Nashville tuning (high strung)

Nashville: the strings and their notes

Stringing a guitar for Nashville tuning

What Nashville tuning is

Nashville tuning keeps the names E A D G B E but puts the four lowest strings an octave up: E3 A3 D4 G4, then B3 and E4 as usual. Nothing is tuned up on the normal strings: you replace the 6th, 5th, 4th and 3rd strings with the thin octave strings of a twelve-string set, the ones that sit next to each low string there. A normal low E tuned up an octave would snap.

It is a studio trick from Nashville sessions: a high-strung acoustic doubled on top of a normal one sounds like a twelve-string without its mud, a bright shimmer that sits above the band. Chord shapes stay exactly as you know them; only the voicing changes, with the 3rd string now the highest note of the guitar.

Strings and tuning for Nashville tuning

• The strings: from a light twelve-string set, the octave strings of the E, A, D and G courses (roughly .010, .014, .008 and .012), plus the normal B and high E. Some makers sell a Nashville set.
• Tuning: the tuner above asks for E3 A3 D4 G4 B3 E4. Since only the octave differs from standard, the tuner would also read a normal string as in tune: trust the string, not just the note name.
• The nut: thin strings in wide slots can rattle; a spare nut cut for them keeps the main one untouched.

The octave strings come from a twelve-string set: the 12-string guitar tuner. All six strings in standard and the other tunings: the guitar tuner. Any note at all: the chromatic tuner.

Then play something

The notes you tuned can go into Brumm as a short melody over a beat. Hum a line on top and it becomes an instrument.

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