4 ms·

A bit off-topic but if you're interested in some modern players that make heavy use of alternate tunings, I strongly recommend Ichika Nito and Yvette Young (Cov

A bit off-topic but if you're interested in some modern players that make heavy use of alternate tunings, I strongly recommend Ichika Nito and Yvette Young (Covet). Ichika has tons of videos of him playing in the weirdest tunings and it's quite entertaining.

draegtun 4y ago
Also see "Ostrich" tuning used by Lou Reed / The Velvet Underground - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich_guitar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich_guitar
camgunz 4y ago
Can also recommend Covet, great songs, and the guitar work is pretty bonkers--really incredible what different tunings and tons of practice/talent can do. I watched a YT where Yvette Young was talking about how her 1st tele had Bill Lawrence pickups, which (after a truly mad dive into pickup research) I now also have in my main guitar (microcoils + an L45-S in a strat, not a tele, I'm not a monster). My point here is: be careful or you might find yourself up at 1am trying to decide what capacitors you want on your tone pots.
- jimnotgym 4y ago
  Thats one rabbithole, but mine might be worse. I recently made my first pickups. First I made a coil winding machine, after lots of late night research. I bought an old sewing machine and took it to pieces for the main components. After my first build I improved my machine with some 3d printed parts. Then there is the process of choosing and sourcing the components, coils, wire magnets, wax... Then the actual process of getting the winding done...lots of broken wires later...my tele has an awesome set of pickups which sound so clear. The neck pickup is very non standard, more like a strat pickup. What a stupid hobby!
  - tricky 4y ago
    I love that you did this DIY. I just had a guitar built by a guy who also winds pickups per your specs - I loved that I could have him dial in the tone exactly how I wanted.
    - jimnotgym 4y ago
      I needed a set of tele pickups. I like the sound of YouTube guitarist Danish Pete's telecaster. I heard it had a Fender 'nocaster' bridge pickup in the bridge, and a 'twisted tele' in the neck. Fender only sell those as sets of two of each, so I would need to buy 4 pickups for the two I needed. List price is £200 for each set, and try and sell the unwanted pickups on ebay...but other people are already onto this and there are lots of the 'wrong' pickups listed. Making your own is the obvious solution! I have 2 strat projects I needed pickups for too, so it will begin to pay off. I reckon I broke even in equipment (but not time) after one pickup.
  - camgunz 4y ago
    Wow that is _wild_ and I love it. See this is why I need to buy a house: I need space for the sewing machine I'll inevitably use to wind my pickups haha. I think it's a super fun hobby, I really loved the process of choosing tone and options and learning what affects what. It made my guitar feel like a real players' instrument, like I made my own tool. I'll almost certainly do it again--maybe yeah make my own pickups, but what you did is next level haha.
    - jimnotgym 4y ago
      I rent a storage unit so I can have spare sewing machines on hand. Without that where would you keep your spare oscilloscope, your various antennea, and your guitar projects? The guitar I put them in...I made that too. To be fair I got some of the parts from a kit (cheap way to get some parts), but I modified it in a number of ways, and changed all of the hardware. It is a lot of fun. I did think about blogging about it, but I didn't think anyone would care
      - camgunz 4y ago
        Would read! There's not a ton of info about this online as far as I can tell, and more would be better.
  - kjkjadksj 4y ago
    Whatever you do, don't start building your own effects pedals or this probably gets exponentially worse
    - jimnotgym 4y ago
      Too late for me I'm afraid...I built my first effects pedal before I owned a guitar! I have not built that many since tbf, but that doesn't stop me planning to. I found my fuzz face recently that I spent forever characterising AC128 germanium transistors to get that magic combination...it still sounds completely mental!
yamtaddle 4y ago
A popular (well, used to be) artist who does this is Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional, huge in the early '00s, was basically a solo act when he started, break-out and biggest hit was "Screaming Infidelities" which got a ton of radio play). I think he did it to make it easier to play+sing his songs solo, is all I can figure. Heavy use of multiple open tunings. He'll use like half a dozen tunings on one album, plays on stage with a rack of guitars so he can swap between songs.
a4isms 4y ago
Not a modern player, but the great Joni Mitchell used alternate tunings so much, she claims that only a couple of her songs were in E-standard tuning.
- aidenn0 4y ago
  And she is sometimes credited with influencing David Crosby (who she was in a relationship with) to use alternate tunings. CSNY's use of alternate tunings certainly helped popularize them, at least for a bit. When Stills' played in EEEEBE tuning (which he apparently learned from Palmer) it almost doesn't sound like a 6-string.
  - a4isms 4y ago
    Her “Mingus” album from her jazz period opens with “Happy Birthday Rap,” in which she calls out, “play that weird minor chord.” If anyone knew weird minor chords… It was Joni.
quickthrowman 4y ago
Sonic Youth is well-known for using alternate guitar tunings: http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tuning.html http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tuning.html http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tuninglist.html http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tuninglist.html https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H8BtI2fNVAw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H8BtI2fNVAw
tricky 4y ago
Also see Lindsey Jordan of Snail mail. Midwest emo like Mike Kinsellaof American Football, Owen, & Cap'n Jazz, et. al, and Evan Thomas Weiss of Into it Over it are also fantastic examples of clever tunings. My personal favorite is Chad Matheny of Emperor X - such a unique artist
- bmj 4y ago
  Sam Beam (Iron and Wine) also makes use of alternate tunings (often DADGAD, but he uses others as well). Edited to add: Also check out Lindsey's teacher, Mary Timony (fronted Helium before becoming a solo act).
- 0x00000000 4y ago
  American Football guitar tunings: https://twitter.com/americfootball/status/864900332836585475/photo/1 https://twitter.com/americfootball/status/864900332836585475... Note that these are also tuned down a half step from how the songs on their first self titled LP (not to be confused with their second or third self titled LP) were originally recorded due to Mike’s vocal range changing over 20 years.
  - tricky 4y ago
    OMG, that is hilarious and terrifying at the same time.

draegtun 4y ago

Also see "Ostrich" tuning used by Lou Reed / The Velvet Underground - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich_guitar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostrich_guitar

camgunz 4y ago

Can also recommend Covet, great songs, and the guitar work is pretty bonkers--really incredible what different tunings and tons of practice/talent can do. I watched a YT where Yvette Young was talking about how her 1st tele had Bill Lawrence pickups, which (after a truly mad dive into pickup research) I now also have in my main guitar (microcoils + an L45-S in a strat, not a tele, I'm not a monster). My point here is: be careful or you might find yourself up at 1am trying to decide what capacitors you want on your tone pots.

jimnotgym 4y ago
Thats one rabbithole, but mine might be worse. I recently made my first pickups. First I made a coil winding machine, after lots of late night research. I bought an old sewing machine and took it to pieces for the main components. After my first build I improved my machine with some 3d printed parts. Then there is the process of choosing and sourcing the components, coils, wire magnets, wax... Then the actual process of getting the winding done...lots of broken wires later...my tele has an awesome set of pickups which sound so clear. The neck pickup is very non standard, more like a strat pickup. What a stupid hobby!
- tricky 4y ago
  I love that you did this DIY. I just had a guitar built by a guy who also winds pickups per your specs - I loved that I could have him dial in the tone exactly how I wanted.
  - jimnotgym 4y ago
    I needed a set of tele pickups. I like the sound of YouTube guitarist Danish Pete's telecaster. I heard it had a Fender 'nocaster' bridge pickup in the bridge, and a 'twisted tele' in the neck. Fender only sell those as sets of two of each, so I would need to buy 4 pickups for the two I needed. List price is £200 for each set, and try and sell the unwanted pickups on ebay...but other people are already onto this and there are lots of the 'wrong' pickups listed. Making your own is the obvious solution! I have 2 strat projects I needed pickups for too, so it will begin to pay off. I reckon I broke even in equipment (but not time) after one pickup.
- camgunz 4y ago
  Wow that is _wild_ and I love it. See this is why I need to buy a house: I need space for the sewing machine I'll inevitably use to wind my pickups haha. I think it's a super fun hobby, I really loved the process of choosing tone and options and learning what affects what. It made my guitar feel like a real players' instrument, like I made my own tool. I'll almost certainly do it again--maybe yeah make my own pickups, but what you did is next level haha.
  - jimnotgym 4y ago
    I rent a storage unit so I can have spare sewing machines on hand. Without that where would you keep your spare oscilloscope, your various antennea, and your guitar projects? The guitar I put them in...I made that too. To be fair I got some of the parts from a kit (cheap way to get some parts), but I modified it in a number of ways, and changed all of the hardware. It is a lot of fun. I did think about blogging about it, but I didn't think anyone would care
    - camgunz 4y ago
      Would read! There's not a ton of info about this online as far as I can tell, and more would be better.
- kjkjadksj 4y ago
  Whatever you do, don't start building your own effects pedals or this probably gets exponentially worse
  - jimnotgym 4y ago
    Too late for me I'm afraid...I built my first effects pedal before I owned a guitar! I have not built that many since tbf, but that doesn't stop me planning to. I found my fuzz face recently that I spent forever characterising AC128 germanium transistors to get that magic combination...it still sounds completely mental!

yamtaddle 4y ago

A popular (well, used to be) artist who does this is Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional, huge in the early '00s, was basically a solo act when he started, break-out and biggest hit was "Screaming Infidelities" which got a ton of radio play). I think he did it to make it easier to play+sing his songs solo, is all I can figure. Heavy use of multiple open tunings. He'll use like half a dozen tunings on one album, plays on stage with a rack of guitars so he can swap between songs.

a4isms 4y ago

Not a modern player, but the great Joni Mitchell used alternate tunings so much, she claims that only a couple of her songs were in E-standard tuning.

aidenn0 4y ago
And she is sometimes credited with influencing David Crosby (who she was in a relationship with) to use alternate tunings. CSNY's use of alternate tunings certainly helped popularize them, at least for a bit. When Stills' played in EEEEBE tuning (which he apparently learned from Palmer) it almost doesn't sound like a 6-string.
- a4isms 4y ago
  Her “Mingus” album from her jazz period opens with “Happy Birthday Rap,” in which she calls out, “play that weird minor chord.” If anyone knew weird minor chords… It was Joni.

quickthrowman 4y ago

Sonic Youth is well-known for using alternate guitar tunings: http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tuning.html http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tuning.html http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tuninglist.html http://www.sonicyouth.com/mustang/tab/tuninglist.html https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H8BtI2fNVAw https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H8BtI2fNVAw

tricky 4y ago

Also see Lindsey Jordan of Snail mail. Midwest emo like Mike Kinsellaof American Football, Owen, & Cap'n Jazz, et. al, and Evan Thomas Weiss of Into it Over it are also fantastic examples of clever tunings. My personal favorite is Chad Matheny of Emperor X - such a unique artist

bmj 4y ago
Sam Beam (Iron and Wine) also makes use of alternate tunings (often DADGAD, but he uses others as well). Edited to add: Also check out Lindsey's teacher, Mary Timony (fronted Helium before becoming a solo act).
0x00000000 4y ago
American Football guitar tunings: https://twitter.com/americfootball/status/864900332836585475/photo/1 https://twitter.com/americfootball/status/864900332836585475... Note that these are also tuned down a half step from how the songs on their first self titled LP (not to be confused with their second or third self titled LP) were originally recorded due to Mike’s vocal range changing over 20 years.
- tricky 4y ago
  OMG, that is hilarious and terrifying at the same time.