Nashville - High Strung - tuning

impmann

Anyone else experimented with this? I have an old Squier Tele that I can't bear to part with but that sits around doing nothing most of the time, so I figured I'd set it up for something completely different... so I had a go with Nashville tuning.

Its basically the high strings from a 12 string set, with the B and Top E strings left standard tuning. And its great fun - it sounds a bit like a 12 string without the grief and if you double track with a normal tuned guitar you can end up with a *HUGE* sounding track. Its been so much fun that the guitar has been subjected to even more modifying to make it sound right for me - this guitar has had more pickup changes than I've had hot dinners and so it went from this:

Which was a random Strat pickup in the neck and a Kent Armstrong Cool Rails bridge pickup (the only rails pickup I've ever truly liked - but only in gainy situations).

To this:

Now has a Seymour Duncan 59 neck pickup and a Fender Baja Broadcaster bridge pickup - *much* nicer for clean stuff, especially in the mid position. Although I'm thinking about swapping out the pot as its a 500K currently (for the old KA humbucker) as the bridge pickup sounds a little thin in the skin compared to my other Tele (fitted with a Seymour Duncan Broadcaster)... we'll see if I get around to it.

If you have an unloved guitar kicking around that doesn't do much, chuck a set of Nashville gauge on it (D'Addarrio do a set so you don't even need to buy them individually like you used to) and have some fun... 

octatonic

I have had a guitar strung up in Nashville for years.

I use them for texture layers for guitar sessions.

It really benefits from cutting the nut properly for the gauge of string you are using.

Not something to do if you are just messing about with it.

I have a couple of nuts for that particular guitar, so I can swap back if need be.

Small strip of double sided tape will hold them on, rather than gluing.

impmann

Thats very true - on this guitar I haven't noticed any rattles or pings from the nut yet, so I may just have been lucky (or that the original nut is so soft, they are just biting into it!!).

octatonic

impmann said:

Thats very true - on this guitar I haven't noticed any rattles or pings from the nut yet, so I may just have been lucky (or that the original nut is so soft, they are just biting into it!!).

I tend to notice the rattles when mixing- it can be something subtle- usually tuning related.

EricTheWeary

the halfway house is the tuning a lot of African guitarists used ( I think all that twinkly guitar music has died there now replaced by angry rappers) where you replace the D with a spare high E you have lying around. Clearly not the whole Nashville hog but adds a dash of jangle to clean chord work.Useful if you want that highlife/ soukous/ Vampire Weekend/ Paul Simon thing.

impmann

Not heard of that before - thanks. How is that tuned - E A (high)E G B E?

usedtobe

Something I've fancied trying, but never got round to..

EricTheWeary

impmann said:

Not heard of that before - thanks. How is that tuned - E A (high)E G B E?

No. EADGBE but the D is a high E string ( if you see what I mean) so it might be a bit flappy if you have quite a thin gauge.Just builds in a sort of octave shimmer on chords using the top 4 strings.If you buy string packets that come with a spare high E its a no cost experiment.  

impmann

Cool. Thanks for that! :-)

ThePrettyDamned

EricTheWeary;97550" said:

impmann said:

Not heard of that before - thanks. How is that tuned - E A (high)E G B E?





No. EADGBE but the D is a high E string ( if you see what I mean) so it might be a bit flappy if you have quite a thin gauge.Just builds in a sort of octave shimmer on chords using the top 4 strings.If you buy string packets that come with a spare high E its a no cost experiment.  

Might try that on the jazzmaster...

Lixarto

I experimented with an octave D string.

It was quite pleasant:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/Lixarto/ByronTuning1.jpg

RocknRollDave

Never tried Nashville tuning - have wanted to give it a go since i heard Johnny Marr explain it in an interview a while back - but never really had an opportunity come up where it would have been required.

EricTheWeary

RocknRollDave said:

Never tried Nashville tuning - have wanted to give it a go since i heard Johnny Marr explain it in an interview a while back - but never really had an opportunity come up where it would have been required.

I can't imagine many people using it as the only guitarist in a live band. But for creating extra layers in a recording or even in a big ol' country band with three or so people playing guitar.

midiglitch

I keep an acoustic strung that way. On its own it's quite weird because the span of the chords is so much smaller than normally. However used to double another acoustic it is great. Better than a 12 string because you can pan them independently if you wish.

midiglitch

Forgot to say... For the ocean colour scene fans... They're big users of this trick

menamestom

RocknRollDave

midiglitch said:

Forgot to say... For the ocean colour scene fans... They're big users of this trick

That's me decided then, I'm never using Nashville tuning.

koneguitarist

I used to use it live in my old trio. We had 3 guitars with bass and drums on backing tracks, I often used my old Sigma strung up Nashville tuning to play across other acoustic players rhythm. Worked great.