Electric Bard

I own a Fender F-55-12 12-string acoustic guitar. Mine is sort of like the Toyota Corolla of 12-strings, nothing fancy but it gets me where I want to go every time. It’s a ply top, and features a built-in pickup. The pickup has no controls whatsoever. I know that doesn’t sound too promising, but actually this instrument works remarkably well. I’ve used it on tons of gigs and on several recordings (you can hear it on the song Time Machine). It has cheapo looking tuners, but it stays in tune quite well. It sounds great amplified, with no fuss at all.

This is the second 12-string guitar I’ve owned. When I was much younger, I bought a Framus 12-string, in 1974. According to Wikipedia, Framus went bankrupt the next year. I have always been a big Beatles fan, and the 12-string sound was something I wanted to get into for learning songs like Here Comes the Sun. I tuned the Framus at regular pitch, and after several years, the incredible tension that twelve strings exert on the top of the guitar starting warping the top. I didn’t know what to do about it at the time, so I did nothing and just kept on playing it. Eventually the warping behind the bridge just got to be too much and it was clear that the guitar had become unplayable. As the top warped and the bridge shifted, tuning the guitar became hopeless. I can’t remember what I did with that guitar. I somehow can’t imaging I threw it out. I probably gave it away to someone who wanted to hang it on a wall or turn it into a clock, I don’t know.

By the time the Fender 12-string came into my life, as a used guitar with its share of dings and scratches, I knew a bit more about the care and maintenance of guitars. That’s not to say I always do what I should to look after it, but at least I knew more about it. Like many 12-string players, I tune the Fender 12-string down a whole step, and capo it at the second fret. I play a lot of Celtic-influenced music with it these days, and in lots of different keys. I like playing open chords as much as possible, especially with the 12-string, so if we’re playing something in an inconvenient key, I move the capo to whatever fret I need, and then move it back to the second fret when we’re done. The problem with that is that getting the tuning just right on the 12-string takes a little time.

When I’m tuning it, I put the capo on the second fret and then tune it like a regular guitar.

I usually tune the treble E strings first, then the low E’s, then the B’s, the A’s, the G’s and finally the D’s. If I then move the capo to another fret, when I return it to the second fret I have to put it back exactly where it was or my tuning will be out of whack. I recently found a solution to this little dilemma; it may be perfectly obvious to you, but I’d never seen it done. It occurred to me to treat the second-fret capo like a nut, never to be moved once I got the strings in tune. The answer is to use a second capo for those other fret positions, and leave the first capo alone. It might look a little funny, but it works.