Anyone not like 12 strings?

[Silly Moustache]

I loves me my 12 strings!

They get a fraction of the use of my six strings, but they provide an interesting tonal dimension to any performance.

I tend to use them on bluesy stuff or old Hokum numbers.

Here are my two:

[ManyMartinMan]

I love 12-strings............. 6 on this one to my left & 6 on that one to my right.

[zombywoof]

As has been said, 12 string players spend half their time tuning and the other half playing out of tune. For me there is a certain itch only a 12 string can scratch. When I got my first 12 string there was not a whole lot to pick from when it came to U.S. builders - Harmony, Gibson which started making 12 strings in 1961 and the first Guilds. Guild was the game changer when they entered the 12 string market in 1963 or 1964. They were the first I recall that did not come with the warning to tune at least one whole step down.

[Paddy1951]

I have had some pretty good 12s- Guild, Taylor, Takamine.

All of these had good to great playability.

With some wonderful exceptions, IMO, a 12 isn't an everyday guitar for most players. Tuning can be problematic. In terms of staying in tune Seagull has it right. That tapered headstock DOES work better, esp. for the twelve.

In terms of sound, I liken a twelve string to a piccolo trumpet campared to a good Bflat trumpet or maybe a C.

When you need a piccolo, nothing is a good substitute. Likewise, a twelve string.

They are both special ingredients in a receipe.

What I would like see to are reasonably priced 7 string guitars, ie. G string drones.

Twelves are great in some tunes, though.

[jpd]

I never warmed to playing any 12 string. But I like to hear'm

[erhino41]

I love a lot of music played on 12 strings. I absolutely abhor playing 12 strings. Not an issue with playability, I just don't want to make any of the sounds that a twelve string makes. I'll leave that Leo kottke.

[Red_Label]

You can get budget 12-strings that sound and play great. I've generally had a disdain for 12-strings for most of my 35 years of playing, because tuning and changing strings. But two months ago I was in the Sam Ash in Vegas and happened to pick up a Guild F-2512. It played and sounded wonderful, so I bought it. I gigged it and was hooked. I didn't play any of my other instruments that I had brought to the gig. It happened during the 2nd gig as well. I've since tried out higher end Guild F-1512 and F-512, as well as a couple of Breedloves and I still prefer the 2512. If one of the more expensive ones had bowled me over, I would have bought them. But the budget, laminate-sided 2512 is the one for me.


My current gigging format is an acoustic rock cover trio. The 12-string fills-up the sound so well, that every time I try to go back to a 6-string, there is something lacking. So now I'm choosing the material that I sing and play, to fit the 12-string. ELP's "Lucky Man", Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead or Alive", etc. I've also been playing it on the stuff that the other guys sing (Led Zep's "Ramble On", Boston's "More Than A Feeling", Ah Ha's "Take On Me", John Mellencamp's "Pink Houses", etc) and even though most of those songs aren't 12-string songs, they simply sound better in an all-acoustic live format with a 12-string in the mix. I'm a lifelong lead player, so you'd think that I'd be avoiding the 12-string, but my leads sound better and my rhythms sound better. I guess that 12-string is like a chorus pedal... once you get used to that sound and then take it away, there's something missing. So I've got a couple dozen high-end acoustics sitting in the man cave, and all I wanna pick up for gigs is my $500 Guild F-2512.

[Bluside]

I have a real love/ hate relationship with 12 strings. I've owned many high end ones in the past, both acoustic and electric (Guilds, Rickenbacker), but I never play them enough to justify having that much money in a guitar. Plus, I hate changing the strings on them.

That being said, I just ordered a D'angelico 12 string that is on MF's Studid Deal today. It's a never ending cycle.

[fitness1]

I've owned two in the last 40 years. 'Nuff said?
Just too busy for my ear - and I change strings way too often to be putting myself through that!!

[DanR]

I don't mind them but the only one I've owned was my first Martin, a brand new D-12-20 in 1972. I had a very nice sounding Yamaha FG300 6 string at the time, also. Whenever I played the 12 string for any length of time, if I would play the 6 string immediately afterwards, the 6 string sounded anemic or dead. That kinda turned me off of owning a 12 string. I ended up selling both guitars and getting a new '73 D-35.

[merlin666]

Originally Posted by zombywoof

As has been said, 12 string players spend half their time tuning and the other half playing out of tune. For me there is a certain itch only a 12 string can scratch.

I think that's a myth from the 60s. I adjust tuning on my Ovation 12 string maybe two or three times per YEAR when humidity changes seasonally.

[Rockysdad]

A few years back, I guess Sweetwater had a sale on the Guild D-1212. I was curious about it but missed out.
I kept wondering about it, and posted a question to the forum about their experiences with them, a couple of the members sent me messages that they were not going to keep theirs and offered them to me, for the price, I couldn't say no.
I love playing it, it stays in tune for incredible lengths of time, and, it's easy to play.
It may not be an F-512 or such, (I certainly would love to have one, just can't justify the expenditure) but, it's fun and works for me.

[DCCougar]

I picked up a Takamine GJ72CE. It inspired me to get a Guild. I now have two jumbo Guild 12s, a Gibson Songwriter 12, a little Martin GPC12PA4, and a 70s era Epiphone Texan 12. I love 12-strings!

[raysachs]

I kind of like to play one every now and then, but not nearly enough to want to actually own one and keep it strung and in tune and whatnot. When I was young and playing out a lot, I'd often enough run into folks who had them and I'd maybe play one for 15 minutes or so and if I got to do that every now and then, that was enough. I mean, I'm not into having a lot of stuff, and a 12-string always seemed like a lot of stuff all by itself.

So, yeah, like 'em, but just a little bit.

[Jim Owen]

Ah. Back in the early 70s I had a Guild F 212 xl which I loved. But I didn’t love tuning it during the tuning fork days—and lugging it to gigs to play maybe 3 tunes a night out of my duo’s 2 sets became a pain.

It was a sheer impulse buy. I remember, too, that it went to the tech twice a year (there was only one guy in Raleigh that understood double truss rods).

It sounded fantastic. But when my main guitar needed a lot of repair work, I had to sell the 12 and a telecaster to scrape enough coin to buy a backup six string.