Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul in Colorado
I don't down tune a piano, why would I down tune a guitar?
I've known people who tuned down a whole step on their 12 string and then used a capo at the second fret to avoid stressing the neck, but I don't see the point otherwise. It just seems silly to me. YMMV.
One story I've heard is Jimi only tuned down because his roadies were too stoned to read the strobe tuner.
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I doubt Jimi had a strobe tuner! It was all by ear. You can hear him stretching his strings with big Albert King style bends and tuning up *while* he's playing HEAR MY TRAIN A COMIN, the first song on the 5/25/69 San Jose, CA tape.
I suspect it was like that a lot and Eric Barrett or whoever slapped on a set of strings 10 minutes before the gig most times.
Back in the day I got sooo tired of retuning all the time so I finally got a strat tuned to Eb for Hendrix, Trower stuff I wanted to learn and another guitar tuned to concert pitch.