A few days ago I started with the old tuning pondering. The basic idea was to come up with a guitar / baritone tuning and playing with a spreadsheet with octaves / freqs and all the shebang, I ended up something that I later identified as DBR but an octave higher.
Did any of you tried that? I guess it falls within the other tunings range so it will be possible to get a string set for this. What do you think?

Cheers, Daniel.

Hi Daniel,

Probably the biggest obstacle will be the high range of the 5ths. On a Grand Stick 36" scale in Classic tuning, for example, the highest "bass" string in Classic is already at B below the highest possible note of D. So if you are going to do it on a Grand Stick, it would have to be "offset" like Ray's version of DBR in this thread: http://www.stickist.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3944 .

Where were you thinking the pivot string would be, and how many strings total?

Greg,

I was thinking of 10 strings and exactly the same as DBR but an octave higher.
1. Melody C
2. G down a 4th
3. D down a 4th
4. A down a 4th
5. E down a 4th (standard low bass E)

6. Bass B (5-string bass low B)
7. F# up a 5th
8. C# up a 5th
9. G# up a 5th
10. D# up a 5th

Melody in 10 string classic is goes up to a D, I guess the same string could be used half a step higher; I can bend that string safely in my 10 string classic... Melody should be ok since it will be lower than classic. I like the idea to have a "guitar" at 5th fret and maybe detune the 2 top strings to have a major 3rd in G / B.
The overlap (if you take into account the pivot string) will be almost 100% so with both hands some pretty thick close voicing chords and arpeggios would be possible.
Maybe I should spend my time practicing

Cheers, Daniel.

Hi Daniel,

The open-ended design of The Stick really invites this kind of imagining, so don't beat yourself up over it

But...5ths give us such a range already, that I don't really see the advantage of what you want to do...

You could just move the bass strings up a 5th from where they are (as Bob has done on his 10-string tuning for the AcouStick, with the melody strings in 4ths with MR's C on top)

This puts the guitar's low E very nicely on your 2nd bass string at the first inlay marker, and would give you lots of range above it.

You would still have lots of overlap even if you leave the melody in the Classic position.

Whenever I think of a new tuning to try, I make a point of leaving myself some reference points that I already know. I've done this with every new tuning concept, from shifting the melody strings down a 4th to Baritone Melody, to the Extended Alto tuning (everything up an octave from Baritone Melody/Classic bass), to the Low C DBR tuning I use (Classic Bass with melody one octave lower than Classic, but with offset inlays so I can find the notes easily.

If overlapping chord voices is what you're after, I'd give raising the bass strings up a 5th a try before anything else, that way you could retain much of what you already know about the fretboard and inlay relationships.

Thanks for you insights Greg.
For the inlays, no problem, I'm using the c-dots system; it has its pros & cons: on the good side, a change of tuning is relatively easy, on the bad side I'm lost without my dots and find very difficult to navigate the fretboard based on the normal markers.
The base line is that I would like an instrument in the baritone guitar range, with a 6 string melody region but I cannot justify an SG12 right now; my other 2 tappers (a 3rd is in UPS now) do not get played as much as they deserve.
Basically I think I'm stuck with motivation / technique / goals, but that is the subject for another thread


Cheers, Daniel.