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I was just wondering how to tune my guitar to sound like a bajo sexto. I watched a video on YouTube, but it was confusing.

Aaron
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Mercedes
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    Hi Mercedes, welcome to the site :) Which Youtube Video did you watch, and why did you find it confusing? You will get better answers if you show you made some effort towards finding the answer yourself. – nivlac Apr 01 '21 at 00:59

2 Answers2

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The bajo sexto strings are tuned in pairs, one octave lower than a typical 12-string guitar:1

                fourths
  |------|------|------|------|------|

E1-E2  A1-A2  D2-D3  G2-G2  C3-C3  F3-F3 2


|_________________|  |_________________|
     octaves               unison

This post is distilled from the Wikipedia page on Bajo sexto tuning.

1 For help tuning a guitar down an octave, see Is it possible to tune guitar down an octave?(or to f#?)

2 For more on scientific pitch notation (E1, F3, etc.), see What do the terms E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4 actually mean?

Aaron
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  • Normal 12 string guitars have an octave G, but unison B and E, due to the string tension problem there. Any idea why bajo doesn't have all strings in octaves - no tension problems there? – Tim Apr 01 '21 at 06:06
  • @Tim Maybe just to preserve the bass range of the instrument? – Aaron Apr 01 '21 at 06:24
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Just play with the top 4 strings

Allann Rodriguez
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  • I'm unclear why using the top 4 strings is the best way to emulate the tuning of a 12-string instrument? – DavidW Dec 29 '22 at 19:39