posted 12-27-2003 10:39 PM            

Sounds VERY NICE! (fatter)

posted 12-28-2003 06:27 AM               

Frank
P.S. My mother gave my 7 yr old nephew a $20
steel string for Xmas. I tuned it to concert
pitch for him, and then realized that a
DADGAD tuning would be just right for a boy
with no lessons. The guitar is a child's size
type, but it's a real cannon! He loved the
tuning, and I showed him a couple of strumming patterns. He couldn't put it down
for hours. I had a small Swiss army knife with me, and showed him how to use it as a
slide. The kid loved that as well. Another
guitarist has joined our ranks ! I saw him
the next morning heading off to his other
grandparents' house, and he had the guitar
strapped to his back in it's gig bag. Pretty
sweet deal for the money.

posted 12-28-2003 08:03 AM            

Sometimes it helps to use thicker strings when tuning down.

In fact, I use an old Martin parlour guitar strung with hard tension strings and tune it two full half steps down. The strings are a bit floppier but this arrangement makes the guitar sound huge, the bases remain very clear and focused.

I once read that Montoya used to tune three half steps down and then use a capo on the third fret to bring the whole thing up to normal tuning. This arrangement worked for him.

posted 12-28-2003 08:32 AM               

In the CG world, I vaguely recall reading about Barrios tuning 1/2 step down. I also read about Segovia tuning down 1/2 step for his premiere performance of Bach's Chaconne.

As for Carlos Montoya, he did tune down to get standard tuning when he capoed, in effect he also loosened the strings to enable him to do those one handed ligado runs.

posted 12-28-2003 09:46 AM               

Karl Scheit, the Viennese CG teacher and performer, released 2 LPs in the late 1950s with his Hauser guitar pitched lower. The result is, as riffmeister indicates, a "fatter sound". A part of this _could_ be due to our XXI century ears being so accustomed to the A/440 pitch and the sound of the open CG strings; the lower pitch stimulates different auditory nerves so there is a correspondingly different perception.

FWIW,

posted 01-09-2004 10:16 AM               

G# is 415.30 (half-step down), which is very close to the previous concert pitch of 415. G is 392.

posted 01-09-2004 12:32 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by dofrenzy:

Stevie Ray Vaughan played with his guitar tuned 1/2 step down to ease up on the string tension. FYI

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Yup. I read that he used really thick strings (although I'm forgetting the diameters now)--he liked having cables on that axe of his, and you can certainly hear why on his records.