WHAT?

Custom-painted Tacoma Chief single-cutaway mini jumbo with a Fishman pickup in “Nashville” or high-strung tuning.

BELAND’s GEAR

Late ’40s Martin small-bodied acoustic (similar to a 000-21 model), also high-strung; 1981 Guild F50 Jumbo; 2005 Fender Mexican Vintage Telecaster with a Bill Bores Bender; Fury BBM electric; Korg AX30G; Fender Deluxe Reverb; any studio compression and echo available through the console when recording.

TESTING ENVIRONMENT

Recording studios large and small, on several continents.

CHEERS

“A high-strung guitar sounds fabulous. I use one on everything I record. I’ll mix my Guild F50 left and right—using two separate takes—then pan a high-strung track in the middle, shadowing the Guild tracks. And when you mix in that high-strung guitar, you get this incredible, bright sound. People often say they don’t want a 12-string on their record, but when they hear this, their jaws just drop.

“The effect is almost like hitting the ‘enhance’ button on your stereo—that’s what a high-strung does to your recordings. It’s such an asset to any session, I couldn’t think of putting acoustics on without including some form of high-strung in the song. When you pull it out of the mix, all the other guitars suddenly sound dull. It’s this magic little spice. We used to call it the ‘enchanted guitar.’ I used it on the Bellamy’s hit “Cowboy Beat,” in 1992, and I’ve used it on albums by Ricky Nelson, Nicolette Larson, Bobby Bare, T.G. Sheppard, and Kim Carnes, as well as everything from the Burritos since 1980.

“When I first heard of high-strung guitars back in the ’60s—it was always called Nashville tuning then—Bernie Leadon was the only guy in L.A. who played one. He showed me how to string it up, and I started to use them for sessions back in about ’68. If you listen to ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ or ‘Witchy Woman’—some of Bernie’s work on the early acoustic Eagles tunes—you can really hear the high-strung sound. You might think it’s a 12-string, but it’s not—it’s Bernie playing high-strung guitar.

“By contrast, a 12-string sounds almost folky. But when you take away that heavy 12-string sound and replace it with a high-strung guitar, you’ve got this texture almost like a harpsichord. And now you’ve got the opportunity to play different voicings on the high-strung than on the main 6-string tracks. I even use a capo on my high-strung, though if you go too high it starts to sound like Mickey Mouse. But you’re left with this fragile, octave thing that blends really well into your acoustic tracks. And also, it’s really cool for fingerpicking because you have these inversions that are just incredible, due to the unusual order of the string pitches.

“A high-strung set is essentially nothing more than the higher octave strings from a 12-string set. Typically the gauges are .025, .017, .012, .009, .014, and .010, from the sixth-string low E to the first high-E string. You set them up in standard tuning, though the low E, A, D, and G [strings 6-3] are an octave higher than standard tuning. The high E and B strings are at normal pitch. All your fingerings are just like in standard tuning. You can get a light gauge 12-string set, and then just use the high string of each pair for a high-strung set.

“You’ve got to try this—it’s the greatest. You won’t want to put your high-strung guitar down! The Chief is perfect for this purpose because it’s not a big guitar, but it’s not dinky either, and the unusual shape and placement of the soundhole works well for high-stringing.

BEEFS

“Until recently, you always had to put together your own string sets for a high-strung guitar. Fortunately a couple of string manufacturers have now come out with ‘Nashville tuning’ sets. Also, these strings are very fragile, and they just don’t stand up to the rigors of the road. The strings—remember the heaviest is typically a .025—are very easy to break. They can’t handle aggressive or heavy-handed strumming. You have to play delicately, you can’t be slammin’ it like a regular acoustic. Also, the lighter touch that’s needed to bring out the incredible voicings and timbre of a high-strung guitar just doesn’t cut through onstage.

“Guitars with shorter scale lengths are easier to use in high-strung tuning. The tension is pretty high on some of the strings, and when you use a longer scale, you really risk breaking strings. The nature of the tuning being very bright means you have to use a smaller-body guitar or you lose the sparkling tone.”