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...nearly a year after getting a copy of "Shadows Workout 16+", today I finally got round to trying out his backing track to Bert Weedon's 1965 recording Twelve String Shuffle.

It came as a bit of a surprise that it is recorded in D major and caters for a 12-string guitar tuning of (L-H):

dD / gG / cC / fF / aa / dd (such that if you play an E chord, it sounds as a D).

My 12-strings (both of them) are tuned eE / aA / dD gG / bb / ee. This is something that wasn't easy in 1965 because the lighter gauged strings necessary for higher pitch (especially on the octave g on the third pair) and lower tension were difficult to come by. Indeed, on buying my first 12 string guitar in 1966 at Rushworth's in Liverpool, I was advised by the legendary Bob Hobbs to tune it down by two whole tones: Cc / Ff / Bb/bb / Ebeb / gg / cc - and I took that advice [yes, the strings on the Danelectro were arranged like they are on a Rickenbacker, with the octave set uppermost].

Anyway, not wanting to tune my Martin 12 down a tone, I took the liberty of opening the extracted wav file in Soundforge and using the (very useful) pitch change facility to change the BT into E major without changing the speed. Soundforge makes a good job of pitch changes without changing tempo (Cool Edit Pro / Adobe Audition less so - it prefers to change the speed as well as the pitch - like speeding up a record). I've transferred the "E" file into iTunes and onto my iPod.

And now I'm enjoying playing along in E!

Must work on my 12-string technique. It's sloppy - and the BT is very exacting!

JN

Jim

I've got a 12 string Takamine guiar which I originally tuned to the same "E" tuning as your good self. However, approx 3 years ago I noticed that the action on the guitar had deteriorated significantly - it was'nt simply a case of adjusting
the tension in the neck to rectify the problem. One of the local guitar shops said nothing could be done about the problem and quickly offered to sell me a replacement 12 string guitar at a cost of £550-00!
I took the guitar to Electro Music in Doncaster for a second opinion - they use an excellent Guitar Tech (Stewart) for repair work etc. Stewart was confident that he could fix it and did some clever internal reinforcing work on the guitar.Cost about £85-00. I have no problems with the guitar since it was repaired.
He also tuned the guitar down to the "D" tuning that Ian Mc used on his backing track for 12 string shuffle. Thus I was particularly pleased when Ian decided to use the "D" tuning for 12 string shuffle. It's a great piece of music and in fact it was the main reason I bought a 12 string guitar, in the first place.

Best wishes

Tony

Even though you want to keep the neck tension down, Tony, you don't have to tune D-d.

You could tune E-e and not increase the string tension via the obvious expedient of using slightly lighter strings.

On six-string acoustics, I use 13-56 on 24¾" scale lengths and 12-52 on 25½" guitars, but on the 12-string acoustic, you'll find 11-48 (with the octave strings gauged to suit, the high G being a 0.008").

Yes, I have to keep an eye on the neck geometry*, but it seems to be standing up well.

JN

[* You ought to see the size of the Martin allen key for truss-rod adjustment!]

Jim

Many thanks for your sound, logical advice. Simple solutions are always the best. Like you I would prefer to stick with standard "E" tunings on all my guitars.

Best wishes

Tony

Audacity will do that proper pitch thing too... and it's free! http://www.audacity.sourceforge.net

Thanks for that, David.

I have Audacity loaded, too - but I always forget about it.

I spoke to Ian about the key-change this evening. He seemed pretty relaxed about it!

JN