Re: Anyone here tuning guitars in fifths?

[Ted Killian <tedkillian@charter.net>]

Per,

Since for the past 20 years or so I've been tuning the first 3 strings of 
my guitar C G D, I've often wondered what it would be like to continue 
tuning the other 3 strings in 5ths as well.

But because I use the tremolo bar so much, the very thought of all that 
extra tension on the high strings (and the tendency to break 'em) gave me 
pause.

I never did try it, nor any of the variants mentioned.

I pretty much have just stayed with my own weird C G D G B D tuning all 
these years.

Maybe I could get minor points for getting half way there.

I pretty much use that one tuning on all my guitars, except for my 
resonator which is tweaked up to D A E A C# E.

I wish you well on your experiments Per.

Ciao!

Ted

On Apr 8, 2013, at 7:29 AM, Per Boysen wrote:

> Cool guys, thanks for spilling the knowledge! I'm mostly interested in
> how players experience the guitar under this fifths tuning. Like...
> how does it affect the instrument's resonance? Sympathetic vibrations
> when letting a chord ring? etc, etc.  But if there is a name for it,
> "New Standard" as Tony says, then fifths on a regular guitar must have
> been tested out by quite a few and found to work ok.
> 
> Ah, thank you Michael for chiming in on the New Tuning Mystery. Now I
> understand. LOL. I think I'll try that but with the one-octave-lowered
> B on top instead of the G. This would make fingering cello equivalent
> and also add an exciting dimension of burdun and closed voicing (which
> is what you lose when going from fourths to fifths). So a handy
> compromise that might even not be a compromise at all but a "New
> Thing". Yes, "New Thing Tuning"... that's the future :-)
> 
> Greetings from Sweden
> 
> Per Boysen
> www.perboysen.com
> http://www.youtube.com/perboysen
> 
> 
> On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 4:18 PM, Tony K <bigtonyk@gmail.com> wrote:
>> That's nearly the New Standard Tuning except you tune the high string 
>> to G
>> instead of B.
>> 
>> 
>> On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 10:14 AM, Simeon Harris
>> <simeonharris40@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> i did do it once on my VG88, as you can have any tuning you like. i 
>>> think
>>> i started with B or C on the bottom. it was pretty freaky! i have 
>>> noticed a
>>> few players tuning in fourths all the way across with C and F on the 
>>> top two
>>> strings. the range is just so big with fifths and you're limited by 
>>> what you
>>> can do with the top string. A4 is common on 8 string instruments with 
>>> scale
>>> lengths from 24-25.5in, so if you work down from there, you get Bb, F, 
>>> C, G,
>>> D, A, which is doable if you move some strings around, with what you 
>>> would
>>> normally use for a B string on the 7 string on the bottom (down a 
>>> semi),
>>> then an E string (up a semi), then a D string (down a tone), then a G 
>>> string
>>> (no change!), an E string (down a tone) and the 008in A string on top
>>> 
>>> On 8 Apr 2013, at 14:51, Per Boysen wrote:
>>> 
>>>> The more I play fifths tuned string instruments (like the Cello and
>>>> the Stick) the more I like it and I'm curious about if it would even
>>>> be possible to tune a six stringed guitar in fifths?
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> -==-=-=-
>> Tony
>