Altered Tunings: All on One Guitar?

Timcito

If you like playing in one or more altered tunings, do you re-tune the one guitar all over the place, or do you have a few guitars and designate one tuning per guitar with strings in gauges to match?

I've had more than one acoustic for most of my guitar-playing life, and at various times I'll designate one guitar for DADGAD or open G/Gm or open C and buy strings that fit that tuning - a tighter 1,2, & 6 for DADGAD, a tighter 1,5, & 6 for open G/Gm, a tighter, 1,5, & 6 and a lighter 2 for open C tuning The problem with this is that I know many more songs in standard tuning than I do in altered tunings, and if I've put string sets on a guitar in line with a specific tuning, that restricts me from tuning back to standard. So, sometimes I'll just use a standard set of strings and tune them all over the place, which can mean a rather floppy feel on the strings that have been tuned down.

What do you do?

idiotwindow

I normally have one guitar (electric) tuned in open G and the others in standard tuning. I don't bother with string gauges specific to a particular tuning.

thecolourbox

Having recently discovered the joy of CGCFCF whilst restringing my guitar, I feel like I'd need separate instrument to leave in that tuning as it's too different, however sadly having two acoustics is too much space! But I think in an ideal word I'd use an instrument per tuning especially for acoustic.

The only other tunings I use in electric is Open A (or G) or Open E which seem less of a change than something like DADGAD or the one I liked above, so I seem to have less issue with changing between tunings on that than with the acoustic which seems more likely to break things. 

stickyfiddle

I variously use open G, D, E and a tiny bit of DADGAD. 

I switch between them as & when I need on whatever guitar I need. I have never once had a defined “open tuning guitar” or considered using anything but a regular set of strings 

Timcito

stickyfiddle said:

I variously use open G, D, E and a tiny bit of DADGAD. 

I have never once considered using anything but a regular set of strings 

Do you find this wears out your strings prematurely? I've done this recently with one guitar, and it seems like I'm going to have to re-string it much sooner than if I had left it in standard the whole time. 

stickyfiddle

Timcito said:

stickyfiddle said:

I variously use open G, D, E and a tiny bit of DADGAD. 

I have never once considered using anything but a regular set of strings 

Do you find this wears out your strings prematurely? I've done this recently with one guitar, and it seems like I'm going to have to re-string it much sooner than if I had left it in standard the whole time. 

I mean maybe if you’re changing tunings a lot, but we’re talking a difference between snapping one string every couple of years to maybe twice a year. 

If I was gigging mixed tunings I’d probably want specific guitars for that, but I feel like that would be more about keeping a set flowing as it would be about saving strings! 

Timcito

stickyfiddle said:

I mean maybe if you’re changing tunings a lot, but we’re talking a difference between snapping one string every couple of years to maybe twice a year. 

If I was gigging mixed tunings I’d probably want specific guitars for that, but I feel like that would be more about keeping a set flowing as it would be about saving strings! 

And you don't worry about the varying amounts of pull on the neck with strings getting tightened and loosened?

stickyfiddle

Timcito said:

stickyfiddle said:

I mean maybe if you’re changing tunings a lot, but we’re talking a difference between snapping one string every couple of years to maybe twice a year. 

If I was gigging mixed tunings I’d probably want specific guitars for that, but I feel like that would be more about keeping a set flowing as it would be about saving strings! 

And you don't worry about the varying amounts of pull on the neck with strings getting tightened and loosened?

Not remotely! I generally favour middling strings (9/10s on electric, 12s on acoustic) but I figure if electrics can happily take 8s to 12s and acoustics 10s to 13s I'm not going to hurt anything with a smidge of a tension change

earwighoney

Not too long ago when I just had the one acoustic guitar (they seem to have multiplied) and I'd play live, I'd use a lot of different open tunings in a set and would change between those tunings when practising.  The downside is I wouldn't get a lot of mileage from one set of strings. I'd never be too bothered about strings being a bit looser in some tunings more than others.  I prefer to have a slightly higher string height at the 12th fret than some which may help.

Now I keep my guitars largely to the one group of open tunings (right now, sits in Open D) and maybe another in Open C.  Strings seem to last a lot longer.

blobb

I tune them on the fly, but I usually have 2 guitars on the go and they can be in the same or different tunings at any one time. Right now, they are in std and dadgad. I think the idea in my head is that I want to get away from the concept that they are in any specific defined tuning. I've already forgotten which of the 2 is which. I want to be able to pick up a guitar, play it any tuning no matter what it is called and detach myself further from the  world of rules. So far it's working.

WafflesOnHorseback

thecolourbox said:

Having recently discovered the joy of CGCFCF 

Now that sounds interesting! Never even occurred to me and never tried it but now I want to. Would love to hear something in that tuning if you have a link or something. Ta!

thecolourbox

I've been learning some Nick Drake songs as people often mention him when I sing, so I thought I might as well go along with it. That's a tuning he uses, I guess amongst others (I've only learnt vocals so far on anything other than this one)



And me whilst changing strings (minus the third string as it had broken, prompting the strong change in fact)

WafflesOnHorseback

That's lovely. Alot more resonant getting down there yeah? Tuning must be a bugger.

thecolourbox

WafflesOnHorseback said:

That's lovely. Alot more resonant getting down there yeah? Tuning must be a bugger.

I imagine it would be more resonant with a good guitar yeah - mine's a pretty rubbish quiet small sized guitar so resonance is an unexpected bonus and surprise if it ever occurs haha. Bear in mind I was on capo 3 I think so that would have brought it back up to Eb or E - I tuned it by ear not by any actual reference tuner, and my ear tends to be about half a semitone flatter than standard 440hz tuning, so "standard" tuning before probably wasn't at normal pitch and therefore my retuning would have been different accordingly. But the intervals were correct

I'd describe the sound and feel as happy & sad at the same time. Lots of effectively power chording the bottom 3 strings, and adjusting on the top three strings between major, minor, sus4, etc etc

thomasross20

I think one tuning per guitar is best. Takes time for the guitar to rest... and with specific strings for that tuning. No doubt about it. 

BUT... I've never done that. BUT then I don't play enough in other tunings. 
If I did/// I'd probably go that way. Else suffer floppy strings and tuning instability.

Soupman

@thomasross20 sounds like you need another guitar or two...... 

Timcito

thomasross20 said:

I think one tuning per guitar is best. Takes time for the guitar to rest... and with specific strings for that tuning. No doubt about it. 

BUT... I've never done that. BUT then I don't play enough in other tunings. 
If I did/// I'd probably go that way. Else suffer floppy strings and tuning instability.

And therein lies the issue. My tendency is to designate a guitar to a particular tuning so that the strings 'rest.' However, since I'm largely unfamiliar with chord shapes and scales in open G or DADGAD, for example, I learn fixed fingerstyle pieces from tab/notation - stuff from Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop. I can play various pieces by Pierre Bensusan and Pat Kirtley in DADGAD, some songs in open G and open Gm by John Renbourn and others. But to leave a guitar in either of those tunings is limiting because I can play those pieces and that's it, and with a nice guitar that can be a bit frustrating. That's when I say bugger it and tune one guitar all over the place!

thomasross20

Yeah I'm with you there...  You really need to devote yourself to a repertoire in a tuning else is no point reserving that guitar. So I don't lol. 

@Soupman interestingly I have put myself on the list for a custom built Canadian guitar with 2 year waiting list...   Good old Mellish would laugh about that one!

ToneControl

I do dedicate guitars to alternate tunings
Benefits are more tuning stabilty, and better string tension (& therefore better sound)

Lestratcaster

Dedicate guitars for different tuning as well. I once played an acoustic set with 3 different guitars all in different tunings. I actually used 4 tunings throughout but 1 song was only 1 string that needed to be changed so I used the same guitar. I have a bad tendency to break strings when tuning up and down so frequently so would rather just leave the guitar in that tuning I need it for then simply swap the guitar.

Stuckfast

One guitar, many tunings for me. It's a bit of a compromise especially when you tune the lowest string down to C and it gets floppy, but it's workable.