12 string acoustic goodness

[florentine pogen]

Why does this glorious instrument continue to play a diminished role in music performance and composition. I know first hand the pitfalls ie......keeping the bugger in tune but it provides such beautiful textures and rich sonorities. I was listening to Space Opera today and they composed a piece entitled "Holy River" which is the most beautifully dense and orchestral 12 string arrangement in the galaxy. The 12 string in this piece was tuned in 5ths as opposed to octaves and the sound is otherworldly. Do yourself a favor and check this tune out and maybe post some other fine examples of 12 string deliciousness.

[lak611]

Here's one of my favourites.

https://youtu.be/yoxHGxQw9ws

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

[Yaman Aksu]

The album "Native of the Rain" by Tony Geballe.

[Nashorn]

The album "Native of the Rain" by Tony Geballe.

Let me second that recommendation. Wonderful album.

[progholio]

This one does it for me everytime


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_j0qicK9mc

[Zeuhlmate]

There is quite some 12 string on the first mahavishnu orchestra albums.

[bill g]

Why does this glorious instrument continue to play a diminished role in music performance and composition. I know first hand the pitfalls ie......keeping the bugger in tune but it provides such beautiful textures and rich sonorities. I was listening to Space Opera today and they composed a piece entitled "Holy River" which is the most beautifully dense and orchestral 12 string arrangement in the galaxy. The 12 string in this piece was tuned in 5ths as opposed to octaves and the sound is otherworldly. Do yourself a favor and check this tune out and maybe post some other fine examples of 12 string deliciousness.

I will have to check this out when I'm home. The 12-string is what I play 2nd most, behind piano. I love glorious blended 12-strings, esp with different tunings or large chords. 'The Geese & The Ghost' (title track) certainly influenced my love.

[Yellow Jester]

For good 12 string guitar work, I turn to the early Genesis albums. Songs like 'Dusk', 'Harlequin', & 'The Cinema Show' really show off the beauty of the 12 string guitar.

[bill g]

For good 12 string guitar work, I turn to the early Genesis albums. Songs like 'Dusk', 'Harlequin', & 'The Cinema Show' really show off the beauty of the 12 string guitar.

And that gorgeous little quiet instrumental passage near the beginning of 'Stagnation'-oh man that's beautiful!

[Supersonic Scientist]

...well Leo Kotke comes to mind of course.....plus Ant Phillips - Twelve (12 songs on the 12-string guitar)

oh...who could forget Leadbelly too.

[Paulrus]

It's also all over some of Supertramp's mid-70s songs like "Even in the Quietest Moments..." and "Give a Little Bit".

[bill g]

Why does this glorious instrument continue to play a diminished role in music performance and composition. I know first hand the pitfalls ie......keeping the bugger in tune but it provides such beautiful textures and rich sonorities. I was listening to Space Opera today and they composed a piece entitled "Holy River" which is the most beautifully dense and orchestral 12 string arrangement in the galaxy. The 12 string in this piece was tuned in 5ths as opposed to octaves and the sound is otherworldly. Do yourself a favor and check this tune out and maybe post some other fine examples of 12 string deliciousness.

Wow, just listened to 'Holy River' by Space Opera, what an awesome little jewel of a song! I found it quite moving emotionally, and love those 12s! I also like his voice, fits the emotion of the melody. Great stuff!

[florentine pogen]

Wow, just listened to 'Holy River' by Space Opera, what an awesome little jewel of a song! I found it quite moving emotionally, and love those 12s! I also like his voice, fits the emotion of the melody. Great stuff!

:ipa

[unclemeat]

cf also "The ocean is the ultimate solution" from Zappa's Sleep Dirt.
and Ralph Towner's 70's solo albums.

[unclemeat]

Kim Myhr


http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2qam3f

Use headphones !

[Zeuhlmate]

Sounds like 12 strings


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV0OUoXalCk

[Mascodagama]

Why does this glorious instrument continue to play a diminished role in music performance and composition. I know first hand the pitfalls ie......keeping the bugger in tune but it provides such beautiful textures and rich sonorities. I was listening to Space Opera today and they composed a piece entitled "Holy River" which is the most beautifully dense and orchestral 12 string arrangement in the galaxy. The 12 string in this piece was tuned in 5ths as opposed to octaves and the sound is otherworldly. Do yourself a favor and check this tune out and maybe post some other fine examples of 12 string deliciousness.

That Space Opera track is killer. For the lazy:


https://youtu.be/NYvOOWk8dSA

[florentine pogen]

That Space Opera track is killer. For the lazy:


https://youtu.be/NYvOOWk8dSA

:ipa

[Farpoint Kevin]

14 minutes of 12 string...


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IjaHqkWhFGw

[GuitarGeek]

A few of my favorite 12 string tracks:

Ant Phillips: Reaper
Ant Phillips: Flamingo
Ant Phillips: Lights On The Hill
Genesis: Ripples
Genesis: The Cinema Show
Genesis: Supper's Ready
Genesis: The Musical Box
Genesis: Can Utility And The Coast Liners
Genesis: Dance On A Volcano
Hawkwind: We Took The WRong Steps Years Ago
Hawkwind: Space Is Deep
Hawkwind: Hurry On Sundown
Queen: '39 (live version from Queen Live Killers)
Queen: Love Of My Life (also Queen Live Killers version)
Queen: She Makes Me (Stroomtrooper In Stilettos)
Bon Jovi: Wanted Dead Or Alive (just the intro, ending where it goes to D major)
Rush: Xanadu
Rush: last section of Hemispheres
Rush: In The End (studio version, first section, before electric guitar kicks in)
Rush: Fountain Of Lamneth (first section, again, before electric guitar comes in)
The Byrds: practically everything on Fifth Dimension, Younger Than Yesterday, The Notorious Byrd Brothers and (Untitled) albums, plus the B-side version of Why, and Lady Friend
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers: So You Wanna Be A Rock N Roll Star (mostly a very faithful cover, but Mike Campbell plays a couple cool electric 12 string solos I always dug)
ELO: Thunder And Lightning
Van Halen: Secrets
Ralph Towner: the 12 string tracks from his Solo Concert album
Oregon: Silence Of A Candle (In Concert version)
Pat Metheny: Icefire (solo electric 12 string piece on his Watercolors album)
Yes: And You And I
Yes: Awaken
Yes: The Remembering
Steve Howe: Sketches In The Sun
Asia: Without You
Marillion: Easter
White Lion: Wait
Boston: Hollyann
Searchers: Love's Melody (as well as pretty much every other song on the Love's Melodies album)

About Mahavishnu Orchestra: John McLaughlin played a doubleneck (first a customized Gibson EDS-1275, and then later the custom built Rex Bogue Double Rainbow guitar, which got knocked over and apparently rendered unplayable) during the original MK I and MK II eras of the band, so I imagine there's a lot of 12 string all over all those records (as well as, I believe, the record he made with Carlos Santana). I think he said years later that there was "no such as a chorus pedal back then, but the 12 string had the chorus built in".

[Dave (in MA)]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9nGrC8R8a4

[Mascodagama]

My personal pick, Jim Hall from 1976:


https://youtu.be/PjqvyW4CUN4

[mozo-pg]

It's also all over some of Supertramp's mid-70s songs like "Even in the Quietest Moments..." and "Give a Little Bit".

I'll have to listen to these tunes again - pretty cool.

[the winter tree]

Ralph Towner is a master of the 12 string. Check out an album he did with John Abercrombie called "Sargasso Sea".

[happytheman]

Shawn Phillips used a 12 string quite a bit as well.. Love his first two albums especially..

[GuitarGeek]

Ralph Towner is a master of the 12 string. Check out an album he did with John Abercrombie called "Sargasso Sea".

Another good duo record Towner did was Matchbook, with vibraphonist Gary Burton. I believe they eventually did a second album together, but I've never heard it.

Oh, and another great electric 12 string track, of course, is The Song Remains The Same by Led Zeppelin. I think on the studio version there's sections where there's two or three overdubbed 12 string parts.

I also dig the 12 string slide guitar solo on the U2 song Even Better Than The Real Thing.

And there's also Eyes Without A Face by Billy Idol. Steve Stevens plays 12 string acoustic through most of the song. I love how he switches from strumming chords in the first verse and chorus to playing harmonics in the second verse.

And dammit, how did I not even mention The Church. A few classic Church songs that feature 12 string:
A Different Man
You Took
Constant In Opal
Electric Lash
Electric
Fly
Tantalized

During the 80's, The Church's guitarist Marty Willson-Piper regularly played a 60's vintage Rickenbacker electric 12 string, one of the export models they made for Rose-Morris, identifiable by the conventional "f-hole" on the body (versus the "slash" soundhole usually associated with Rickenbacker) and dot inlays on the fingerboard. Pete Townshend used the same model in the 60's. I forget what Rose Morris called it, but Rickenbacker called it the 330/12s, I believe.

Anyway, so Marty is shown playing his 330/12s on the cover of his third solo album, Rhyme. Unfortunately, the guitar was one of several that were stolen during the US leg of the Starfish tour. And Marty told me wheN I saw him in concert about 10 years ago, that the way the US law is written, whoever owns the guitar now isn't obligated to return it to him.

[The Dark Elf]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY3HonMsqn8