Does Leo Kottke always play two tones below concert pitch on his 12-string guitar? What gauge strings does he use for that?
Jack Kurasik
Victoria, Australia
Kottke tunes his 12-string either to C or C# (two or one-and-a-half steps lower than standard). He uses either GHS or John Pearse phosphor bronze strings and says that gauge is not as important to him as tension, which depends on the guitar. He starts with a medium-gauge six-string set and adds individual octave strings: .030 or .032, wound .018, .014 or .015, .011 or .010, and unisons to match the set's first and second strings. T.J. Baden of Taylor guitars explains that the Leo Kottke signature model 12-string comes tuned to C# with a standard set of D'Addario medium-gauge strings. Baden relates that before receiving his Taylor, Kottke tuned down two steps to C and used a custom heavy-gauge set of strings that bottomed out at .060. Although this sounds incredibly low, according to Pete Seeger, Lead Belly tuned his long-scale Stella 12-string as low as Bb.
--Dale Miller
I have a right-handed Alvarez-Yairi DY-73-CS. I play left-handed. I'd like to replace the nut with one that's cut left-handed, but I'm worried about intonation problems. What do you advise?
Bob Orsillo
Nottingham, New Hampshire
You can convert your guitar into a lefty, but you'll have to do more than change the nut. You'll also need to fill in the bridge slot and reinstall the saddle so that it's slanted the other way to compensate for intonation. This is a job for a luthier, but it falls under the heading of Fairly Standard Stuff and should cost less than $90.
Understand that in most X-braced guitars the bracing is asymmetrical and that right-handed guitars are braced to have the bass strings on the left side of the top. There shouldn't be any real mechanical problem with this; it's more a matter of tonal balance. Unless you have a highly developed ear, you probably won't hear the difference.
--Rick Turner
I'm looking for a guitarist who seems to have fallen off the face of the Earth: Woody Harris. I very much enjoyed his records circa 1980 but have heard nothing of him for over ten years. What happened to him? Are any of his recordings available on CD?
David Harsha
via Email
Woody Harris is alive and well and living in Kassel, Germany, where he works for Barenreiter Music Publishers and is known and respected as a composer of contemporary classical music. He doesn't play or compose for guitar much anymore, but he hasn't ruled out a comeback if he sees enough interest. Harris was surprised and flattered to be remembered by a guitar fan and invites correspondence at 66 GoetheStrasse D-34119, Kassel, Germany. His duet album with Mike Bloomfield, The Gospel of Blues, is available on CD from Laserlight Records (2500 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90404).
--Dale Miller
Several years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Roland White, who allowed me to strum one of Clarence's guitars made by Mark Whitebook. Does Mr. Whitebook still craft instruments, and if he does, where can he be reached?
Rick Pollard
Sweetwater, Tennessee
Mark Whitebook, along with David Russell Young, represented what you might call the "second wave" of California luthiers. They followed in the footsteps of Roy Noble and Fred Gerlach, building steel-string guitars to extremely high standards in the Los Angeles area in the 1970s. Whitebook also made guitars for James Taylor, Karla Bonoff, and many other well-known musicians. He retired from instrument building primarily because he developed extreme allergies working with rosewood and cedar, and he is now involved in developing medical tools.
--Rick Turner
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