Guitar tuning

cherv · Post by **cherv** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 9:26 pm

Since I have a spare guitar lying around, and I wanted to play songs like "You Never Know" and "Angel" so badly, I devised a clever way to make my normal guitar a baritone. Buy a 12 gauge set of strings (My Martin SP's range from .12 to .54) and also buy a 56 or 58 gauge string. String that super-fat piece of cable where the low E would normally go. Add the low E string to where the A would go, the A where the D would go, etc. Tune that thing up (don't forget to make the G string be an F#) and there you go... a baritone!

You *cannot* use a normal 54 gauge string as the low B, as the string will not sustain a pitch at that tension. I found the 56 works nicely, although I'd like to try a 58. You will need to special order these super fat strings from your local guitar store, but I justified it as a small price to play for a good baritone sound. You havent played "You Never Know" or "Space Between" till you've done it on a baritone. (Oh don't forget "Angel" either...)

I can't say if this is a healthy thing to do to your guitar, since the neck is built to just have a certain amount of tension on it. In the month or two I've had this setup, the neck looks absolutely fine and it sounds beautiful.

(Now I just wanna add in a little disclaimer... if you try this and your guitar breaks, don't go blamin' it on me.)

On an aside, I actually tried putting a 60 on there, but when I tightened it up, there was so much force pulling on the peg that it literally pulled the peg out of the bridge... but only halfway. The string got stuck and I had to yank the thing out with pliers... so don't try a 60 gauge string unless you're feeling adventurous.

Pickles · Post by **Pickles** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 9:32 pm

thats bad for your guitar dude. not to mention it probably sounds like crap

cherv · Post by **cherv** » Thu Feb 27, 2003 9:48 pm

No it sounds GREAT. it took a little time for my ears to adjust (after years of playing something like xx0232 you expect a certain sound to come out) but that was only a minor problem. As for the neck, its held up absolutely fine. For the first few days I checked it every day (and after playing it) to make sure the neck wasn't getting warped or anything... no problems at all.

I don't know why the neck hasnt warped into a C-like shape, but I sure as hell am not complaining.

madtadder · Post by **madtadder** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 3:43 pm

cherv wrote:No it sounds GREAT. it took a little time for my ears to adjust (after years of playing something like xx0232 you expect a certain sound to come out) but that was only a minor problem. As for the neck, its held up absolutely fine. For the first few days I checked it every day (and after playing it) to make sure the neck wasn't getting warped or anything... no problems at all.

I don't know why the neck hasnt warped into a C-like shape, but I sure as hell am not complaining.

as chris rock would say, "sure you can do it, but that don't make it a good idea. shit, ya can drive with your feet if ya want to, but that don't mean it's to be done..."

gravedigger · Post by **gravedigger** » Fri Feb 28, 2003 6:13 pm

I wouldn't have any problem doing that to my Art & Lutherie. it seems to have a good stiff spruce top and it seems like its well built. but I wouldn't try that on a cedar top.

you might get some bellying of the softer top around the bridge will all that extra tension.