Advice on All Fifths Tuning for guitar manual

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Broomy
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Re: Advice on All Fifths Tuning for guitar manual

Post by Broomy »

Thanks for your side-note. I know both, I even refer to Fripp in the preface of the scales- and chordsbook.
Do you use the new standard tuning or an AFT?

Hans
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
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ufug
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Re: Advice on All Fifths Tuning for guitar manual

Post by ufug »

Very cool. I look forward to trying this out and seeing to book. Basically a giant mandolin tuning!

I'm primarily a non-pedal steel player, a rather antiquated instrument except for the Dobro in bluegrass and a few rock lap steel players. In the non-pedal world, tunings are a primary discussion point. It's common to have instruments with multiple necks of 6, 7, 8 (or more) strings on each, and different tunings for all of them. Sure, "regular" guitarists explore non-standard tunings once in a while, but on the non-pedal steel it's a regular, every day thing.

I bring this up because it may be helpful to delve into the steel world a little and see how tuning information is shared, explained and distributed. Places like the non-pedal forums or Joe Ely's legendary tuning page might be interesting to look at. Or for example, something like this amazing exploration of the C6 tuning (one of the most common non-pedal tunings) might look like a ransom note at first, but it's actually a work of genius.
listenable at c6a7.org
Broomy
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Re: Advice on All Fifths Tuning for guitar manual

Post by Broomy »

Cool!

Yes it's basically a cello with two higher strings.
I also have a metal stringed version tuned an octave lower, this gives a full bass range + guitar range.

Cool that you are a non-pedal player and great links.
I recently build a prototype of an acoustic slide-guitar.
The concept is as simple as it gets: just a box, but although it needs to be build much lighter to get a better sound response (you can land a jumbo jet on it without doing it any harm) the concept works!
As for the tuning: the six strings are tuned open C tuning and the ten strings are tuned C6, but I'm tweaking it now to a become C13 tuning (finding the tuning is like finding the holy grail...).
Cool thing is that the ten strings can act as sympathetic strings.
The E in open C tuning can be tuned up to F, that way this tuning can be used for Indian classical music.

A great feature of a slide-guitar is that you can use just-tuning or 31-tet tuning just (no pun intended) by retuning the strings.
And of course all time favorite Guitarix, provides a tuner which can handle al sorts of tunings...


What kind of non-pedal guitars do you have?

Hans
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
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ufug
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Re: Advice on All Fifths Tuning for guitar manual

Post by ufug »

Oh, man, that "box guitar" is so cool! Sounds halfway between a dulcimer and a Weissenborn.

For steels, I mostly play an 8 string Georgeboard (C6) and a 1948 double 6 Ric with horseshoes (A6 and E9). I have a couple laps from the 30s (an Oahu and an Epiphone) as well. They are great instruments to collect because they are soooo cheap compared to guitars--nobody wants them, really.

I favor 6th tunings--there's so much theory to unlock there. C13 is handy too, I just used it for a fun gig that was mostly standards + country. You might be interested in C6/A7 (the basic six string low to high is C# E G A C E) if you like C6. Not great for lush strums because of the C#, but you can get major, major 6, minor, minor 7, and dom 7 chords plus quite a few subs without slanting the bar.

Anyway, checking out your PDF now and it's pretty amazing--clear and well laid-out. I think I will actually try it out even though I'm a pretty lame guitar player. Thanks for sharing it!
listenable at c6a7.org
Broomy
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Re: Advice on All Fifths Tuning for guitar manual

Post by Broomy »

Thanks!

I'll check out the tunings, lately I'm playing my guitar more because of gigs but will certainly pickup the box again.
You've an impressive collection of steels!

Hans
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
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