- 10 minutes ago
Join Leon Todd in this comprehensive Guitar World lesson as he demystifies the 12-string guitar. Learn everything from how to properly restring and tune your instrument to playing techniques that will make it sing.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:19Hi I'm Leon Todd. Today we're going to talk about the 12 string guitar. I want to show you how
00:23to
00:24restring and tune a 12 string guitar and I want to show you a bunch of musical examples that
00:28benefit from its unique sound. If you're unfamiliar with 12 string guitars they can sound quite daunting
00:34on paper however the 12 strings are arranged into six pairs which are called courses. The courses
00:41have the strings really close to one another so you can play them using the exact same fretting
00:47and plucking technique that you would use on a six string guitar. This is my favorite thing about
00:53the 12 string guitar. It requires almost no adjustment from a six string and you get a whole
00:58new sound out of it. The top two courses are tuned in unison and the bottom four courses are tuned
01:04in
01:05octaves. So this can transform something like a simple open chord into something that sounds lush
01:10and ethereal. It also lets you play octaves with a single finger on the low strings.
01:30Let's start today's video off by going through a restringing process on this 12 string acoustic guitar
01:35then we'll hear some examples on acoustic and electric 12 string. To get started we're going
01:40to lay our guitar down on a nice flat surface with the neck elevated. If you don't have a guitar
01:45neck
01:46rest you can roll up a towel or you can use a box with a soft covering. Just be sure
01:50to use something
01:51that isn't going to damage the guitar neck. From there we're going to remove all of the strings starting
01:56with the high string. I'm going to move in a counterclockwise direction. This is just personal
02:02preference. You can do these in any order that you like and you can use a dedicated string winder or
02:06as
02:07I'm using a winder that is attached to a drill to make everything faster. Just be sure to hold the
02:13guitar nice and steadily and take it easy. Don't rush with this. It is not a race. With all the
02:19strings
02:19loosened on an acoustic guitar we need to pull the bridge pins. Now a lot of string winders will come
02:24with a little nook that lets you use them as a bridge pin puller. Really straightforward. You just want to
02:31get it underneath the pin and then again gently don't force it. The pin will come up and you'll
02:37be able to remove the string from there. If you don't have a bridge pin puller a pair of pliers
02:41will work great. One thing that I like to do rather than just grabbing the bridge pins with the pliers
02:46which can damage them is to just get a soft cloth. Put that over the bridge pin and then pull
02:51them
02:52with the pliers. A lot nicer on your guitar. With the strings off the guitar this is a great opportunity
02:57to
02:57clean and polish up your guitar as well as conditioning the fretboard. I like to use lemon
03:02oil to remove grease and grime. You can see there is plenty on this guitar at the moment. I also
03:07like
03:07a little bit of lubricant in the nut slots to ensure the guitar is going to be easier to tune
03:12and then
03:12it's going to stay in tune more. With the guitar all cleaned I like to arrange the tuning machines
03:17almost in a neutral position. I like a little offset say around 11 o'clock on the bass side so
03:23I can pull the
03:24string through without it colliding with the next tuning peg. Securing the string to the bridge on an
03:28acoustic is exactly the same as on a six string guitar. Simply place the string into the relevant
03:32hole, place the bridge pin in and then check that it is nice and snug. We're going to start by
03:37doing
03:38the first pair of strings. These are a unison pair so they're going to be the same string gauge. We're
03:43going to make sure there is plenty of slack on the string and my personal preference when re-stringing
03:49is to simply do the first wind on a plain string over the string as we'll see here. So that's
03:56going
03:56over then I'll adjust the part of the string that I'm going to cut off so that it's sitting upright
04:02and
04:02the subsequent winds are going to go underneath that. I'll take it nice and slow on here. I don't want
04:08to
04:08force anything and I'm just going to add a moderate amount of tension. We're not really anywhere close to
04:13being in tune but enough tension that the string can sit on there without going slack and the bridge
04:20pin is going to be nice and snug. I'll pull that one up and then I'm ready to do the
04:25unison string.
04:26Same process, I'm going to push it through the way I have arranged my tuners is so that the string
04:31doesn't collide with the next tuner. Plenty of slack on there, normally say an extra three or four tuners
04:36worth on there and I'm going to do one wind over and all the other winds under. Once that one
04:43is
04:43sitting in there I can repeat the same process for the second pair of strings which are another
04:49unison pair on there. That's fairly straightforward and we'll just race through that as we can see.
04:54I'm going to make sure that my bridge pin is nice and snug, it's going through the relevant nut slot,
04:59and then it is going through the tuner that I want. The critical one is going to be the third
05:04string.
05:05On this guitar, I want to make sure that my third string is going through this tuner. This is going
05:11to be tuned in standard tuning to a G. So, this would be the same pitch as a standard six
05:16string
05:16guitar. The next tuner and the last one on the headstock there is going to be for the octave G
05:22string. So, if I get this right everything else will work fine on the guitar. There's my main G string
05:28and then there is my octave string which is a really thin plain string on here. There's going to be
05:34a
05:35similar alternating pattern on the bass side with the wound strings and the plain octave strings.
05:41We're going to start with the wound fourth string up on this top corner. Bell strings place a lot of
05:46extra tension on the neck which is why a typical 12 string set is often slightly lighter in gauge than
05:51your standard six string set especially for acoustic guitars. This particular set that I'm restringing this
05:57guitar with has a 10 gauge for the high pair of strings down to a 52 gauge on the low
06:02sixth string.
06:04The third string octave in this case is an eight gauge so really light and the low sixth string
06:12octave string is going to be pretty close to a typical fourth string on a standard six string set
06:17so somewhere between a 26 or a 30 gauge. All that extra tension on the neck can also make a
06:23typical 12
06:23string feel neck heavy which is why you'll often find people playing these in low or slackened
06:30tunings. It's not unusual to see a 12 string tuned D to D and played with a capo at the
06:36second fret
06:37to perform in standard tuning. When you've got all of the strings on go and check that all the bridge
06:41pins are sitting nice and flush. The strings are breaking over the relevant slots on the bridge and
06:47they are all in the correct nut slots down at the headstock. Finally we can go through and trim all
06:52the
06:52string ends so that our guitar is nice and tidy and ready to tune. To tune a 12 string guitar
06:56we have to
06:57be able to isolate each string individually. The technique that I like to use is to rest my index
07:03finger on the string that is closest to the floor and my thumb on its partner right there. That way
07:09if
07:09I want to play that very top string I can mute its partner with my thumb and pluck with my
07:15index finger.
07:16We're going to bring this up to an E so I'm going to bring this up nice and slowly and
07:21get it in tune
07:22on its own. Then I'm going to mute that string that's closest to the floor with my index finger
07:27and pluck its partner with my thumb. I'm going to bring that one up to tune as well individually so
07:33we're not hearing them together just yet. I'm going to bring that up there we go so this is an
07:37E,
07:38this is an E and together we get this. I use the same technique on every other pair of strings
07:45so
07:45we're going to go to the B strings now. Again these are both tuned to the same pitch so I've
07:50got a B there,
07:51I've got a B there and I hit them together. There's that beautiful naturally chorused sound.
07:57The next pair of strings we're going to have a G like you would on a standard tuned six string
08:03electric guitar but then we have a high G, an octave and this is just a magical sound together. So
08:08we've
08:08got a pair of unison strings then an octave string. All the remaining strings are going to be as octaves
08:13so
08:13I've got a D and it's octave. I've got an A and it's octave and then I've got an E
08:19and it's octave.
08:21This is going to give a standard tuning on a 12 string. So once your guitar is in tune we
08:26could go
08:27through and stretch all the strings. You can move up and down the string length if you want. I just
08:31like to stretch them in one place like so and I'd probably spend five to 15 minutes on here just
08:38slowly
08:38stretching out these strings, retuning them and going through that process before I really got
08:43into playing it. I think there's no better way to enjoy the glorious sound of a 12 string than just
08:48strumming some open position chords. What we would call the caged system chords. So you could start
08:55out by trying say a D major chord, a G major chord and a C major chord. You could throw
09:05in E minor and A if you like.
09:11You could even do some popular variations on there where instead of playing a C chord you play a C
09:16that
09:16looks a little bit more like your open G chord. So this was our open position caged G. We just
09:22drop our
09:23low two fingers down so we've got a C and an E and the rest of the chord makes a
09:28C add 9 chord.
09:32So what we're going to do for the first exercise is take D, C add 9 and G then combine
09:38it with E minor,
09:40A, an open C shape and finally a D shape on here just to give us a lovely sounding pop
09:47or rock style acoustic
09:48strumming pattern. It sounds like this at tempo then we'll hear it slowed down.
09:54So
10:04you
10:06you
10:11you
10:12you
10:18you
10:35Now if you're comfortable with strumming through those chords on a 12 string we should try some
10:39arpeggios. We're just going to take the same chord progression and I'm going to articulate the notes
10:43one at a time. I'm going to play all of these with downstrokes so that I'm guaranteeing that
10:49I'm striking those octave strings really nice and clear. So I'd work on that D chord first.
11:00Use this as a guide to change up some chord progressions with arpeggios. If you consider
11:07yourself a beginner and you're brand new to playing arpeggios play this as it's written. It will be a
11:12great introduction to arpeggios. If you're a more intermediate player or an advanced player you can
11:18take these chords and play any type of arpeggio pattern that you like. Let's hear it.
12:05I've moved over to the 12 string neck on my electric double neck now and I want to lean into
12:11what I
12:12consider the most distinctive element of a 12 string guitar. That's the combination of the third string
12:17with a G and a high octave G on there. This is just such a gorgeous sound.
12:27So I've put together an exercise which uses some caged shapes as well as a few simple modifications
12:32to those and a droning G string note. This approach is very inspired by players like Roger McGuinn and Alex
12:40Lifeson. You can hear the influence of this technique across styles and genres though. We're going to use
12:46an open E minor shape then a fragment of an open C shape. We'll then take that up two frets
12:53so that
12:54we get the root note and third from a D chord with the open G. Then I will take my
12:59middle finger off
13:00there so we get the open A, the fourth fret of the D string and the open G. We're just
13:05going to play
13:06these as a straightforward arpeggio pattern. Just really work on articulating the G string.
13:36So
13:36I'm going to open A, the fifth fret of the D string. So
14:06and chords. This one is heavily inspired by the iconic playing of Roger McGuinn from The Birds
14:12and Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin. It wouldn't sound out of place on a 90s alternative rock or pop
14:18album either. Think of someone like Peter Buck from REM. We're going to start off with an alternating
14:24D string drone on here and we're going to play frets 11, 9 and 7 on the G string. They're
14:31going
14:31to give us the notes F sharp, E and D. So, this is going to give us a really bright
14:35D major style melody.
14:42Then we'll move over to playing melody notes on the B string with a droning pair of G strings here.
14:48So,
14:49it's going to be fret 8, 7, 5 and 3. They are the notes G, F sharp, E and D
14:55again.
14:59We're then going to combine that with some open position arpeggios.
15:06We'll finish off with a very Led Zeppelin style D sus 4 to D in the open position.
15:42We'll
15:42see you next ones.
16:00We can make a 12 string sound even more jangly and ethereal by using a capo to transform our
16:06open position caged chord shapes. We're going to take the chord progression from exercise three,
16:11but with a capo at the seventh fret. So we're going to be playing a cage style A minor shape,
16:17an F shape,
16:18a G shape, and a D shape with the capo at the seventh fret. That's going to give us the
16:23chords
16:24E minor, C major. In fact, if you include the open high string, it will sound like C major seven,
16:30D major, and A major. We get this.
16:43Combining this with some strumming or arpeggios is a great way to make a standout part, and it
16:49works really well when layered and overdubbed with other open position chords. Let's hear this
16:54example at tempo and then slow down.
17:46Finally, we're going to bring all of these examples together into a study piece. I have double tracked
17:51my electric 12 string on here to get a really beautiful ethereal sound throughout. I even went
17:57through and added an extra layer in that chorus using a capo at the seventh fret and the same chords
18:02that we looked at with those examples. We'll hear this over a backing track at tempo and again slowed
18:07down so that you can practice along to it.
18:37What time.
19:06One year, we have a lot of Lindsey coaches. We'll watch our channel while we're going to
20:35In the video, I really hope you enjoyed this exploration of the 12-string.
20:39Be sure to hit the like button and subscribe to GuitarWorld.com for more.
20:43See you next time.