High string guitar - what to look for

[JTC111]

I'm about to spend a month in my studio recording and as I'm considering arrangements and instrumentation, I think I'd like to include high string guitar/nashville tuning in the mix on some songs. I don't really want to dick around with my better guitars so I'm thinking maybe I should pick up a low end acoustic guitar just for this purpose.

So here's my problem: having never strung a guitar this way nor played a high string guitar, I'm not sure what I should be looking for as far as tone goes since I'm not going to sit in any guitar shop and play a guitar tuned this way.

Anyone have any experience and/or suggestions?
Thanks.

 

[montage]

No experience, but maybe look at a cheap Tele?

 

[antichef]

You mean "Nashville tuning" on an acoustic?

 

[JTC111]

No experience, but maybe look at a cheap Tele?

Sorry, I should have mentioned I'm referring only to an acoustic guitar. I edited my original post to make that clear.

 

[tmix]

Normally I believe they use acoustic guitars.
I had an older Ovation Balladeer I strung that way and it sounds great.

I can't imagine that any reasonably good sounding $100 guitar like the Mitchell brand sold by Git Center or maybe a Yamaha F series wouldn't work fine.

I did not do anything special in the way of set up.
I just used the upper strings from the 12 string set and slapped them on.

 

[JTC111]

Normally I believe they use acoustic guitars.
I had an older Ovation Balladeer I strung that way and it sounds great.

Jeez, this is weird. I was just over at MF looking at the price of Ovations because I'd read somewhere here that they could be had for cheap these days. And I was remembering when I owned one in the late 70s/early 80s and I was thinking that might be a good guitar to use for that. Then I came back here to post the question in this thread and found your post.

The only bad side to that is that I'll probably have to go to GC because I don't know anyone else stocking Ovations. I hate GC.

 

[JTC111]

You mean "Nashville tuning" on an acoustic?

yes! nashville on an acoustic.

 

[reddavid]

yes! nashville on an acoustic.

I used to have Nashville on my acoustic. I've got a 12 string Epiphone, and I discovered the tuning method pretty much by chance, having strung the guitar with the high strings first. I really liked it.

It's hard to describe the tone you get. My guitar's ancient, so it naturally sounds extremely soft. With the Nashville stringing, it became incredibly soft and sweet sounding. In terms of tone, it's probably nearest to that of capo'ing at the 12th, but a lot smoother and nicer.

If you want to hear it on record, a lot of the early Eels sound relies on it. Check out Electroshock Blues. Three Speed probably used it to the best effect, albeit using an electric rather an acoustic.

But, aye. I definetely, definetely recommend trying it out.

 

[ausrock]

There was a "Nashville" thread here a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned in that, the use of a 12 string...........string the top E and B pairs as usual but only install the high octave strings for the low E, A D and G.........voila, you now have an 8 string guitar.

Soundwise it is sweet and with a capo higher up the neck you start to get "mandolinish". One advantage of going the 12 string route is that the strings are fitted in their usual position in the nut and bridge so there's no potential issues with fitting small gauge strings in slots meant for the heavier strings.

 

[JTC111]

One advantage of going the 12 string route is that the strings are fitted in their usual position in the nut and bridge so there's no potential issues with fitting small gauge strings in slots meant for the heavier strings.

That's a good point about the nut slots, but since I play everything with a capo, I think I can go with a six-string, no?