Spanish A tuning

[jono1uk]

Hi Guys 

Will the MM blues go to Spanish A tuning (EAEAC#E) its got 13 -56 gauge strings on .. i tried it on the 6 string parlour and snapped the G string tuning up!!

Jon

[Michael Messer]

Hi Jono

Your guitar will be fine in EAEAC#E, but with 13/56 strings it will feel a little choked and quite often the wound third string doesn't approve and breaks. Funnily enough in EBEG#BE, which is only a semitone down, the third doesn't break. That is the same on your parlour guitar, use a plain third and it won't snap.

To be on the safe side with 13/56 gauge strings, after playing in EAEAC#E you should de-tune it back down to something not so tight.

If you want it to stay in that tuning, you should fit a lighter set. John Hammond, for example, keeps his 14 fret Duolian in EBEG#BE and EAEAC#E with something like 12/52 and a plain third, in fact maybe lighter.

Personally I prefer using a capo. Not because it is safer, but because I like what it does to the feel of the guitar. I like the tension and the fact that you have to play beyond the body join and that gives a certain something to the way I play. Choice of tunings and use of capos is not just about the key you sing in, it is also about the feel of the guitar with or without a capo.

Unless you own a vintage guitar which is fragile, within reason and with respect for it, you should do whatever you want with your guitar. By the time I had been playing a few years I had tuned and strung my guitars in every possible way, and they were vintage guitars with no truss rods and irreplaceable cones. The whole point of instruments like MMs is that they are not rare vintage pieces, they are working tools with replaceable parts.

Experimenting and trying different tunings, strings, guitars, picks, slides, etc... is how you learn to play.

Shine On
Michael