Posts tagged as:

tunings

Like open tunings? Here’s the capo you’ve been waiting for

by Douglas Lichterman

I love playing in open tunings. When I first discovered them as a teenager, I spent hours exploring them and I still do so today. Open tunings allow you to create chord voicings that are more mysterious and colorful than you can get with normal guitar tuning. But there are a couple of downsides to open tunings. For one thing, if you want to switch between normal tuning and open tuning you either need two instruments or take the time to re-tune your guitar between songs. Another problem is that if you re-tune your instrument frequently the strings stretch out and lose their vibrant sound.

That’s why I’m excited about this new development in capos. The fine designers at Creative Tunings have given us the SpiderCapo, the first capo that allows you to capo each string individually. Think of the vast number of tunings that are possible when you multiply all the fret placements by all the combinations of strings capo’d or not capo’d—there are hundreds of them. The SpiderCapo also allows you to finger strings above and below the capo—awesome! What’s more, you can change the individual string settings while you’re playing. It makes your head spin with possibilities.

Find it at Guitar Center, $29.95.

High strung

by Douglas Lichterman

Most open tunings call for the re-tuning of the existing strings on the guitar to notes other than the standard E A D G B E. “High stringing” calls for a different approach—the notes of the strings stay the same, but the bottom four strings are replaced with strings that are one octave higher than usual. This tuning is also commonly known as “Nashville tuning”.

Nashville tuning makes the guitar sound more homogeneous because the span of notes is reduced from three octaves to two. The resulting sound has a charming shimmering effect that reminds me of a harpsichord. You can hear the sound of the Nashville tuning on your guitar right now by fretting the E A D G strings over the top of the neck with your first finger on the 12th fret. That’s the sound of your open strings in Nashville tuning.

I don’t recommend tuning your only guitar to this tuning, but if you have a second steel-string guitar sitting around, this tuning provides a fun alternative with plenty of creative possibilities.

In the olden days, you had to buy a whole set of 12-string strings to get the high-octave E A D G strings. But nowadays, D’Addario has given us their EXL150H High-Strung Guitar Strings that provide the exact six strings you need for this tuning for just $3.99 per set. You can see them here:

accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/D’Addario-EXL150H-HighStrung-Guitar-Strings?sku=102243.

[photo: House of Sims]