Electric Guitars

[Dr. Scottie C]

What is your favorite tuning to play in and why ????

[gardo]

I prefer standard tuning ,probably because I feel it is the most versatile.

I have played around with other tunings but keep coming back to what I know best

[BryceS33]

Drop B and C# standard are my two faves. Honestly, I think its because of my musical taste. I listen to a lot of low tuned post rock/metal. Plus, if you want, you can bring the brootz all day everyday.

[kayd_mon]

Hmmm... Well, other than standard, I'll use drop-D sometimes. Fun for both chunky riffing and some cool fingerpicking stuff that lets you use a bass note you ccan't always reach in standard. I always wanted to give Fripp's NST a try, but I never really have.

[billybilly]

Other than standard it's open G but probably just because I'm familiar with it.  It does sound quite beautiful though.  I played "That's The Way" by Zepplin just this morning.

[DeadNight Warr…]

Just standard E for me, or the same with a low B for my 7-strings.

I've pretty much always played standard E, except for a few years when I was tuning it all down (so, standard D or C# or whatever). So those intervals are what I'm really used to, and how I'm used to thinking of the fretboard. Anything outside of standard does my head in. Even just drop D... breaks my brain.

[Burgess]

Standard because that's how I learned to play.

[docjeffrey]

I use so many turnings these days--I don't even know the names of them. I use a Spider capo all up and down the neck playing both in front of it and behind it. I often use it with a full capo or a second spider.

My Baritone is tuned a e a d f# b (dropped a).

My favorite is standard with a spider capo on the 5th fret so it's 005050 (spider legs on second string, 5th fret, and 4th string, 5th fret). I play chords and notes on both sides of the capo.

I recorded dozens of songs last year and put together an album of the 12 best. Only one of them was in standard tuning.

[mnhhngbfs]

I mainly play in D standard... DGCFAD. It just sounds "fuller" to me. However, I just started a "sideproject" with a couple guys from a band my band has played shows with, and now I am forced to tune to standard E. I plan to tune the bassist's bass down a whole step before he shows up at the next practice and see if any one notices how much "fatter" we sound that night.

[thecornman]

Standard most of the time for me, because I learn tons of songs by ear and most of what I like to learn is in standard!  Sometimes I will tune down half a step or use drop D if learning a song with those tunings.

[kayd_mon]

@mnhhngbfs
The singer will notice for sure, unless it's you!

@docjeffrey
The spider capos work pretty well, then? I've been interested in checking them out.

[BydoEmpire]

Standard, I've just spent waaaay more time with it and it's a lot more comfortable.  It's also easier for me to learn on because I'm building on existing knowledge.

I used to do some tunes in open G and open D, but it's been a while.  I like playing in open tunings, it's just not a priority. 

[Freeman Keller]

My electric and two acoustics are in standard.   One twelve string is in standard but down two semi tones.    One twelve is in open G, one in open D but down two or three semitones.  The lap slider and one resonator is in open D, another resonator in open G, and the Dobro is in high bass G.     When I want to play slide on the electric it goes up ot open A or E (those skinny little strings, you know). And once in a while I'll drop the low E to D on any of the above.   About the only tuning I don't use is DADGAD, I don't play any Celtic stuff.

[humbuckerstrat]

Standard (even for slide) because that's what I'm most comfortable with.

[honeyiscool]

Standard. If I'm not in standard, I find it very disorienting. Probably has something to do with absolute pitch.

[PRS_JRW]

I stay in standard. I change anything, and my mind is frazzled. I suck.

[grungehack]

I use standard because I'm a lazy hack. 

[Dr. Scottie C]

I encourage anyone who hasn't to try 1/2 step down Eb tuning. From a theory standpoint of intervals, you don't have to think any differently about the fretbaord, and the slack it creates on the strings really helps with easier playing, bends, and vibrato, not to mention the fatter sound it creates.

[mistersully]

my favourite(s)

open g

dadgad

open d

standard

in that order

[BydoEmpire]

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honeyiscool wrote:
Standard. If I'm not in standard, I find it very disorienting. Probably has something to do with absolute pitch.

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Why would absolute pitch make a difference?  A 440 A is a 440 A, regardless whether it's on the 5th fret or 7th fret.  Is it due too the nature of a guitar never being perfectly in tune up the neck, so those slight differences change with different tunings?  Or do I not understand what absolute pitch is?  Is that the same as perfect pitch?