California Guitarists Drop Acid Every Gig

Bob-Dubery

...is the mnemonic for remembering Robert Fripp's "New Standard Tuning".

CGDAEG (nearly all in 5th intervals from string to string).

Read all about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Standard_Tuning

Squonk

good stuff, cant wait to try it, but tuning the 1st string to G seems like it might be a bit hectic. Maybe should order a set of Fripps special strings.

Bob-Dubery

I think it helps to have a longish scale neck to keep slack key tunings in tune. Martin Carthy plays a Martin 000-18 (which is 24. something inch scale, so shorter than a Fender) and he mostly plays in CGCDGA - which has the first a whole tone higher than Fripp's NST - and he has to retune a lot between songs.

Martin Simpson also tweaks the tuning a lot between songs and when I saw him in September he was, I'm fairly sure, playing in CGxxxxx (where x = "something").

Neither of those guys bends a lot. Simpson plays with 13s.

AlanRatcliffe

Being a bit of a Fripp fanboy, I experimented with NST a while back. Didn't last long as, while it does make certain things easier, it invalidates nearly everything else I'd learned up 'til then. I think it has more benefits for the scalar type player, rather than the chordal.

arjunmenon

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: Being a bit of a Fripp fanboy, I experimented with NST a while back. Didn't last long as, while it does make certain things easier, it invalidates nearly everything else I'd learned up 'til then. I think it has more benefits for the scalar type player, rather than the chordal.

Have you tried Gambale's tuning (low to high ADGCEA)? Supposed to be very beneficial to chordal players (FG mentions something about making piano-like chord voicings more manageable).
I'd love to give this one a try, but i'd have to change the first 4 strings gauges to accommodate the tension.

Bob-Dubery

Arjun Menon wrote: Have you tried Gambale's tuning (low to high ADGCEA)?

Isn't just that a 5th below standard tuning? More like a baritone guitar (assuming you're tuning down) than a different tuning.

Either that or a regular guitar in standard tuning capoed at 5.

AlanRatcliffe

Arjun Menon wrote: Have you tried Gambale's tuning (low to high ADGCEA)? Supposed to be very beneficial to chordal players (FG mentions something about making piano-like chord voicings more manageable).

Yeah - that's basically a baritone, which I do quite like. It does have a completely different tonality, which is more pianolike (plus I can mix bass techniques on the low strings with guitar techniques on the top. I'm just waiting for the right one to come along - something that is a proper baritone, with longer scale length, wide neck and fat strings.

Bob-Dubery

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
Arjun Menon wrote: Have you tried Gambale's tuning (low to high ADGCEA)? Supposed to be very beneficial to chordal players (FG mentions something about making piano-like chord voicings more manageable).
Yeah - that's basically a baritone, which I do quite like. It does have a completely different tonality, which is more pianolike

Yes. It's strange that you get that real ringing sound with those slack key tunings. Martin Simpson and Martin Carthy both regularly play with their guitar slack keyed down towards baritone territory (Carthy uses CGCDGA) and get a great ringing quality to their playing. Carthy especially sounds like somebody smacking bells around with rather expensive hammers.