Leadbelly's guitar.

Back in the mists of antiquity (at least the Fifties and earlier) you couldn't get guitar strings graded into different tensions the way you can now. The nearest thing to a set of low-tension strings was Black Diamond silk and steel. And when Walt Robertson, who had a humongous Carbone 12-string, wanted to restring his monster, he had to do some careful selecting from whatever strings were available. He would start with a standard set of steel strings. Then, for the auxiliary strings, he would use a 4th (D string) on the 6th course, a 3rd (G string) on the 5th course, a 1st (E string) on the 4th course. I'll be darned if I can remember what he used for an octave 3rd string, but it was a string made for something other than a guitar. Then, of course, just standard strings for the 2nd and 1st courses. Walt wrote all over the place, but nobody made sets specifically for 12-strings. He tuned his a full step below concert pitch. I think Pete Seeger tunes his down a major 3rd, which sounds great to me. It really growls.

Anyhow, Leadbelly's Stella, and a couple other models of Stella 12-strings, were made with a tail-piece rather with a pin bridge, allowing for a thinner soundboard and lighter bracing, which makes for better tone and volume. I think Nick Apollonio makes his 12-strings this way, which is one of the reasons they sound so great.

Don Firth