Guild 12 with Rickenbacker stringing?

Tiki295

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Has anybody modified their Guild acoustic 12 to accept the Rickenbacker style string pairing?

**Most 12 strings have (as you’re looking down at it) the octave string first, and then the low string. Rickenbacker does the opposite, and gives a different emphasis. Yes, it would require a new nut.
 

Tom O

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My DD12MCE came with the Rickenbacker pairing. You could try the superglue and baking soda fix per Stewmac for thinner octave strings to see if you like the swap. I may try it on my GAD G212,
 

Nuuska

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If I wanted to try that on my F512 - I could make a 1/8 thick shim, that I would place in front of the nut - the shim would have grooves to keep spacing correct and guide strings over nut without touching it. Then I would use the capo on 2nd fret to play and get the feel of it. Doing it this way - only things to loose would be a set of strings - and with enough wraps around the pegs not even that. Consuming time is not waste, while it is a learning process.

Just a thought . . .
 

awagner

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My DD12MCE came with the Rickenbacker pairing.

I believe the DD 12 strings only reverse the low E and A octave strings, while Rickenbacker reverses the EAD & G octave strings.
 

Tom O

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awagner is correct. the D and G strings are not reversed on a DD12
 

wileypickett

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I switched octave strings on one of my 12-strings years ago. Interesting experiment, but eventually I switched back. To my ears you lose a little something of whatever it is that makes a 12-string sound like a 12-string with the octaves reversed.

Wasn’t for me anyway.
 
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When I got my '71 F-412 in the late '90's it had "Rickenbacker Stringing". I already owned a mid-90's Rick 360-12V64, and honestly, I didn't notice it was struck backwards for a month or two - and I had restrung it at least once. I guess I was used the Rick style, and it never occurred to me it was backwards. So on the next re-stringing session I swapped it around to normal. The nut had been modified a bit for the backward stringing, but I was broke and couldn't afford to have it changed. It is still that way. The only issue is a bit of a buzz on G-string. Being I detune a half step and a capo lives on the first fret all the time, it doesn't matter.
 
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