Members AlvarHanso Posted February 20, 2012 Members Share Posted February 20, 2012 At the risk of sounding like an idiot, I'm a bass guitarist and am going to be getting a guitar for some recording, and I've always been curious at why the B string is tuned to B, and not C. On bass, some 5 strings are tuned to a high C instead of low B, and 6 strings almost always are (no idea on 7 strings and above). I asked my former guitar player, his response was that he hadn't thought about it, but if he had to guess it would probably be to make open tunings easier. Which, seeing how the 1st string is E, that makes sense. Just curious if anyone has any ideas on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members brwnhornet59 Posted February 20, 2012 Members Share Posted February 20, 2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_tunings Well is you look at it like this, when you strum with nothing fretted you get an E-11. If you added C instead of B you would have E-b9b13 with out the 5th. This tuning lends itself to an easy compromise of fingerings of scales and chord structures as well. On a side note the E-11 lends itself to be used as either a dorian, phrygian or aeolian voice, since they all contain an 11th. If it was an E-b9b13 it would only lend itself to Phrygian. Check out the above link for further in depth analysis. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dvuksanovich Posted February 20, 2012 Members Share Posted February 20, 2012 It's basically a compromise to make chords AND scales relatively easy across multiple keys. There are different tunings that would make chording in certain keys easier. Tuning in all fourths would make scales easier, but if all the strings were tuned in fourths, you'd end up without the octave at the first string which makes chord shapes (especially barre chords) nice and simple in pretty much any key. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeremy_green Posted February 21, 2012 Members Share Posted February 21, 2012 For chording... Most bass players don't do it much so it is less of a concern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JonR Posted February 21, 2012 Members Share Posted February 21, 2012 It's a kind of imperfect compromise, as mentioned. It might be worth mentioning that it probably derives from 6-course lute tuning, which has the major 3rd between the middle 2 strings, but resulting in the same 2-octave relationship between the outer strings. As well as the ease of chord shapes and scales, it's probably a little easier to tune by ear with this arrangement than if the top 2 strings were C and F. Making them B and E gives them a closer harmonic relationship to the other strings, particularly low E and A.It's also worth pointing out that many guitarists have explored alternative tunings, including one entirely in 4ths (and another entirely in major 3rds), as well as various combinations of intervals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jonfinn Posted February 21, 2012 Members Share Posted February 21, 2012 Because the guy who was supposed to invent the tuning slipped, causing the second string to slack down to B (rather than C, his original plan). Under his breath he muttered, "{censored}" then finished the job. Next he tuned the 1st string down to E to cover the mistake. Rather than admitting his error he just said, "Here it is." Guitarists worldwide have been suffering ever since. Moral: Never admit your mistakes. Always blame others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted February 21, 2012 Members Share Posted February 21, 2012 Yeah but now all the chords come out right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AlvarHanso Posted February 21, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 21, 2012 Thanks for the very reasonable explanations, it makes a lot more sense to me now! Especially you jonfinn, yours is the most logical of all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jonfinn Posted February 21, 2012 Members Share Posted February 21, 2012 Thanks for the very reasonable explanations, it makes a lot more sense to me now! Especially you jonfinn, yours is the most logical of all! Hahahaha thanks!!! We guitarists are a pretty dopey bunch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members polishpaul Posted February 21, 2012 Members Share Posted February 21, 2012 Hahahaha thanks!!! We guitarists are a pretty dopey bunch! And that's the reason for the B string quirk....to make it easy to play Triangle Blues. What's that? Finger a D7 down at the nut....D root open D string, first finger on second string first fret, second finger on third string second fret and third finger on first string second fret. Lock those three fingers into that triangle. With that you can do C7 and G7 (with the second finger on the roots) in first position and another D7, with the second finger on the fifth fret, fifth string....this opens up the wonderful world of slide with regard to the C7. Open strings are available, too. The B string is your friend ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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