Open tuning question

[DeepEnd]

The praise band has a song coming up that would be great in open C. Normally you'd drop the 6th string down to C but I'm tempted to leave it tuned to E because the bass will be playing the low C and filling in the bottom of the chord. Our bassist doesn't do alternate tunings so drop C or whatever on the bass isn't an option. What say you?

[badpenguin]

Drop the tuning. The bass, in standard tuning, will be an octave below, so the song would have a nice richness to it.

[DeepEnd]

Drop the tuning. The bass' date=' in standard tuning, will be an octave below, so the song would have a nice richness to it.[/quote']

No it won't. If I drop the tuning to C it will be exactly the same note as the C on a bass. The A on a bass is an octave below the A on a guitar. Raise that to C by fretting at the third fret and you get the C below the low E on a guitar. Drop the low E on a guitar to C and you get the same note.

[Freeman Keller]

I love open C tuning (CGCGCe) and keep one guitar in it all the time (it also has a special set of strings). Leaving the bottom string at E would be fine since that is the second note of the triad, it would also be much easier to tune (I run a 56 on the bottom because it is so slack at C). With the tuning that I'm familiar with the second string goes up to C, you may want to consider lights on top.

 

Both John Fahey and Leo Kottke used open C a lot, Fahey even wrote a little primer on the tuning.

[badpenguin]

Duh, I stand corrected. For some reason, I was thinking 5 string bass. my apologies.

[DeepEnd]

That's okay. It would be nice to have a 5 string bass available but we don't.

[DeepEnd]

I love open C tuning (CGCGCe) and keep one guitar in it all the time (it also has a special set of strings). Leaving the bottom string at E would be fine since that is the second note of the triad, it would also be much easier to tune (I run a 56 on the bottom because it is so slack at C). With the tuning that I'm familiar with the second string goes up to C, you may want to consider lights on top.

 

Both John Fahey and Leo Kottke used open C a lot, Fahey even wrote a little primer on the tuning.

I'll be playing the Schecter with light top/heavy bottom (.010-.052) strings. It should handle the tuning fine. I've been practicing on a beater acoustic strung with lights and while the 6th string is a bit floppy tuned to C it's playable. Normal open C is fine for a solo instrument but not necessarily playing with a bass IMHO unless the bass is tuned down to something like drop C or, as badpenguin suggested, a 5 string.

[DeepEnd]

Update:

 

We played this morning with me tuned to open C with the 6th string tuned to E. It sounded a bit odd from my vantage point with the E in the bass since I couldn't hear the bass guitar but presumably it sounded okay to the congregation. I had to pay attention since I couldn't rely on muscle memory based on Standard tuning. Next time I may try open A with a capo at the third fret, which will yield a G for the sixth string.

[Mikeo]

Update:

 

We played this morning with me tuned to open C with the 6th string tuned to E. It sounded a bit odd from my vantage point with the E in the bass since I couldn't hear the bass guitar but presumably it sounded okay to the congregation. I had to pay attention since I couldn't rely on muscle memory based on Standard tuning. Next time I may try open A with a capo at the third fret, which will yield a G for the sixth string.

 

 

If I do open tuning on a dobro it's mostly in open D or G.

 

You could try one A and put a capo on the 3rd fret, or even open G with a capo at the 5th.

 

I have and old lap slide set up in C6 tuning. Great for country fills and some slide chording. There's a few variations.

• A-C-E-G-C-E.
  
• G-C-G-A-C-E.
  
• E-C-G-A-C-E.
  
• E-G-A-C-E-G.
  
• C-A-C-G-C-E
  

[DeepEnd]

If I do open tuning on a dobro it's mostly in open D or G.

 

You could try one A and put a capo on the 3rd fret, or even open G with a capo at the 5th. . . .

"Standard" Open A is

E A C# E A E

But I don't see why you couldn't also use

E A C# A C# E

as long as you get an A chord.

 

BTW, the song in question is "The Wonderful Cross" (you can find it on YouTube if you're interested and you don't know it), which has the melody played over a constant C chord throughout the verse. I was able to play melody and rhythm guitar at the same time, which was cool and different from what I normally do.

[Mikeo]

"Standard" Open A is

E A C# E A E

But I don't see why you couldn't also use

E A C# A C# E

as long as you get an A chord.

 

BTW, the song in question is "The Wonderful Cross" (you can find it on YouTube if you're interested and you don't know it), which has the melody played over a constant C chord throughout the verse. I was able to play melody and rhythm guitar at the same time, which was cool and different from what I normally do.

 

Is this it?

 

[video=youtube;gp5HnHX_RwM]

[DeepEnd]

Is this it?

 

[video=youtube;gp5HnHX_RwM]

Yes, that's it except they're playing it in D. FWIW, I tried it in open A capoed at the third fret and didn't like it as much so I'll be using open C in the future. It's fairly easy to do a simple two finger melody while strumming the open C chord. I'll probably turn down the bass on my amp so the low E is less pronounced though.