Do you bother wirh alternate tunings?

[Tatosh Guitar]

My reasoning with different tunings has always been the same than with 7+ string instruments: I am not good enough with a regular guitar, why bother with anything else. Son in my 25+ years as a player, the most I have gone as far as different tunings is half a step down for playing along with records recorded that way.


Still, I get curious. So I have used drop d for things like RATT songs or Zakk Wylde era Ozzy, but I basically get the itch every 5 years or so. Not something I really go for. Most of the songs I like are on standard or a very slight variation.


But things like Keith Richards' Open G or all those Page tunings are totally beyond me.



That said, one of my favorite songs of all time is Kashmir. I just love it. So yesterday I was thinking if I should tune a guitar to DADGAD or not bother. I just saw a tutorial for playing it in standard, and it sounded close enough to me, but I can't help thinking I would be "cheating" in a way.



So what's you guys stand on the subject?

[M11]

I don't bother much on electric but I definitely do on acoustic. The different voicings that come with alternate tunings give your chords a totally different sonic character that is definitely more evident on an acoustic instrument.

[Dinosaur David B]

I keep one of my acoustics in open G going back to when FEINTS was covering the Stones' Moonlight Mile (it works for about 50% of all Stones songs). And I have the old Martin acoustic that I rarely play strung in Nashville tuning.


I use DADGAD occasionally if I'm doing some Zeppelin. A year or so ago, I recorded guitars for a version of Kashmir with Amy on vocals and Bootsy Collins' producer on drums, that goes back at least 10+ years to an Amy project that never got off the ground. My FEINTS bass player, Rob, played bass, so it's 3/4s of FEINTS. I HOPE it will one day see the light of day, because Amy's vocal take on it is just phenomenal. We were discussing when and how to finish it when the virus hit.

[bourbonsamurai]

i keep a guitar for open g/ double drop d, which covers delta/country blues styles, and a lot of bottleneck stuff, as well as a guitar for Eb, and a guitar for standard, of course. the Eb guitar works great for horn keys, and that's what i use it for primarily. cover four bases with three instruments. it's as lean as i can get now, guitar wise.

[inmyhands]

Back when I used to play a lot of slide guitar I keep my Fender MIM "Hippie" Strat tuned to E-C-A-E-A-E. An open Am. This was the tuning I used on "Bull Dick on the Bayou". It allows for easy slide chords. I've used Drop D from time to time but I don't have a guitar dedicated to it. Other than when playing "slide" I pretty much stick to standard tuning unless a particular song "cover" requires an alternate tuning. Hendrix one step down for example.

[M11]

Going through backups of my old computers I found some musical ideas that went nowhere and I had recorded a couple of acoustic stuff on the 12-string in an Open F tuning (CFCFAC, the same one used by Zeppelin in When the Levee Breaks) that don't sound so bad (they sound very LZ III).

Open F Tuning Riff 1.mp3

Open F Tuning Riff 2.mp3


Might as well make something out of them now.

[Tatosh Guitar]

Thanks for the posts. I have been thinking on this for the whole week. I have more than enough guitars to keep several tunings ready to go, so that's not an issue. Drop D and a half step down are pretty standard stuff anyway.


And then there's DADGAD. That one I'll probably give it a go, and see what comes up from there.

[Dr Nick]

Nope. Used to have one with Drop D, but that's it, and ended up tuning it back to standard.

If there were a reliable system for flipping between standard and Drop D I'd be interested, but given that I only play floating trems, that's a ways off yet.

[Tatosh Guitar]

Dr Nick said:


Nope. Used to have one with Drop D, but that's it, and ended up tuning it back to standard.

If there were a reliable system for flipping between standard and Drop D I'd be interested, but given that I only play floating trems, that's a ways off yet.


[/quote]
You mean like a D-tuna?

[Dr Nick]

Yes, but it doesn't work with floating trems, the whole guitar goes out of tune.