More on Low Tuning

I had written about putting heavy Elixir strings on the Gibson B45-12 and tuning it down a fourth. But after listening to some recordings on different speakers, I felt the high courses sounded too slack, so I retuned down only a third. This fixed the high strings a bit, but the low strings lost a lot of thunder. Next I tried tuning down a fourth, but using a higher reference to A (easy to do with the Korg chromatic tuner). In this case also I didn't find much to gain, so I'm back to a fourth down; the courses are now B, E, A, D, F#, B.

I'm also somewhat obsessively lowering the action at the nut end, a couple of times by too much, repaired by filling in the slot with powdered bone and crazy glue, then re-filing with the nut files. The neck relief is almost non-existent now on the Gibson, and the strings are about as low as I can get them. The guitar plays better than it ever has, but it is still not as easy as either of my Taylor 12-strings. I'm thinking of posting samples of the same piece played with each guitar. The difference in sound between 12-strings with different tunings is amazing.