Tuning..... what is your.....

[TheViking]

......favourit tuning except the standard EADGBE, and when do u use it?

[Crunchyriff]

...crickets chirping....

[MrMike]

I've loved dropped-D for years, but I only use it for about 2 songs now because of all the "one-fingered wonders" out there. I drop my A string down to G for an approximation of Keith Richard's tuning when I want a nice greasy, bluesy feel. I use a variety of open tunings (E, G and/or D) when I play lap steel, all of which enable me to sound like a pretty good impression of a really bad slide player. :biggrin:

[Teleguy]

I do a couple ancient songs I learned in the sixties in open G.
'Bout once every five years.

When we went to Hawaii on vacation in '94, I realised that "Taro patch tuning" was open G, so I can play a couple of slack key numbers, but it's just not the same when you're not in Hawaii. :cry:
Something about the rhythm of the swayin' palm trees, and the surf breaking...

[Crunchyriff]

Something about the rhythm of the swayin' palm trees, and the surf breaking...

aye... much better than the wind-a-breaking, dinna ya think?

[Pearly Gator]

DADGAD for anything in the key of D.

[Teleguy]

Something about the rhythm of the swayin' palm trees, and the surf breaking...

aye... much better than the wind-a-breaking, dinna ya think?


Yes, I have a special tuning for that, too! ;)

[refin]

Something about the rhythm of the swayin' palm trees, and the surf breaking...

aye... much better than the wind-a-breaking, dinna ya think?


Yes, I have a special tuning for that, too! ;)

Is that the infamous "Bushes Beans" tuning? 8-[

I like open G---D-A-D-G-B-D,although I do have one song in DADGAD.

[Old Believer]

I like open g tuning. You can capo it and get a lot of different sounding chord shapes from it.

For slide I like open e.

[Brad]

For me, it's usually DADGAD or open D. I also like G and double dropped D. For electric slide, it's usually open E or G.

It seems I rarely play my acoustic in standard tuning any more. I have one electrci i nthe corner of the room I usually leave in double dropped D. Thats a fun tuning.

[mattd]

i've learned a few songs in open G, so that's usually what i turn to if i get out of standard.

[phisherman1997]

Don't really play in other tunings. I flub things up well enough in standard tuning.

[Crunchyriff]

Me too, phisherman. I mean, there are so many ways to completely destroy the 'sonic order' in standard tuning @ A440 that I've never felt the need to ruin other ones...

[SAguitar]

I'm just an old standard tuning kinda guy. I even play slide in standard even though it is kinda limited. Years ago I tried some other tunings for awhile, but I just stayed confused, so I dropped it.

[Brian]

I'm just an old standard tuning kinda guy. I even play slide in standard even though it is kinda limited. Years ago I tried some other tunings for awhile, but I just stayed confused, so I dropped it.

Must be somethin' in the moss up here, I get plum confoozed when I get out of concert pitch, let alone standard tuning! :crazy

But I've been workin' with a capo tho :yikes

[OlsonAcoustic]

I use Drop-D, and primarily DADGAD, as well as a few different capo cuts in E-440. DADGAD seems to cover all songs well with a full capo. Open DADGAD plays any G,C, or D songs well, and with a full capo, covers everything else. That was a trick I picked up from the likes of Ani DiFranco and Katie Herzig for rhythm acoustic and sometimes electric.

Seems to me that Ty Tabor used DADGAD a lot in the day on his electric, but he had a style all his own, and he made things work that probably shouldn’t have.

[leecow]

Gads, I have a hard enough time with standard tuning. Now I have to learn MORE chords?!? ;)

[Old Believer]

I have to admit, I learned a lot of stuff in Open G with a capo at various frets when I learned a bunch of early Seventies Stones stuff. Keith Richards uses Open G with the sixth string gone and capos to get the different key. Putting aside the lifestyle and the myths, the guy has a lot of tricks to make two and three chord songs sound cool.

I would like to get another Les Paul to keep in Open E tuning for slide. One can get some great sounds playing slide in Open E. I have to do a slide part in one of our P&W songs, but don't have the time to re-tune to Open E, so I do it in Standard. That's when I have to be careful, if I hit a wrong string it sounds like a trainwreck. :banghead

[Crunchyriff]

Keith Richards uses Open G with the sixth string gone and capos to get the different key.

That's because 6-strings were too many for a guy srtung-out on heroin for 30 years non-stop.. (rimshot) :angel

[Brad]

What I love about open tunings ( other than the fact they sound so cool ) is how they can be rut busters. Even playing standard, simple progressions takes on a new feel. Mixed with a standard tuned guitar, it can be a thing of beauty. I helped a singer/songwriter friend on a CD project and for several tunes he had in D, I tuned to DADGAD. It sounds like a harp was added to the mix. He was quite happy with the results.

For anyone who has not tried alternate tunings, I would recommend trying double dropped D. You just lower the two E strings down to D. This is an easy way to get started and the resulting tones are inspiring.

[Teleguy]

Oh yeah. D chords become fabulous tuned that way!
Good tip, Brad.
Thanks!

[dmw]

Open D, so I can play all those Barry Gibb chords for Bee-Gees songs :-) .

[ryanspeer]

Hi everybody - I'm the current newby here!

My favorite tuning (if you can call it that in my case) is to slap a cut-capo on my guitar which effectively tunes it at EBEABe. It allows for a lot of cool chord voicings both for rhythm and flatpicking (talking acoustic guitar here).

Good stuff!
- Ryan

[stephen]

You mean you tune your guitars?

:crazy

I'm a no frills kinda guy: EADGBE for me! That gives me plenty of challenges all by itself!