by geoff1711 » 23 Feb 2011, 00:26
Hi
I've often re-strung Rick style, all I did was open out the nut a little where it was tight, those strings in wider slots don't seem to move, but in that event a little strip of Rizla paper and some super glue will act as a good hard filler, the super glue soaks into the Rizla paper, once it's gone off you can file or use a fine saw blade to open it up to string size if need be.
If your 12 string has 12 saddles with their own intonation adjustment, simple enough to loosen off and reset, if each pair of strings shares a saddle then by swapping them around nothing changes.
Often I string my 12 strings bottom 6 E A D in octaves but the top 6 G B E in unison you still get that 12 string sound when strummed but in my view sounds better for solo's which generally you can get away with on the top 6, also from the 12th fret sounds quite mandolin-ish although tuned differently, but sounds good for things like Maggie May.
The other advantage is that the high G is always the one that breaks, when you're tuning in unison it doesn't.
You may not have realised but the string sets are worked out very cleverly for tension on each string bend any of the octave strings and as they go up in pitch they stay in tune but if you mix strings from different sets with different string gauges the slightest bend puts it all out of tune, I found this out when trying to overcome the high G breaking by trying varying string gauges.
So be warned if you want to try this make sure both Gs are the same gauge.
I sometimes think I ought to get out more!!!
Geoff M