Raising vs. lowering?

[Roger Rettig]

Bill Rudolph has my D13th 12-string guitar all finished and, once he gets cases in, he'll be shipping it.

He called me a few weeks ago to say that one pull I'd ordered couldn't be achieved. It was a tall order - raising the 12th from a D to F# on my LKL1. He said he just couldn't do it. I had to think fast (I was on dialysis when he called) so, when he asked for an alternative setting, I just asked him to raise the D to E.

I don't need that on that lever: I'll have that on a pedal.

My question is, is it easier for a mechanism to lower a heavy gauge string than to raise it. Now I've had time to think, I'd like to lower that D to a B.

I'm confident I can make the change myself: the Williams guitars look like a breeze to work on compared to my LeGrande!

[Fred Treece]

I can’t answer you definitively, Roger, but the logic of Bill’s concern is that the massive increase in tension you have requested on a .054” string is something that can’t be done without a monster truck and a heavy duty winch. It follows that releasing tension on it is a much easier thing to accomplish.

I am thinking about adding the whole step raise on 12 to my E-lower lever, but I am concerned about the added tension making the lever a little harder to move and hold in place. It’s on RKL, and I already have a volume pedal issue when activating and releasing it.

[Roger Rettig]

Thanks, Fred.

I instinctively feel the same; there's no problem with lowering the 10th string on C6th a tone-and-a-half.

In my case, this is going to be a stiff lever anyway: my LKL1 will raise 8, 2 and 1 also (the equivalent of the 1,2,7 raise on E9)! I believe that, while stiffness may may have been an issue, Bill implied that it couldn't be done from a mechanical standpoint. I'm sure he knows his changer's capabilities completely.

I'd have liked to have been able to raise the D to F# as a moving bass-line but it's certainly something I can live without. Lowering to a B while raising 1.2.8 will result in a D chord, but with a minor 6th in the bass. If truth be told, a few of my alterations to the original concept by JC, while they work on paper, may not work as well as I think they will. Even Johnny has made changes since he started gigging with his D13th.

I was talking during the week to a pro bass-player in town here. Over coffee, we touched on the subject of my new steel. He said: "So: let me get this straight - you haven't actually tried this new tuning and you've ordered the guitar, going from two 10-string necks to a 12???"

On my not-so-good days, the absurdity of it strikes me, too!

[Paul Mozen]

Roger,
Having been working on my 2 carters for quite a while now I can tell you anything more than a whole tone raise is tough. The amount of pull and the movement required on the finger may not be physically possible. The booya lower is of course there but tats physics for ya....

[Roger Rettig]

Paul:

I've since abandoned that notion. In the light of experience, I can see that, while awaiting my new guitar, some of my theoretical ideas weren't as wonderful as I had thought

I occasionally find myself regretting buying a D13th guitar but, on a good day, it's so much fun! Much of what I know on a D10 takes very little interpretation, but I still stumble quite a bit, too. I now know that, for a new player wanting to embrace all styles, this tuning is the way to go. For a player like me - 66 years on guitar, 50 on steel - it could be a 'bridge too far'.

It's not as if I have all the time in the world.

[Donny Hinson]

When you pull a string, two things happen. It stretches, and it gets tighter. Heavier gauge strings take less movement to reach a certain note because the heavier gauge stretches less.

[Ian Rae]

The Williams is easy to work on. I moved a few things round on mine when it arrived. Not Bill's fault - it's hard to imagine exactly how a thing will turn out.
I don't raise any of the low strings more than a whole tone.

[Roger Rettig]

Ian

Not Bill's fault at all: I meant that they didn't work out in the musical applications I'd envisioned.

And - talk about easy to work on! It's a breeze after my LeGrande. The only bugbear is the tiny holes in the changer; the threaded rods onlyjust fit through and I've been in contortions trying to slot them in. It almost feels as though the holes themselves are threaded (but they're not, of course).

I'm about to do major surgery: moving some pedals around. I'm reckoning on two days at the workbench - my endurance is not what it was.