The Byrds's "Eight Miles High": 12 String Guitar Lesson 

Yeah that'll be much easier than these high-tension 12 strings!

Yeah! I've always loved this one!

Man, for the money they’re pretty darn great!

@@EricHaugenGuitar i just bought a cream danelectro 12. Its the best guitar ive ever owned

Oooh congrats on that Ric! And thanks so much for the kind words - I truly appreciate it!

Try a Jangle Box. The big thing with McGuinn was that he plugged right into the board, like Motown and got a high level of compression. Compression intensifies the jangle and sustains it. The Jangle Box gets the best approximation, unless you can find a Ric McGuinn 370/12 with an internal compressor.

Why, at the Levi's outlet in Mebane NC - what a wonderful place!

These recent danos are crazy good guitars for the money! The build quality is way better than you'd expect! Koreans know how to build!

It's n o r m a l style!

Oooh good idea! That's a great version!

They’re both good - one just looks cooler than the other!

@@EricHaugenGuitar In terms of tonal sounds and settings, ,do you prefer one over the other?

Yeah! That thing RIPS! I can't believe how good the lipstick humbucker sounds!

I'd play one first! Rickenbackers are very very pretty, but they have the weirdest feeling necks of any guitar!

@@EricHaugenGuitar my guitar repair man ( who's also a guitarist ) told me that he won't work on Rickenbackes ! and won't even change the strings, I think he meant the 12 string, also that the low E is first ! the 6th string, so it's ass backwards from the other 12 string guitars, I have a Taylor 12 acoustic, 1700.00 range and a cheap Yamaha 12 I've had for 40 years. I priced the Rickenbacker 12 & couldn't get it cheaper than 2300.00 ! I called rainbow guitars 🎸 and am awaiting their return call, I'll buy one immediately for 1700.00 Thanks again

@@EricHaugenGuitar I think I have you confused with another youtuber playing the Rickenbacker 12 string electric guitar 🎸 he bought his recently for 1700.00

Ha! Good idea - I should’ve done a mashup of the 2

Thanks man! Yeah - I think the sunroom is a little punchier than my living room. It’s interesting how the space affects the tone!

Indeed they are! Especially at like 1/8 the cost of a pretty ric. That being said, I still want a ric - so iconic!

Thanks Kent!

Ha! I've been lucky, all my 12s are pretty dang sturdy. Honestly, my Mustang and my Starfire are the 'tuning-problem-children' in my house :-)

Yeah I use the tape compression side of the strymon deco to squash it a bit. That, a ribbon mic and some reverb in post go a long way!

Everyone knows plaid has the best tonal properties 😂

​@@EricHaugenGuitartone is in the pearl snaps😊

Thanks so much, man! Yeah - making that opening solo "user friendly" has been a goal of mine for years. It starts out so perfectly, and then dissolves! Not that I'd change the original recording, of course - but if I'm gonna play it, I'm gonna move some things around to make it my way :-)

Bohma - I agree! I have a 12-string Rick 370 and cannot intonate the top two strings to save myself. I finally just tuned them slightly out of tune, but where the songs need them to be. Extremely frustrating. Glad to hear I'm not the only one.

In this case, I'm using the "tape compression" mode of my strymon deco - it's a great pedal, everyone should have one!

Ha! Yeah, every so often I can't really explain what I've come up with :-)

Oooh yeah Gram’s the man! 🙌🏻

Yeah! The Byrds were such an important piece of the 60s sound!

Oooh I didn’t know they did a version - I’ll have to check that out!

Naw, I just thought it’d be fun to shoot some vids in the sunroom - it’s the room just behind the room I usually shoot in 🌴

@@EricHaugenGuitar Lovely place! Wish I had those kinds of windows. Housing in Stockholm is not cheap :/

In general, Dano is really making some affordable, playable, and toneful guitars these days!

Thanks so much Bob!

@@EricHaugenGuitar Thank -you Eric , you don't know how good it is to see young folks like you put your own fresh new injection of life into a classic with the good taste and touch of class that some others don't seem to comprehend while they only end up imposing their own crass ego

It arrived today, and I'm loving it. :)

The original has some ringing higher tone in the background that's missing in this version, it makes the effect more powerful, but whatever this magical effect is, it's in this arrangement too.

Thanks! These new Danos are really great guitars - especially for the money!

It does feel wider than my 6 string dano. I wish the fretboard had a bit more curve to the radius, still love it for the price though!

Thanks man!

Ooooh neato I’ll have to track that down!

It’s weird, I find them slightly easier on a 12 than a 6 - I sorta roll across the top of the strings, not digging in really hard.

Thanks man !

Thanks Larry! I’m really happy with the tone I got on this one!

Hrmmmmmm strat and reverb is a great combination for sure! Obviously this is on a 12 string, so there's no easy way to cop that sound other than to.......buy more guitars! :-)

Naw it's the regular way!

Yeah! I love the way Rics look, but the price is quite high - which I totally understand for a made in USA instrument, but also the feel of Ric necks never made sense to me. As my luthier friend Brian says: ".....You play econo" Cheap Danos FTW!

Oh yeah! He’s a Ric Wizard! The hybrid picking thing he does is really unique!

@@EricHaugenGuitar That's not easy to do and you did a really cool job on that Eric:) I've been listening to Dave Gregory's 12-string Rickenbacker playing in the 80s with XTC recently too...Love that sound and lovely too see it being looked at on YT more now :-)

Ya gotta love the sound of affordable jangle 😎!

Good luck! It should work equally well on an acoustic 🤞

Thanks so much David! I love how zingy that dano 12 is ⚡️

Yeah! I noticed that it’s definitely punchier than the big old living room. The figure 8 mic is very responsive to the space - how cool!

They're really well made - they play great, especially at that price!

Oh yeah, I had my tech adjust the saddles to better match the fretboard radius. But honestly, all my guitars move around month to month. I’m in the south though, so the humidity changes constantly!

Yeah! Speaking of affordable guitars - these new Danos play great!

I got a cheap Cozart 12 string for 139$. I will move up to a DanElectro one day, but I figured I'd start on a cheap guitar first. Way different from a 6 string but it did sorta help improve my playing. I got a compressor and it really brings out the chime and jangle of the 12 string.

Yeah! This one is such a classic - it's even fun to play on a regular 6 string too!

Oooooh I love the Fender strat XII! Wow that Byrds bio looks comprehensive indeed! The thing I'm most curious about is the nuts and bolts of the compositions, arrangements, and recordings - it seems like something like that will actually have enough time/page space to go into detail there. All too often, rock bios are basically: "....Some talented dudes got together with some other dudes, got lucky, got famous, did bad things, lawyers got involved, and now they hate each other.."

@@EricHaugenGuitar The 12 string is lovely and made me reconsider hard tail strats as it is rock solid. I usually tweak my guitars, new pickups etc but both that and the previous guitar I bought, a mid 2000's Gordon Smith GS1, wouldn't be improved by anything I did to them so I'm leaving them as I got them which is stock. The Byrds book is a joy to read, it covers pretty much everything you could hope for I was loaned it by someone I know whom I was lending music biographies to and as soon as I finished it and returned it I bought a new copy of it as I knew I wanted it in my library to at some point read again and also to lend out but that didn't work out. I'm looking forward to reading volume 2, I also have the same authors book on The Smiths sitting unread so I'll do that first. Another I'd recommend is The Big Midweek by Steve Hanley, of the five books I've read on The Fall I felt that was the best. Edit, re Fender 12's, Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins used one of the hockey stick Fender 12's.

Thanks Alex!

Thanks Mark! Yeah - I couldn’t get the authentic McGuinn squash. Man, he crushes that Ric!

Yeah don't forget the trouble booster too.

I can definitely hear some similarities in the chord structure!

Thanks J!

Stills wasn't involved in this song! It was written by Gene Clark and the iconic solo was played by Roger McGuinn, with future Stills bandmate David Crosby on rhythm guitar.

Thanks Mark!

Thanks Calvin!

Thanks Patrick! It's crazy how good that bridge position lipstick humbucker sounds!

Ha! Totally! Speaking of Rawlings - I've got a vid on his and Gillie's version of Dylan's "Billy" coming out in a few weeks - stay tuned!

Oooh those are both excellent ideas! That reminds me - I’ve got an arrangement of “Jet” up my sleeve, maybe add that one to the to do list as well!

Btw I just checked my uk RU-vid buddy anyonecanplayguitar has a good lesson up for Gimme Danger.

@@EricHaugenGuitar Great thanks! I'll check it out.

Thanks Howard! It's one of the new Danelectros - and you're right, the build quality and feel will surprise you! They're made in Korea, to what must be a very high standard!

@@EricHaugenGuitar Cool they are making them in Korea again. I have one of the first Dano-12 strings that were made in the late 90's. anyway those guitars were made in Korea and at the time their whole line of guitars were of the charts good! I'll have to check this one out. I can tell it's well made

The surprise is how smooth the neck/frets are! Usually guitars at this price point need work in that area!

@@EricHaugenGuitar Japan was the first asian country to make 1st class guitars and then Korea. They have been building great guitars for a long time now.

Thanks! I always loved this song - it was a fun one to put together this way!

Totally!

Oooh good one! I just added it to my Spotify playlist of good recs! open.spotify.com/user/ebhaugen/playlist/6AGvurVXk7a8WkiqY5t3Nf?si=489R4gh0Q5eRh9iVuwInlg

Eric Haugen following the list. There is some great stuff on there, I got tickets to see a couple of the bands based on listening.

Cool! This community of RU-vid friends has got some great tastes!

Thanks man!

Thanks Lucky! I thought it’d be fun to shoot a few vids in the sun porch - it’s the room just behind the room I usually shoot in.

You did well.

Thanks Joe!

Thanks man!

Phrygian

We got lucky this time! We’re pretty far inland in Pittsboro, so just a little wind and rain.

Thanks Wilbert! I thought it’d be fun to shoot some vids in the sunroom - it’s the room right behind where I usually film 🌝

Yeah the neck is still good! I had my tech adjust the saddles to match the radius a little better, though. Apparently it’s a common problem these days with all guitars.

@@EricHaugenGuitar Yes, I can testify to that. It looks like the saddles have adjustment screws on them similar to Fender saddles. Also, can this 12 string come close to sounding like an acoustic 12 string? I keep having issues with acoustic 12 string necks not staying put to my liking.

It’s funny - Adrian and I chat via instagram to make sure we don’t do the same songs 🤓

@@EricHaugenGuitar That 100% doesn't surprise me lol