There is probably a topic like this somewhere... But I dont know anyways

I got how you tune the last two EB the same on both and the rest are like an octave higher eh? How the hell do you find an octave higher. I mean I don't know notes... I don't know octaves so...

Some help would be greatly appreciated...

I sound stupid

Okay I got the Low E string and that one its octave just used the tuner and tuned it to standard then tuned it to E again...(I just kept going and it didnt snap) but I dont think i can do that with the rest

In western music - there are "whole notes" ( Eg. A , B, C, D, E, F, G ) and half notes ( A# C# D# F# G#) (the little notes in between the whole notes - btw. there is no B# and no E# )


one Octave means a set of eight ( get it ? OCT ...like OCTagon -8 sides ..or OCTopus -8 tentacles etc etc.. ) whole notes.

So the notes - A B C D E F G then up to the next A make up an octave. the A notes are said to be one "octave "
apart.....


For example....
if you sing

DO, RE , MI , FA , SO , LA , TI , do

the bold "DO" , and the "do" , are one octave apart .

but now


low -----------------------------------------------------------------> high

DO RE MI FA SO LA TI do re mi fa so la ti do


the bold "DO" and "do" are now 2 octaves apart , while the bold "MI" and "mi" are one octave apart ....

Now

Your 6th string on a guitar , the bass E string...
Pluck it without fretting it , you get the note , "E"
Now hold down this same string on the 12th fret . This note is one octave higher.

If you notice... going alone the 12 frets, counting the number of whole notes along the way.... :

Unfretted - E Whole note (1)
1st fret - F Whole note (2)
2nd - F#
3rd - G Whole note (3)
4th - G#
5th - A Whole note (4)
6th - A#
7th - B Whole note (5)
8th - C Whole note (6)
9th - C#
10th -D Whole Note (7)
11th - D#
12th fret - E Whole note (8)


See ? 8 whole notes apart ......

This is the same note you'd get if you fretted your D (4th string) on the 2nd fret. Also , one octave higher than the low E .

So now you should have an idea of what an "octave" is...



Now

A 6 string guitar has 6 "courses" of strings - each course is made up of one string.

12 String guitars also have 6 "courses" of strings - but now each "course" is made up of 2 strings .



In a typical 6 string guitar , you have , starting from the thickest, (6th course) string , up to your thinnest (1st course) string ,

usually tuned, from 6th to 1st , : E A D G B E ( the "E" and the "E" noted here are 2 octaves apart )


In a 12 string guitar however it goes like this : eE aA dD gg bb ee

where , for, the bass "courses" : (i.e. eE aA dD) , the thinner strings (e a d) are tuned one octave higher than the thicker strings ( E A D)

For the treble courses, however, ( gg bb ee), both strings , which make up each course, are tuned to the same exact note.

Note, that due to the added tension on the neck ( you're stretching metal , remember ? :lol ) by 6 more strings than usual , most 12 string guitars are then tuned down (this is usually an instruction by the manufacturer), (so your neck\soundboard\bridge doesn't break), usually to something like this :

cC fF bB ee gg cc , or even dD gG cC ff aa dd

your tuner should be able to handle all the tunings including the octave tuning. If it can't, get a better tuner.





www.musictheory.net

For a 12 string, a good tuner is a huge help; I favor the Korg chromatics.

I tend to keep my 12 strings tuned half a step low, Eb-Ab-Db-Gb-Bb-Eb. It takes a little tension off the neck and is slightly easier to play...and gets stuff into my vocal range.

So do I, at least a half-step. More often a whole step (or even lower for some applications). Many manufacturers recommend tuning lower than standard and some will even void the warranty if you don't. (Although I don't know how they could tell! )

Yeah, most 12-strings are a real pain in the rear to get them to sound just right mostly due to the fact that the same finger exerts pressure uniformly on non-uniform string courses (pairs) causing a slight dissonance when fretted as compared to open, and even that changes on different frets. Truly a love-hate relationship.

(But like most love-hate relationships, truly wonderful when it is working! )

I have widdled down to having 1 acoustic 12 string and 1 electric 12 string.

Sometimes I think to myself..."Why the hell did I 'waste' $3000 on a 12 str acoustic...I barely play it".

Then I get it out and play it then realize why I bought it in the first place.

My 12 string electric is a D'Armand "SG" fitted w/ 57 Classic humbuckers. It had single coil D'Imarzio pups which sounded real thin. I play this one less because I can barely tell the diff because w/ electric there is little seperation in the tone to even distinguish the octave string.