Well, Cory & Rob have gone & are safely home in Texas. I couldnt play for them as the tail piece on my guitar broke. Its now replaced & my trusty old Eko is all better & tuned now. It took a couple of days. You dont just throw the strings onto a 12 string & wind em up & hope to play it, specially one as old as mine. Like all of us, they take a little while to settle in & take up the load. You can't hurry it. Its better to leave it sit over night a note or so lower than concert pitch. You can hear it creaking while you put the load on.
The next day sees you right to hook up the tuner & set it up properly. There is a timeworn joke that goes like this.......
How long does it take to tune a 12 string ?
Nobody knows because its never been done.
I will admit it does take a while & unless you have a good ear, (I don't) then a fitted pickup & an electronic tuner are pretty much a must. You know when you have it right, because the instrument comes alive, resonating beautifully. Would you guess that I'm a fanatic when it comes to 12's? I've only been playing one for 45 years, so yeah I guess.
Anyway, I haven't touched it in a while & I have opened my big trap & agreed to do a lunchtime recital at our local library sometime in May as part of New Zealand music month. I also have vague promises of a couple of other gigs round & about the place. So, today being a bit of a too much of nothing sort of day & having already cleaned all the paper & crap out of the garage, I decided to set up a practice corner in the garage & start dedicating at least half an hour a day to practice. So, I dug out my music etc., & started working my way through my music. I was going great guns too until I flipped over to this song & started playing it...
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