one final 12-string guitar question

OK... I have one final question about the 12-string guitar.

Am I correct in assuming that the player almost *always* plays
the "sympathetic" smaller strings as the same fret as the "big"
string??

So the sympathetic strings are *never* played at a different fret
from the main string, but always together.

Thanks, also, to everybody for further illumination regarding the
sitar. I guess my understanding now is that there are sympathetic
strings *under* the frets of the sitar that just play along. Are
they tuned at the same pitch or at the octave??

And then there are only a couple of *main* strings that run over the
frets??

And then, on the *bass* side of the instrument there are *drone*
strings that also run *over* the frets, but they only play one note??

Am I getting anywhere on this one??

thanks

J. Pehrson

--- In metatuning@y..., "Joseph Pehrson" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:
> OK... I have one final question about the 12-string guitar.
>
> Am I correct in assuming that the player almost *always* plays
> the "sympathetic" smaller strings

there aren't any sympathetic strings -- sympathetic strings are
strings that are not plucked, and only 4 or the 6 are tuned an octave
higher than their partners.

> as the same fret as the "big"
> string??

yes.

> *never* played at a different fret
> from the main string, but always together.

correct. and the plucking goes together too, except for one guy who
spaced the strings equidistant at the bridge so that he could pluck
all 12 independently.

>
> Thanks, also, to everybody for further illumination regarding the
> sitar. I guess my understanding now is that there are sympathetic
> strings *under* the frets of the sitar that just play along. Are
> they tuned at the same pitch or at the octave??

i think you need to go look at a sitar and go look at a 12-string
guitar. there's no similarity whatsoever. the sympathetic strings
have nothing to do with the frets. they're like a "harp" that's tuned
to the mode the raga will be played in.

>
> And then there are only a couple of *main* strings that run over
the
> frets??

right, usually 1 or 2 melody strings . . .

> And then, on the *bass* side of the instrument there are *drone*
> strings that also run *over* the frets, but they only play one
>note??

right -- all together, the drone strings are tuned to a dyad, such as
C-G-C or C-F-C (C-B-C is the rarer option found).

--- In metatuning@y..., "Paul Erlich" <paul@s...> wrote:

/metatuning/topicId_3147.html#3152

> i think you need to go look at a sitar

***I agree that would be the easiest way to go about this! :-)

JP