interesting tuning...

[jazztele]

had a guy come into the shop where i teach yesterday who needed a setup done...when i grabbed his guitar, i realized it was tuned EBGDAE. that's right, backwards from low to high!

i dunno how he managed to not break some strings (as the 5th, 4th and third were up 2-21/2 steps higher than normal) but the guitar sounded very cool.

this cat, obviously self taught, had just bought a tuner, and didn't realize the strings were numbered low to high. he felt kind of dumb, so he signed up for lessons...so i got a new student out of the deal too...

little did i tell him that i'm going to try a guitar in this "reverse tuning" sometime soon.

[davidchagrin]

that does seem interesting. incredibly awkward, but interesting. i may give it a go. with a little practice, that may catch on.

[F6_FullMelt]

that does sound interesting, I wonder how it would be best put to use...

[JayFreddy]

That's how I tune all my left-handed guitars!

Be interested to hear what you come up with.

[Tim Bowen]

What the heck, why not. Guitar players often like to think of mandolins (and violins?) as "backwards" guitars. Doesn't really work for me, but then I might be dyslexic. Turnabout seems like fair game to me. I'll put this on my list of interesting things to putz around with.

On a *somewhat* serious note, I think lots of folks out there confuse the generally accepted principles of "low to high" and "up the neck". From time to time, I'll encounter a newbie that wants to argue these points until the cows come home, which might partially account for the interesting diversion. Anyway, to these folks, I usually say something along the lines of "Yeah, the universally accepted symbol for picking an up stroke looks like it's pointing downwards to me. Some optimistic folks see the symbol as opening upwards. I guess it depends upon whether the glass is half full or half empty. Nonetheless, I didn't design the symbols, nomenclature, or conventional wisdom. They are what they are. If you want to communicate, you first need to understand the accepted standards, especially as in communicating with other musicians. Beyond that, whatever works for you is fair game."

[Tim Bowen]

What the heck, why not. Guitar players often like to think of mandolins (and violins?) as "backwards" guitars. Doesn't really work for me, but then I might be dyslexic. Turnabout seems like fair game to me. I'll put this on my list of interesting things to putz around with.

On a *somewhat* serious note, I think lots of folks out there confuse the generally accepted principles of "low to high" and "up the neck". From time to time, I'll encounter a newbie that wants to argue these points until the cows come home, which might partially account for the interesting diversion. Anyway, to these folks, I usually say something along the lines of "Yeah, the universally accepted symbol for picking an up stroke looks like it's pointing downwards to me. Some optimistic folks see the symbol as opening upwards. I guess it depends upon whether the glass is half full or half empty. Nonetheless, I didn't design the symbols, nomenclature, or conventional wisdom. They are what they are. If you want to communicate, you first need to understand the accepted standards, especially as in communicating with other musicians. Beyond that, whatever works for you is fair game."

[jazztele]

what was particuarly cool about it to me was the new voicing of the Em11 chord that all strings played open in standard tuning is...

with the 5th, 4th, and 3rd strings raised from pitch and only the 2nd string dropped, it was a very tight, resonant sound...

i refuse to shop on memorial day as i feel it's a national holiday and we ALL should be off of work, but tomorrow i'm going to piece together a set of strings and try it out on my danelectro, i think...