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I strung up the baroque yesterday, and I noticed; just like the last time; that it tuned up more like a violin. The arch top didn't. What I mean is that the strings on the arch top didn't seem to affect the other strings much at all. If the b was flat, tuning it up didn't bring the e or the g down. When you tune a violin, bringing the A up will usually flatten the E and the D some. Maybe not much, but some. I didn't notice it on the arch top at all.

But on the baroque it is really evident. You can even feel it through the pegs, you can FEEL when the aren't up to pitch. When you go back to the low string, or high string after going through them, you can tell right away they are flat.

Which way is normal? Is the arch top just stiffer?

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Why be normal?

It depends on string gauge and scale length. If you don't have equal scale lengths then you are comparing apples to oranges.

In every guitar that I own (they are all flat top acoustics) an increase in tension in one string will definitely have a tendency to make the other strings flat. It has to do with pulling the neck into more relief, and also to a degree in lifting and rotating the bridge. You get less of this effect in a solid body electric because the bridge doesn’t move (although the neck can still flex). Why is your archtop different? Firstly, it might have a stiffer neck. More important, because it has a tailpiece, the bridge doesn’t rotate under tension. In fact, string tension pushes the bridge down which may tend to sharpen the pitch of the other strings a bit, negating any effect of the simultaneous forward flex of the neck in flattening pitch.

Eventually the soundboard / string tension should stabilize and you should be able to tune a string without it affecting the others very much. If the soundboard settles overly much then the guitar may be underbraced, and will tend to fold up on itself.

Violins have more downward pressure than the arch top, but the body may shorten too. But then the neck is ridiculously weak, only the thick figerboard saves it. I guess there is a lot of stuff involved.

Strumming the first.two courses with my finger where the third fret will be, it sounded familiar. Four strikes there, and three on the second fret, and it sounds like "The Battle of Evermore". Probably the doubled strings. I didn't think they would be that noticeable. The octaves, yeah.

Clay, it does seem today that it is pretty stable. A peg seemed too tight, and loosening it didn't change the tuning, at least by ear.

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Why be normal?