Favourite Alternative tunings?

[MF_Kitten]

Everyone, share your most Favourite alternate tunings, and maybe how you use it

this does not encompass Drop tuning or detuning, i´m talking more radical stuff

my favourite is for the 6 string, i got the inspiration for it while playing some 8 string instrument, can´t recall what it was, i think it was romanian... it was basically a double drop tuning, with octave up-strings, like a mandolin...
i reworked the basic idea and made something similar for a 6 string:

CGCGCC ( thick to thin from left to right)

the first three strings are the same as in drop C tuning, but the fourth string is tuned up to G, and the two brightest strings are tuned to the same notes, for a drone-ish sound...

hope you understand that? :P (i suck at making sense)

Also, for 7 string, just tune the lowest string to G, so it´s: GCGCGCC

it´s really harmonic and rich, and sounds very nice, try it!

[sick-boy]

I used to have Open-D on my classical. I would clamp a finger down on the second and fifth strings (I think) and just ride it all the way down the fretboard. It created this loving droning sound that reminded me of a sitar without the buzz. Very lovely.

[MF_Kitten]

that´s kinda the idea of the tuning i mentioned too it drones and resonates nicely... i have my acoustic tuned like that at the moment (CGCGCC)

[Roland]

I've been thinking a lot about alternative tunings, but I always end up resorting to standard again. All the alternative tunings I've gone through lack the ability to express more normal emotions in chords (i.e the happy major, the sad minor, etc).
That being said, I've played with the ideas of having an 8-string tuned E-A-E-A-E-A-E-A (suboctave E, high A) and a six-string in fifths, tuned to F-C-G-D-A-E (low F, normal high E), as well as a sevenstring hybrid tuning in G-C-G-C-F-A-D.
BTW - how's that Blaze Custom working out for you?

[_FR0D0]

C2 - G2 - D3 - A3 - E4 - G4
is very logical and very nice and Gootar's chord generator suports is http://www.gootar.com/folder/guitar.html

[newbieguitarmaker]

i use to use heavy strings and tuned down a halfstep on all strings on my fender, and i've always wanted to try the 3 string aaa tuning lol(also heard it in eee i think)

[MF_Kitten]

i don´t actually have the blaze custom yet, and not the guitar either, shipping is SLOW as hell... it should have been here by now...

@Roland: try out the 7 string tuning i made out of my 6 string one: GCGCGCC and report back what you think! :P

@_FR0D0 what are the numbers you put next to the notes? like the 2 and 3 and 4s? are they octave indicators? if so, that enlightens me quite a bit :P

[Ayrton]

Nothing adventurous here I’m afraid. I have all but one down a half step, and one in dropped D.

[_FR0D0]

Originally Posted by MF_Kitten

@_FR0D0 what are the numbers you put next to the notes? like the 2 and 3 and 4s? are they octave indicators? if so, that enlightens me quite a bit :P

yes the are, the standar guitar tunnig is E2 - A2 - D3 - G3 - B4 - E4

If you analize the tunning I posted the relationship between the sitring are fifths and not fourths like the regular tuning, with the exception of the first and second string that are a minor third apart.

This tunning has been used by Robert Fripp and the players at Guitar Craft. Fripp claims to have created it, but there are others that says that it was not.

[MF_Kitten]

hmm... insteresting, now i know how to write down the octave stuff too :P

so my thingy is: (G1) C2 G2 C3 G3 C4 C4 i think?

anyways, i wish i had a guitar without a floating trem here to test some of these :P

Maybe fripp invented it in the sense that he hasn´t learned it from anywhere, even if he´s not the first to do it?

like the cgcgcc tuning i ´´made´´ probably isn´t very original, and i did get the inspiration from an 8 string thingy (4 doubled strings, octave up) which was double drop, like DADA (just an example, not actual tuning, i think)... and then i added outwards from that, and tuning low enough to avoid snapping strings... and even if i did make it myself, others have probably made it too :P

[Roland]

If I'm going to go into that area, MF_Kitten, I'll try out GCGCGCE.