There is a new guitar being made on the order of the old Stella that Leadbelly played.
It handles the Leadbelly tuning which I understand puts the 6 and 5 string in double octaves, the 4,3 in regular octaves and the 2 and 3 doubled in union. It's tuned lower
than the Guild which is comparable in pitch to the standard guitar.

Pete Seeger drops his tuning a whole step. I think Leadbelly's lowest string was C a major 3rd below the guitar E.

The problem is knowing what style of music is to be played on a 12.
Leadbelly style playing does not work for certain kinds of music and the higher strung Guild
doesn't work for the Leadbelly sound. The problem is Leadbelly had such a unique sound,
there is really no one who can duplicate it. People have tried like Fred Gerlach and even Pete but it just doesn't have the same quality. Leadbelly's style remains elusive.

Pete Seeger once told me that he'd give up his style of playing banjo if he could play
like Leadbelly.

Frank Hamilton