 PM
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Acoustic guitar with low E and A bass strings
I play fingerstyle drop D exclusively and playing bass lines under my chording and soloing is my trademark style. I am happy with my basslines, but I would like to drop them down an octave by using two bass strings tuned down an octave.
While searching to see if anyone was doing this, I found this video: https://youtu.be/rxoiZZ8UBEY It does seem to be possible. Has anyone else done this? Obviously physics is not on my side. 
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#2
12-12-2019, 02:01 PM
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Steven King used to put a soundhole magnetic pickup longitudinally in the sound hole under the low E and A strings and run the output separately into a bass pedal. Below is an excerpted description:
For those unfamiliar with Steven King, here's the quick run-down: he won the National Fingerpicking Championship at an earlier Winfield (Walnut Valley) festival (he's going back this year). He's known for performing solo, acoustic-guitar versions of full, jazz-band arrangements, recorded "live" with no additional overdubs. He utilizes a system he calls "Bass Expansion", in which the two low strings of his Taylor guitars have their own additional pickup; the signals from these strings are fed through an Octabass pedal, which enables him to play them an octave lower than standard tuning in order to provide "true" bass lines. He is a Taylor clinician who has been wow-ing audiences at Taylor dealers across the country and overseas. Last edited by guitararmy; 12-12-2019 at 02:06 PM.
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#3
12-12-2019, 02:07 PM
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Those strings are pretty thick...gonna run out of room to play with any dexterity...
Try the "poor man's" 7 string. Go up a few gauges in string, drop your A string to a low E (or D, in your case) and your low E to a low A.
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#4
12-12-2019, 02:09 PM
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Acoustic guitar with low E and A bass strings
I’m trying to do it organically, without a pitch transposer. I have a ElectroHarmonix Bass9 which is pretty decent. Before that I also tried a Boss OC-3 and a Little Thunder.
I found this: https://www.norwegianwoodseries.com/...arle-bernhoft/ Last edited by lkingston; 12-12-2019 at 02:15 PM.
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#5
12-12-2019, 02:32 PM
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Have you considered purchasing a baritone guitar and stringing it with a combination of light gauge and baritone strings?
I have an entry level Alvarez ABT-60 and recently fitted a set of light gauge strings out of curiosity and it sounds great - still has plenty of bottom end! 
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Brucebubs 1972 - Takamine D-70 2014 - Alvarez ABT60 Baritone 2015 - Kittis RBJ-195 Jumbo 2012 - Dan Dubowski#61 2018 - Rickenbacker 4003 Fireglo 2020 - Gibson Custom Shop Historic 1957 SJ-200 2021 - Epiphone 'IBG' Hummingbird
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#6
12-12-2019, 09:30 PM
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Quote:
Most Impressive. He's playing an EKO guitar! I had a Ranger XII (twelve string) EKO back in the late 60s and throughout the 70s. Fun beast. * * * Sorry to go in a different direction here, but there may be some relevance. -> Has anyone else done this? No. But I did experiment with thicker bass string(s) a few times and didn't like the results. However I was not tuning them down an octave either. I think the thickest I used was a .058 E string to go with a light gauge set. I have also tuned a 6 string with that heavy bass to D or D# to be in sync with whatever 12 string tuning I was using at the time. (Currently D#, but I have a great capo to bring them up to standard without re-tuning. G7th Newport 12 string capo with compensated string pad.) What is the gauge of the E and A strings you seek to use? Turns out after much experimentation, what I really wanted after all was a guitar on which every string sounded like it came from the same guitar. At least to my ears. Using Elixir PB HD Lights (.013 - .053.) have been my solution. On both large body and small body guitars. Especially rosewood ones. Seems the large body guitars supply enough bass (rosewood 818), and my smaller rosewood 412 Grand Concert brings out the bass strings very nicely with this gauge. So my question is simply, would something like this serve you better, or is tuning an octave lower your holy grail quest? I think almost any string that was asked to be be an octave lower would be so slack and maybe un-tunably off key that it just wouldn't sound right. Unless maybe you might want to convert to real bass strings, and alter the guitar accordingly for stress and tension. I do know that Lead Belly tuned his 12 string to 'C' instead of 'E', and used a bass 'E' octave string that was two octaves higher; thus using the same gauge as, and tuned to, the treble 'e' String pair. Good luck on whatever you choose to do. Don .
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*The Heard: 85 Gibson J-200 sitka/rosewood Jumbo 99 Taylor 355 sitka/sapele 12 string Jmbo 06 Alvarez AJ60S englmn/mpl lam med Jmbo 14 Taylor 818e sitka/rosewood Grand Orchestra 05 Taylor 512ce L10 all mahogany Grand Concert 09 Taylor all walnut Jmbo 16 Taylor 412e-R sitka/rw GC 16 Taylor 458e-R s/rw 12 string GO 21 Epiphone IBG J-200 sitka/maple Jmbo 22 Guild F-1512 s/rw 12 string Jmbo
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#7
12-13-2019, 07:19 AM
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My first thought is that the intonation would be way off on those strings.
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