Spring Tune-up Special

Manitou

This began with my interest in various Satriani tunings, and my quest to find the right strings for the best sound and proformance. I know lots of Artist like to \"protect\" this aspect of their sound....like a fisherman not willing to give away his favorite fishing hole.
Since I began looking into this...I'm all of a sudden finding info leaping out at me, like morel mushroom hunting. They are there in the hardwoods forest floor, and until you \"tune\" (excuse the pun) your eyes to SEEING them, you'll walk right past them, and all of a sudden...eureka...voila...there they are!
In this months issue of Guitar One...Elvin Bishop talks about his using the standard tuning for his slide work, whereas many will use the G tuning or open E.
On the CD...Richie Sambora \"protects\" his secret tunings. Thanks Richie....come up to N.Michigan...and I'll take you Brown Trout and Salmon fishing, and maybe we can talk about secret recipies.
This topic is opening up more to me, and I'm wearing the batteries out of my Boss TU-15.
Here is a short list of tunings I've found so far.

EADGBE........Standard
CGDAEG.......New Standard
AADGBE........Drop A
EAEAC# E.....Open A
EAEACE.........A minor
EADGCF........Fourths
DADGBE........Drop D
DADGBD.......Double drop D
DADF# AD.....Open D
DADFAD........Open D minor
DADGAD.......DADGAD tuning
DADDAD.......D modal
DGDGBD.......Open G
DGDGBb D....G minor
DGDGBE........G6
CGCGAE........C6
CGDGAD.......Low C
CGCGCE.......Open C
EBEAb BE......Open E
Eb....tune each string down 1/2 step
Nashville .....tune 6 & 3 one octave higher

zap

Thanks for another excellent topic and post. This could rejuvinate the 2nd half of my short guitar playing life. One college prof has some definative source material - http://eceserv0.ece.wisc.edu/~sethares/index.html

web surf

This is very interesting !!

Please tell me more .........

Why have other tunings ?

Who uses alternate tunings, on which songs ( all i know is that Sweet child of mine is in Eb)

Do Artists who use alternate tunings use them throughout a performance or use different guitars for different songs ?

Would you advice novices to begin learning guitar on standard tuning or are there easier and more useful first tunings ?

Any famous artist using a Midi guitar and sets up alternate tunings via Midi ? ( I have an old Casio Midi guitar and would love to try alternate tunings some time)

Manitou

web surf,

Well, even though I've been aware of alternate tunings, and custom tunings from my humble beginnings, I've dabbled very little. I know Bob Dylan was nortorious for customizing his sounds, as were even the Beatles, Stones, Clapton, etc. My upbringing did make me painfully aware...my simple understandings would be where I make my bed and lay...unless I would be willing to roll up my sleeves and expand.
Why sound like everyone else? Well...that is part of the idea, behind custom tunings. Some tunings just lend well to certain music or technique. As I mentioned...slide players favor G tuning or open E....whereas Elvin Bishop in an effort to be unlike others...chose a different tuning...and his was the standard tuning...but as he puts it...he didn't have multiple guitars back in the day, to afford any alternate tunings...and didn't want to have to keep retuning during a performance...so he learned his bottle-neck around the standard sound.
I didn't spend much time actually LEARNING what I was doing back then. I was kinda just busy enough regurgitating what I heard others doing. It was your basic rock and blues stuff, and with limitations. We'd wear out albums just trying to pick apart the notes, chords and key...and then make it sound close enough. If someone came up with sheet music....it was a foreign language...none of us could read.
I am just beginning to learn, and apply knowledge. I am finding favorites that I personally like, and what fits my style of music or taste. Hopefully, I'll even make up my own brand and sound and music...from all the artist I love and currently try to copy.

Who does what and why? Well...that is a loaded question, and I don't want to write a book. Artist want to be unique and expressive...so there is no limitations. An example is Nancy Wilson on her song \"Lucky Trumble.\" She uses and open D tuning with a twist. The first string is tuned E (instead of D). So you have DADF# AE.
I'm currently focused on learning Satriani music. He uses a lot of Nasville tunings on rhythm guitars, and the ever popular Eb tuning...one of my most favorite sounds. \"Extremist\" and \"War\" are a couple Eb tuned songs. But Satch being the ultimate master of tone...there is much so far above my pay grade...I'm simply not worthy. One song I love lots and wish I could figure out is \"Why\". There is a Nasville tuned rhythm but also a Digitech Harmony Machine with an E minor chord preset. (whatever the hell that is.) I'm struggling to just do the solo in standard.
Not into figuring out the Blues master's yet. I have enough just learning the basics for myself....and it is my hope some of the ladies and gentlemen here might throw us a bone.

You are going to see what you want to see.



.....and there may be no end to this....lets hope so.

web surf

\Manitou\ wrote:

Nashville .....tune 6 & 3 one octave higher

I suppose this needs different strings than the normal ones ?

Are the Fender \"Nashville Tele\" and \"Nashville Power Tele\" tuned as above ?


Anyone here use the Nashville Power Tele ? It has got me intrigued, a Tele with 3 pickups plus a Fishman Piezo , 5 way switching

http://www.instrumentpro.com/P-FEN0135000

Manitou

I haven't been working at this very hard over the last two weeks, but did stumble on a couple things;

Drop D is considered a standard for Country music.

Drop D is a good place to start trying alternate tunings.
Drop your low E a whole step to D. Rockers will tune the entire guitar down a half step or more from standard E...then drop the low E another whole step....to emulate Drop D....and seek a sound below standard tuning.

Nashville Tuning....this is the one that confuses me the most. I wasn't sure what strings would be best for this.
I'm finding out...it's not really a tuning. So that confuses me even more. Above post...the knowledge I learned is you tune the 6 & 3 strings one octave higher.
Another book is telling me....it's not a tuning....but a re-stringing.
Get a set of strings intended for a 12-string guitar, then just put the thin (higher octave) strings on your six string guitar. String your low E string with the octave string for the low E from the 12-string set. Do the same for the A,D, and G strings.
Use a normal B and high E string.

Manitou

.......more ...you're going to see what you want to see.



and there may be no end to this...lets hope so.



regards...Manitou