Agree with everything Steve just said plus one additional item that almost sounds silly saying out loud ... but here goes. When I first switched from 10-string to Grand (long long time ago) I started with MR. I never really connected with it but one of the breaking points was the fact that, using light gauge strings, the fourth string went from unwound to wound. That bothered me quite a bit. Yes I could put an unwound string on there but it just never felt right. In the end I just preferred the classic tuning. Plus it makes it very easy to switch between my Grand, BM tuned 10-string, or Alto tuned "Greg's Extended Alto" (which is basically a BM tuned 10-string one octave higher).

Glenn & Steve - Thanks for those observations. I just spent some time experimenting, and it appears that I can, without too much difficulty, play both pieces that I normally play on the MR instrument on the BM - the hands are just a bit farther apart. Not so going BM=>MR as I encounter some serious hand collisions with no obvious way of working around that other than playing the piece in two different melody positions. 12-string MR might be do-able because the extra low string makes it possible to shift the right hand closer to the bridge (same octave but shifted to the center by one string) without running out of strings (at least for the pieces I can play). But if I'm grokking all of this, going from 10-string MR to 12-string classic I'm only shifting the RH/melody by three frets, whereas going from 10-string MR to 12-string MR I may have to shift the RH/melody by 5 frets.

I'm starting to think that classic is probably my best bet.

i'm confused. strings 1-5 on the both 10 str and 12str MR are tuned *exactly* the same
so the melody side should be a piece of cake transition wise when going from 10str MR to 12 str MR.

in other words , just pretend string #6 doesn't exist on the 12 str MR and play exactly like you normally would on the 10 string MR melody side.

you are wanting to shift all your playing down onto string 6-2 on your new 12 str iMR instrument from strings 5-1 on your old 10 str MR instrument . this is what causes the 5 fret shift. don't do that. it's already perfectly positioned on strings 5-1

similarly the 10 str MR bass side strings 6-10 are exactly the same as strings 7-11 on the 12str MR so play your tunes on strings 7-11 of the 12 str just like you do on strings 6-10 on the 10 str and both your hands will be doing the same exact things in relation to each other like they do on the MR 10 str

Yeah, I may have mis-perceived that, Mike. I'll have to take a look at it again. IAC, it does look like classic would be a good option. I'm not seeing any advantage of the MR over the classic, but I'm such a novice that I may be missing something.

Sure . I don’t have any huge argument on one versus the other. Just pointing out playing a 10 str MR and then moving to a 12 str MR would be easy


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

I have no doubt. I find I can shift from the MR to the BM (on the pieces that I can play on both) without too much difficulty. Pretty surprising since the string spacing is different, and the distance between frets changes also as I'm moving to a different position on the fretboard, but after a few minutes I find I settle right in pretty well.

My whole purpose in asking about tunings is because I'm hoping that I can continue to build my repertoire without the tuning being an issue as it is now. All of the scores I've purchased from StickMusicScores.com are in MR. All the "Tapping Into Bach" arrangements are for BM. My copy of "The Stick Book" is for MR. I can see that it's pretty easy to take a score for one tuning and play it on a Stick with a different tuning, provided the entire range is accessible without running out of strings or having the hands get in each others' way.

I just don't want to trade my two 10-strings for a single 12-string and find that I've just made life difficult in learning certain compositions/arrangements.

Sounds to me you have two really nice Sticks. Try working with them for a few years. I’m an amateur hobbyist player but I really love my 10s I’ve played 12s and they are great sticks. Being a simple player I have my hands full on my 10s but they suit me fine. I play SB8 and they are loads of fun. Don’t jump ships to fast regrets kind of hurt. Only my humble opinion. Best to you .

Oh, they are. I started down this thought-path when I started thinking of re-tuning the Railboard for BM. Then the question became, why have two Sticks (tuned identically) when there are so many folks who would love to have one but struggle to either wait out the long lead-time for a new one or find a good used one? I kinda feel like I'm "hoarding."

Altruistic thoughts acknowledged, but even if you have two Sticks that are tuned identically, one is a Railboard with an EMG pickup and one is a older Rosewood with a Stickup. Even if they had the same gauge strings, I doubt that they feel or sound the same. Plus, if one needs to go back to SE for repairs, you aren't left Stickless for months.

FWIW, I'd only think about getting a 12 if you are either limited by 10 for some reason or really want a 12. Finances aside, IMO the best approach would be to then sell what you're not playing for whatever reason, be that your new 12 or one or both of the 10s ... or none of these (i.e. keep all three).

Good point. Also, @stickyfingers to your point, Jeff is quoting 14-16 months lead time on a Grand Railboard. We all know that means in practical terms, it would be more like 24 months! So I'd definitely have a couple of years into using both 10-strings long before the Grand Railboard arrived!!

Maybe what I should do is re-string the Railboard for Baritone Melody and see how that works. I already have a spare set of strings I could use, so I wouldn't even have to fork out $50 for strings. As mentioned above, the two pieces I've learned on the MR Railboard can both be played successfully (given some time to acclimate to the changes in string and rail/rod spacing) on the BM rosewood.