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| best body style for altered tunings??? http://mowrystrings.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10102&t=15133 |
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| Author: | John Elshaw [ Tue Dec 25, 2007 5:38 pm ] |
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For my next build, I would like to pick a guitar body style that is most ideal for finger picking with altered tunings. What body style and design features best accomodate altered tunings? The low E-string will frequently be tuned down to C if that makes a difference. Thanks! John |
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| Author: | Colin S [ Tue Dec 25, 2007 7:54 pm ] |
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John I play a lot in altered tunings and build guitars specially for it. To me the body shape I have settled on is the 14 fret OM, with "parabolic" bracing, mahogany or walnut B&S and of course a Euro top (or Lutz would be a substitute). Going to Low C tuning (CGDGad) pushes a standard string set a bit so it may be better to use a more balanced set. I usually go a string gauge heavier for each tone dropped. Saddles would also ideally need to be intonated for that string and tuning. Dave White recently made a fan fret guitar that he likes in dropped tunings, may be an idea. Here's the thread on the last one I made: DADGad guitar Colin |
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| Author: | John Elshaw [ Wed Dec 26, 2007 2:26 am ] |
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Wow Colin, your walnut guitar posted above is a real beauty, and I never realized you had those killer chops outside a lute, your soundclip rocks! I'm a big fan of mahogany but I might have to try walnut this time around. In your example, since I'm dropping the low-E two full steps to C, would you recommend going two gauges heavier? That makes sense although I have no idea why I haven't tried it yet. I guess on a guitar dedicated to altered tunings a mixture of different string gauges would be best. Time to hit the drawing board! Merry Christmas! John |
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| Author: | Dave White [ Wed Dec 26, 2007 3:32 am ] |
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John, Lots of players have used different guitar body styles for playing altered tunings - from parlour (especially in Open D and Open G) to GC, OM, SJ and up to dreadnought sized. It depends a lot on your preference and playing style. If you are going to be using C tunings a lot then you need a body size that has a big enough body-depth to support the low notes but with choice of scale length and string gauge you can easily use a Grand Concert size. OM is a very popular size with altered tuning fingerstyle players - and fan-fret scale lengths work nicely too - longer scale length for the lower strings that are tuned down. As Colin said I like the fan-fretted guitar I made and play it a lot in CGCGCD and CGDGCD tuning as well as DADGAD. This is a real "strange one" though - 26"-24.8" scale length, 15 frets clear of the body, 16" lower bout width deep body but with a Manzer wedge. The thread on it is here. I use 12-52's on this guitar and they work well for my style of playing. For 25.5" scale length then for the bottom string a 0.059" would be a good compromise for mostly C with the occasional trip up to D, and if you were going to be permamnently in C then maybe even a 0.062" or 0.064" would be worth considering. |
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