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Re: how to tune a 12 string guitar

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Posted by DougPatrick (from: ) on November 09, 2001 at 12:36:17:

In Reply to: how to tune a 12 string guitar posted by cec miller on November 03, 2001 at 14:55:31:

To start, you need (1) a tuner (2) a piano (3) another tuned guitar. If you're just dinking around by yourself, perfect tune is not that important, but you need to get it fairly close - too low, the strings will rattle, too high, you risk damage to the guitar because of the tension. Your strings are lowest to highest: E, A, D, G, B, E. The bottom 4 (EADG) consist of a heavy and light pair, tuned an octave apart, the top 2 pairs (BE) are identical. I tune the bottom 4 HEAVY strings first, go back and tune their LIGHT mates, then finally the B's and E's on top. Once the bottom E is in tune or close, go from the bottom up tuning the next string to the next lower string on the 5th fret - EXCEPT - the B tunes to the G on the 4th fret. When you're done, if done correctly, the bottom E and top E should be in tune, if not, you did something wrong! (When I say "bottom" string, I'm referring to tone, not it's position on the guitar!)
Hope this helps...

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: To start, you need (1) a tuner (2) a piano (3) another tuned guitar. If you're just dinking around by yourself, perfect tune is not that important, but you need to get it fairly close - too low, the strings will rattle, too high, you risk damage to the guitar because of the tension. Your strings are lowest to highest: E, A, D, G, B, E. The bottom 4 (EADG) consist of a heavy and light pair, tuned an octave apart, the top 2 pairs (BE) are identical. I tune the bottom 4 HEAVY strings first, go back and tune their LIGHT mates, then finally the B's and E's on top. Once the bottom E is in tune or close, go from the bottom up tuning the next string to the next lower string on the 5th fret - EXCEPT - the B tunes to the G on the 4th fret. When you're done, if done correctly, the bottom E and top E should be in tune, if not, you did something wrong! (When I say "bottom" string, I'm referring to tone, not it's position on the guitar!) : Hope this helps...

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