12-strings - what do you play on them?

[deejayen]

Just having idle thoughts after having briefly tried an F-512 Rosewood at the weekend...!

Does anyone use a 12-stringer as their only guitar?

Do you mainly strum, or do you use it for all styles, including picking?

 

[crank]

Everything though some things are better on 6 and some are better with 12. Only have one 12-string but more than one 6-string.

 

[Rocky]

I've got a single 12-string acoustic and a single 12-string electric. I really only use them a handful of times when I'm playing with other people for different textures. Mostly because it's such a PITA to change strings.

 

[mavuser]

12 strings can take both strumming and lead/soloing (finger picking or flat picking) to amazing levels. Many Tom Petty songs like Free Fallin and Yer so Bad are 12 string Guilds strumming chords. John Denver's When I'm 64 comes to mind for Guild 12 string finger picking. 12 strings are high maintencne though, between changing the strings and the tension on the neck and bridge. Typically a 12 string is detuned or alternate tuned due to tension, however the silver lining is that the sky is the limit with alternate tunings for 12 strings. some people detune and play with a capo to bring it up to standard. I've had a few 12 string Guilds, still own one. my next 12 string may be a thin bodied acoustic electric sort of thing, or a 12 string Guild Starfire electric

 

[Brick]

I only have 1 12 string, and I mostly use it to change things up from time to time because I love the sound -- mostly as a strummer. That being said -- I recently came across a song tab written for 12 string, that honestly just doesn't sound right on a 6. To make matters more interesting, its also a fingerstyle arrangement. Having fun trying to do justice to it. Good times!

 

[Minnesota Flats]

Twelve strings are for the Byrds...

 

[mavuser]

 

[portsider]

In the 1970s my only gitar was a Guild F412 tuned to standard pitch. I played everything on it mostly finger style. Today I find my fingernails give me trouble sometimes because they have started to curl at the edges and my thumb stroke sometimes gets the wrong string. This is almost completely avoided on a six string so I use them sometimes, but in an ideal world I would just solve the nail problem and play 12 strings always.
There is nothing better sounding than a slow strummed flatpick downstroke on a Guild 12.

 

[Minnesota Flats]

 

[12 string]

Complex fingerstyle.

 

[WaltW]

deejayen, numerous times in my years of self entertaining I owned only a 12 string. The first one was a Japanese Ventura in 1971. Played it with a friend who had a Martin D12-35. Lots of strumming Kingston Trio and PP&M. The neck snapped in 1973 and I was guitarless until 1980 when I purchased my Guild G312SB....still have it and play it now every day but it was a closet princess for 15 years, didn't play at all. Flat pick and strumming now, since starting to play again the right hand is no longer co-operating with fingerpicking repetition. I have another 12 string purchased in September. It's a (T*%#or) 362E concert size(000) made of Sapele and has a much lighter volume than the Guild Dread. There are also six 6 strings in the mix.

 

[Minnesota Flats]

 

[Rayk]

Complex fingerstyle.

Ooooo do share !

 

[Rayk]

Just having idle thoughts after having briefly tried an F-512 Rosewood at the weekend...!

Does anyone use a 12-stringer as their only guitar?

Do you mainly strum, or do you use it for all styles, including picking?

At one time I only had a 12 string for a few years then started back with 6 strings . The only music I played was my own both strumming and finger picking .

 

[deejayen]

Thanks! Lots of great examples! I can see a 12-stringer in my future at some point...

 

[chazmo]

It's not for everybody, deejayen, but I have to say that many people get turned off because they get a 12-string that isn't properly set up and is difficult to play. I barely notice the difference between a 6 and a 12 when I play my 12s because they are easy to play.

As to answer your question, kind of anything I ever learned to play can be played on a 12-string. I don't do a lot of bending or picking these days, so I use my fingers for everything. That's a bit of a practiced art... you more stroke the courses than pluck them.

Anyway, good luck. You almost can't go wrong with a Guild 12-string!!!! You're in the right place.

 

[plaidseason]

I love 12 string guitars, but I don't love playing any of my songs on 12 string guitar (at least not my solo thing).

 

[Boneman]

I agree you can use a 12 string for anything you want to play. For me personally, I grew up on rock and metal, so it’s been 6 strings for a majority of my playing. In that genre though, I always liked the sounds of the specific classic 12 string songs like Wish You Were Here or Over the Hills and Far Away, and of course love playing the intro to Wanted Dead or Alive, and Zebra’s Who’s Behind the Door. Those two for sure sound better with 12. Of course you can play those on 6, but I got a 12 string to sound more like how it should, and feel you just really need a 12 string in your arsenal to do them justice. Besides, when you down-strum a 12 string, as David Gilmour and others say, there’s nothing like it.

Technique certainly plays a part in how nice they sound, and you probably already know there are quite a few videos on you-tube titled best songs to play on a 12 string, or top 10 12 string songs etc. Like opinions those lists all differ but I will even refer to those from time to time to remind me of what to play or what new song to add to my repertoire if I feel I’m in a rut. Bottom line is once you pick up a nice Guild 12 string with a proper setup, and start playing it, you’ll play whatever comes to mind and it’ll sound glorious, because man they are hard to put down.

 

[Cougar]

I've got five 12-strings and one 6-string. Like @Boneman says, I agree you can use a 12 string for anything you want to play. For example -- go out to minute 4:00....



I flat pick and finger pick. Here's one of mine (I'm more a keyboardist than a guitar player... Took me about six months to get this into guitar recording shape.... (I added some keys part way through, lol.))

 

[Minnesota Flats]