Chazmo said:
Just wanted to revive this thread to have another look at 'Strang's wonderful collection.
Hey, anyone ever played a Bozo? I'd never heard of them until recently, but someone was pointing out that they were pretty important in the evolution of the 12-string.
Thanks for bringing it up again, 'Mo. Capnjuan has gotten after me to explain my string gauging methodology, so I'm going to try. BTW I got to play a Bozo rosewood dread a couple of times in the early '70s. HUGE sound and very playable neck.
I love having guitars of different make, size, body shape, and wood combination and I also love having a variety of different string set-ups as well. I keep a dealer's inventory of single string gauges and custom blend my own sets. I bought "starter kits" which got me the same boxes you see in the music stores. Very handy. I buy replacements in bulk as needed. It's expensive to start with but cheaper in the long run.
I'll start with the set I use for standard pitch. some people prefer to tune this set a M2 or 2 frets low to reduce stress on the guitar and/or for ease of playing, and that's fine; this methodology works for all.
--E---------------B----------------G-----------------D-------------------A------------------E
.010------------.014--------------.023-------------.030-----------------.039---------------.047
.010------------.014--------------.008-------------.012-----------------.020w------------- .027
The .020w isn't standard in commercial sets, but it greatly improves the sound of the guitar. Some of them break but it's still worth it.
Now let's figure out a set for a very low Lead Belly range. The strings for the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th courses come directly from the set above, shifted to the next higher position. We can extrapolate gauges strings for the 2nd and 6th courses and her's what we come up with:
--B---------------F#---------------D-----------------A--------------------E------------------B
.014-------------.018-------------.030--------------.039------------------.047--------------.058
.014-------------.018-------------.012--------------.020w---------------- .027--------------.036
This sets the parameters for any tuning in between. For a less extreme low tuning try to split the difference proportionally. A set for 2 frets low might look like this (lighter gauge players might try this at a M3 or 4 frets low, C, G, Eb, Bb, F, C):
--D----------------A---------------F------------------C--------------------G--------------------D
.012--------------.016------------.025---------------.032-----------------.042-----------------.050
.012--------------.016------------.010---------------.014-----------------.022-----------------.030
If I want to make a set to stay in dropped D tuning for the life of the set I beef up the 6th course a little. Beefing up the 5th and 1st courses as well makes a good open G set. Similarly, you can microadjust to any specialized tuning you want. Right now one of my little Gibsons is strung from .008-.044 and tuned a m3 or 3 frets high. I have constructed a chart of string set gauges for standard, and each of 1-5 frets low. When I want to try a really oddball set like the high one above, I figure out what note names I need, find as many as I can on my chart, and extrapolate the rest.
I often increase choral effect in the treble by mismatching strrings, using a .011 and a .013 instead of two .012s, for example.
One of my main reasons for posting this is that most of the commercially available "medium" and "heavy" gauge sets are very bass-heavy and put an inordinate amount of tension on the guitar, even when staying within their recommended tunings. It's better to think in terms of actual numerical string guages because terms like "light", "medium" and "heavy" mean different things to different manufacturers.This method employs more proportional increases in string gauges for lower tunings and keeps the overall tension on the guitar at about the same level.
Here's a useful resource:
http://theunofficialmartinguitarforum.y ... ng-Tension
Here's more of my critique of certain string sets:
http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/foru ... p?t=108278
Hope this makes sense,
' Strang