One tuning is sufficient

[bryanbradfield]

I've avoided cluttering up Kim's August 22 posting "Songs in open G only" as I am not currently a bottle-neck player. I realize that there is a tendency to follow the guidelines of some key performers of the past when playing bottle-neck style. I did play bottle-neck style 50 or so years ago, and did a recording session on bottleneck a few short years ago.
I've been a teacher of dobro for many years, while simultaneously performing in a variety of genres.
Michel Messer said in the above-mentioned thread " You should be learning the songs that you love, not the songs that someone else plays." I really, REALLY like that sentence.
I've found that I can arrange most of the tunes I want to perform (I don't sing) while using plain old high bass G tuning (GBDGBD). Coincidentally, I arrange those songs myself, and am often transposing from pianists or spanish style guitarists, in standard as well as open tunings. I play in as close a presentation of finger-picking as I can manage. I also am not tied to the key of G (the tuning of the dobro).
I did a festival workshop on Saturday past where a former student said he was using C6 now. My response was that it was a good tuning for some specific styles, but I avoided it as it has an inherent Hawaaian, or western swing flavour to it which would tend to limit my versatility. He agreed completely.
My experience in performing is that I do not want to be fussing with re-tuning (I've done that); I do not want to be taking a chance with string breakage (I've done that).
So, what I have settled on is one vanilla flavoured tuning, which I will work around to fit my needs.

[pete1951]

Because I am very lazy, and strings seemed very expensive when I started playing in the 60s I am definitely in the ‘one tuning is enough ‘ camp, ( though it would be low bass G, aka. Spanish. aka. open G)
Naturally ( at least when I had just started play) it was ( sometimes still is) frustrating not to be able to play some songs as they were originally played , but I feel ‘at home ‘ in G whatever key I am playing in.
Some players stick to one tuning, ( put list here) some change all the time ( yet another list , I know Michael is not keen on lists so you will have to make your own)
Pete

[snakehips]

Hi there !

Although clip-on guitar tuners are very good these days, and quite fast to use, I don't really want to have the audience waiting as I tune a guitar to a different tuning.
So, I tend to bring multiple guitars to a gig (as well as my e.piano !). A hassle that I think is worth it !

[Michael Messer]

I also use mostly GBDGBD on lap steel, Dobro and Triplate guitars as although it is very very major, it is incredibly versatile. I do often slacken the 3rd G string down to F# which opens up numerous possibilities for me. However, for bottleneck style I do find I need more than one tuning to express myself the way I want to. Sure I can manage in one tuning, but I prefer to play in various tunings, mostly DGDGBD DADFAD and DADF#AD.

I spent my formative years doing gigs with one National guitar, a 12 fret Style O. So at gigs I would use it for bottleneck and lap steel playing in all kind of tunings, as did everyone else I knew that was out gigging playing that type of music. There were times touring Europe on trains where it would have been impossible to carry more than your guitar and your clothes. So going from tuning to tuning and lap style to bottleneck style, all in the space of a few songs, is something that I don't even think about. It doesn't take long to tune from DADF#AD to DGDGBD, just a few seconds, and if your audience can't wait for you to do that, they are not your audience. A musician tuning their instrument is not something that should be a problem in front of an audience. Trust me, they will wait.

These days when I am travelling in the UK in my large car I have the luxury of using more than one guitar on stage. It is fun for me to vary the sound and it adds to the show. I do not have guitars for different tunings, I have guitars for different sounds. However, when I fly to gigs, which I often do, I mostly only take one guitar and just like when I was cutting my teeth, I can quite comfortably do everything on one guitar. I guess it's what I was trained to do.

Bryan, thank you for liking my sentence! :-)

Shine On
Michael

[snakehips]

Did someone mention teeth ?? !!!

I often have three guitars for gigs :
1. National in regular tuning for acoustic bluesy stuff
2. Electric in regular tuning - often my Gibson L50 archtop with added Dearmond FHC pickup (for Muddy Waters stuff)
3. Electric in Open D - Kay acoustic with Dearmond Rhythm Chief pickup, or a solidbody electric (eg. a 1951 Silvertone 1361)

So, different sounds as well as different tunings.
Recently I've been needing an electric guitar in Open G (for John Lee Hooker stuff) - but my L50 with Dearmond doesn't quite fit the bill for that

[slide496]

On the opposite end of the spectrum - I use a bunch of acoustic instruments with different sizes, setups, voicing, different tunings and pitch. I think that's an advantage as a home player who isn't interested in live performing that I don't have to take into account performance considerations. It also gives me an opportunity to shift my seating and playing position where I can mix my practice day using instruments of various sizes. I'm not sure if that is an ergonomic perk or not varying the position. I do think it makes it less tedious and holds my attention and focus longer.

[Pickers Ditch]

"Michael Messer said in the above-mentioned thread " You should be learning the songs that you love, not the songs that someone else plays."

Whew! - I may have done something right for a change...

I've taught myself to play (badly) 'Like A Rollin' Stone', 'The Weight' and '44 Blues'(Howlin' Wolf style) in C Vastapol with slide/fingers on my 12 string.

It's challenging for this ancient bass player but it's serious fun.

Also doing some of the old Chess masters solo acoustically on a 6 string resonator tuned to either G or D is a big laugh, too.

[Michael Messer]

Aug 25, 2022 13:53:44 GMT snakehips said:

Did someone mention teeth ?? !!!

Haha....🦷🦷🦷

Shine On
Michael

[kim]

This might be a fast option, to change quickly-

[Pickers Ditch]

Aug 26, 2022 19:18:21 GMT kim said:

This might be a fast option, to change quickly-

At 105 quid a pop I'd want it to play the whole of the first set for me too.

What's wrong with ears and fingers like wot's been done for centuries?

Shuffles off stage left mumbling into his beard about fings aint wot they used to be....

[kim]

yeah don't think I would pay that, also ears and fingers need the practice and the fine tuning, mine anyway

[bryanbradfield]

I see a broad spectrum of preferences and experiences from you folks.
I agree with Michael that an audience will wait for tuning or re-tuning.
However, like pete1951, I was retuning with old strings in the 1960s, and cussing at broken strings that resulted.
So, like snakehips I began carrying multiple instruments to gigs, but I tired of that quickly.
More recently I retuned my dobro to a 6th tuning for performances of western swing material, but broke that raised string during retuning more than once..
I am approaching the time when I believe I will slow down gigging. So, like slide496, I will be reaching for different guitars from my collection, possibly in different tunings, but probably not. At this point all of my arm-pit guitars are in standard, and my lap guitars are all in high bass G.
But it is interesting reading these different approaches and perspectives. Thanks to all of you.

[twang1]

I tend to play in open D and open G mostly, but in the last few years I started to play in other tonalities as well.
In open D I play in G or A. Same thing for open G, I can play the IV or the V. And if you add a capo you start to have a good number of available keys.

When I travel by car I carry an acoustic in standard and a metal reso for open tunings.
When I fly it's just a wooden reso for everything.

I might be wrong but the most used open tuning around the globe is some sort of open D, depending on the number of strings.
Frank

[chromatic]

Comments on some of the above

1. I had a Fender 3x8 triple for a while and many was the time I looked at it while playing live and wondered where I was. Option anxiety was the name of the E9, B11 or C6 game for me

2. The much derided Gibson Robotuners worked for me under shop conditions but took what seemed an age to repitch. Not very practical for stage I'd guess

3. A recurrent theme on The Steel Guitar Forum is to learn one tuning inside out and there will possibly be no real need for another

Cheers