alt tunings?

[voodoorat]

i've always kind of pooh-poohed alternate tunings in large part because it annoyed me to hold a guitar that i couldn't play much on.

i recently got a 2nd telecaster (player) and decided to keef it up and put it permanently in open g and take the low e string off. i wound up taking the tuner out too because it rattled when i played it hard and it bothered me.

i have a bunch of acoustics too and switched one of them to open g but i didn't wnat to take the 6th string off because i didn't want to lose the bridge pin i guess--i'm not sure why i didn't wnat to, but i also didn't really want to play rolling stones songs on an acoustic. but i kept thinking how open g on the acoustic sounded almost banjo-like, so i took the low and high e strings off, put a new high e on and put the old high e on in the 6th string spot and tuned it up to g.

i love it. not sure if i will keep it this way but it's so cool, can just drone it as a high g and it sounds like a bell, can fret it in the barre (in which case it kind of disappears into it but doesn't fuck it up like it did if i accidentally played the 6th when it was tuned to d) or can just fret it with the 5th (low g) string and it sounds like a 12-string on those two strings.

anybody else ever do this?

[golem]

I love slide and blues so I keep on thinking I should tune one of my guitars to open E (the tuning Derek Trucks uses) or Open G (Keef, Seasick Steve).

[nomadh]

I love open tunings. Started with learning stephen stills songs. I found out open tunings seemed to make easier to play while singing. 4+20, word game eventually suite: Judy blue eyes.
That lead to some rory. Then some stones later. Then back to doing stones open in std because I didnt want to change while live.
Then the grunge drop d and finally crazy soundgarden with open friggin C and seasons with crazy open F5.
At this point it seems to hardly matter what its tuned in I just play it.

[UrenragK]

I've got one in std, one in drop D, one in Eb, and one in open G

[Partscaster]

I like open tunings. Especially open G for Stones. Jorma K uses an open tuning. Some of Duane slide.
Some stuff just doesnt sound right without it, IMO. I have heard bands really bomb some Stones covers by not tuning open, and playing poor approximations. There is one tuning that I believe Keith Richards used to use other than the open G. It was used to fill out a song's background tone when some depth to overall tone is needed during recordings.

Its an open tuning of all 6 strings, but using only first and second string guages. So ebeebe string guages, tuned to closest EADGBE ( I'm not so sure about third string, it might be a b tuned down to g) .
The idea is to create a less distinct, but chimey rhythm tone to fill out the background, when "something" seems missing. It fleshes out a thin rhythm.

[Chocol8]

I have always planned to learn an open tuning after I master standard tuning. At this point it’s not looking promising!

[toomanycats]

I began playing guitar in the mid 80s while on a heavy diet of Van Halen, so it was unavoidable that I spent a lot of time in E flat.
Through Zep and Page I became acquainted with DADGAD.
I discovered drop D tuning through Van Halen "Unchained", as well as songs like RATT's "Lack of Communication" and "Lay it Down".
Through Black Sabbath and songs like "Into the Void" I became acquainted with Iommi's C# tuning.

Though I spent a lot of time practicing, learning songs, and just noodling around in all of these tuning in the 80s/early 90s, the bands I played with always played in E Standard. There are two reasons for that.
First, when you're doing covers of "hair metal" and classic rock songs, it's easiest to be in E standard because that's the tuning most of them are in.
The second reason can be summarized in two words: "Floyd Rose". Almost everybody had a double locking tremolo on their guitar at that time, and it's simply not possible to quickly change tuning with a guitar so equipped. I'm talking about a time before the D Tuna.

Fast forward to today.
One of several acts I play with does a "mini set" in E flat, comprised of songs like Skynyrd's "Simple Man," Van Halen's "Ice Cream Man," Velvet Revolver's "Fall to Pieces," Alice in Chain's "Down in a Hole," and some others.
I use drop D for Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls," which I can put my Les Paul in on the fly in about 5 seconds.
But the majority of the time I still perform in E Standard tuning. It's just more "universal" . . . for a singer's range, for familiarity, for convenience, for maintaining the set up and intonation on my guitars.

All this being said, at this very moment I'm getting involved with another gigging duo, We have our second show tonight in fact. This guy plays in D standard all night long. I don't dislike D Standard. It feels very heavy and slinky and bending strings is a breeze, all of which I like. However, I may need to string the guitar with .10s instead of my customary 09s, just for the sake of maintaining neck relief while leaving all other factors constant.

[mickey]

I have always planned to learn an open tuning after I master standard tuning. At this point it’s not looking promising!

I used to know a guy who was an instructor at Berklee and he always had this to say about alt tunings:
"I can't play a guitar that is out of tune, If it isn't E-A-D-G-B-E, it is out of tune."

[Chocol8]

I This guy plays in D standard all night long. I don't dislike D Standard. It feels very heavy and slinky and bending strings is a breeze, all of which I like. However, I may need to string the guitar with .10s instead of my customary 09s, just for the sake of maintaining neck relief while leaving all other factors constant.

I had a guitar tuned to D standard for a while with 8’s! Talk about slinky, I had a hard time keeping certain chord shapes in tune! It does teach you to have a light touch and to also simplify your playing to use 2-3 note chord fragments instead of full 5 or 6 string chords. Paradoxically, such simplifications can get really complicated, at least for me! I didn’t stick with it.

Anyway, point being, I didn’t have to adjust the setup at all going from E standard to D standard. I don’t know if that is because the light strings already were so little tension on the neck, but I was a bit surprised. Especially since I did have to make several adjustments to the truss rod and the intonation going from hybrid (heavy bottom) 9’s to the 8’s.

[Rollin Hand]

My Ibanez MTM2 is tunded to D standard with beefy strings and....the damn thing rings like a piano. Mick Thomson is on to something with the locking Floyd-style hardtail bridge with locking nut.

I have D-Tunas on a couple of my EVH guitars, and I do like drop D a lot. Two of the EVH guitars are tuned to E flat, as you do for VH, but most of mine are E standard.

I have thought about buying a cheap Tele for the Keef tuning. Why? Why not!

[Mossman]

I like to mess around with DADGAD. Mostly on acoustic... I got hip to that when I was in a Celtic band, and I've written a couple of songs in DADGAD, but aside from that, and the occasional drop-D tuning (on songs that require it), I haven't experimented much with alternate tunings.

[zisme]

when i first started on guitar i spent most of my time in drop tunings (d, c, b). i wrote all of the songs for my first band in drop d. second band used drop c and e flat tuning. third band used drop c.

fourth band (my longest running) brought me back to standard tuning exclusively. it seems silly, as i had been playing for about a decade at that point, but it took a little time for me to get comfortable with it again.

fifth band (current) i'm mostly in standard, but have 2 songs in drop d.

i do want/plan to experiment with other alternate tunings (open tunings especially), it's just a matter of choosing which guitar(s) to dedicate to which so i can set them up properly. i'm sure at some point i'll get motivated enough to do this...