Hey there, just a quick question about tuning please.
I am learning guitar almost 2 years and I am mainly into fingerstyle - now with thumbpick from Black Mountain.
All this years I spent time playing in standard tuning and sometimes it starts sounds little boring or same to me, because I am still playing in first four-five frets.
I am learning now Freight Train (following Joe Robinson club session on JG) and I got idea what if I tune all strings whole step down and you know what? It sounds much better to me. Even half step…
Do you think it is good idea to spend time on guitar like this? Because I can apply here what I can but it has different voice and feel.
Main reason I got this idea is because I want to try how it feels playing 2 fret shorter guitar (Furch Pioneer), so I tunned whole step down and place capo on second fret. It is not bad at all, that lenght.
Maybe this is something that could appreciate Lieven because based on our together time spent on Clubs I can see he is really creative.
If you are going to have an acoustic permanently tuned a whole step down, try thicker gauge strings and keep an eye on the neck for any signs of change in the relief / back bow that may necessitate a small turn on the truss rod.
@Richard_close2u Hello Richard, thanks for advice. Right now I am running Elixir something 11 I think. There are here maybe 6 months…
I am awared about neck adjustment and right now it looks like it does not need a touch. I guess it will change over few days.
Do you play sometimes whole step down?
As far as I know, most acoustic guitars have 20-22 frets. The one you mentioned has 19. I don’t think it makes that much difference, especially if you’ll have the other guitar as well in standard tuning.
@Jozsef Yeah, I am still thinking about it… I tried it for few minutes when CEO presented it in Prague, but I would need more space to try different wood combinations and I would like to have it as main guitar, because right now I have solid top sĂtka and laminated mahagony
Furch guitars are all solid.
my main thought is; sure, why not. You will grow to prefer a certain tuning bacuse of voicings, tuning, feel,…
About the # of frets
The amount of frets probably doesn’t matter so much, the scale length does.
To compare:
Furch Pioneer:25.59 inches (650 mm)
Maton Messiah:25.5 inches (648 mm)
That difference is hard to notice.
When I teach about “making a song your own”; I talk about
changing the key to what you like or what your band plays in (and most importantly, fit your vocal range)
Chosing chord voicings; which grips and where, what kind of decorations and lead ideas do you want to incorporate.
Chosing a tuning that works best for the main portion of your set is part of the balancing exercise
My downtunings
I love to cycle between standard E, standard Eb and standard D.
I often keep my guitar in D and that is mostly to match my chosen chord voicings with a siginificant set of songs I play while it still matches my vocal range. The singing is what dictates it for me.
Changing tuning now and then sounds refreshing to the ear so I recognize that.
Also, it FEELS very different.
I play 12-54 strings and I think on my Maton, they work of all three of those tunings.
I think that, for your set off 11’s, you’re good to go as well.
Nuances with capo
The combo of lower tension and capo use has noticable nuances.
I have songs where I capo up to 7th because of the guitar that is tuned lower but as long as I can keep gigging with 1 guitar, I try to keep it that way.
For my band, we do a “Drop D tuning” (drop E to D) and then we lower all strings one step.
In that case, string gauge and scale length interact in a more impactful way.
@LievenDV Thanks for great informations. I am pretty suprised how often people go for different tuning after reading this. Like… I discovered America, but everyone knew about that. I guess it is just some natural process how I find things… some time ago I would think about different tuning as something “dangerous” where I could not play anything, because I wont know shapes.
About that guitar sizes… I am taking technical data from Furch producer and it says 615mm with 45mm nut width. My current guitar Fender CC 60 SCE is 643mm with 43mm nut width. So I think I will notice that, but I still think it would be playable on daily basis. Also I think that 45mm nut would be better for my fingerstyle. Overall I was looking for smaller guitar some time ago because I feel like a little smaller guy, even when I have around 176cm.
I would like to have guitar that feels little bit more comfortable on couch where I spent most of my playtime. Sometimes my back hurt a little on right side… I think its caused by bad position, but sitting different feels weird.
hmm; I must have gotten wrong info somewhere but you’re right,
The scale length is more about 24.2 inch, which resembles a Fender Jaguar.
you’re taller than I am and I enjoy my Jaguar with 24" scale length.
lower string tension due to tuning down will get you into “flubbing” string feeling sooner than on 25.5". When tuning down at this scale length, I would recommend something higher than 11’s
On their website they state that they put D’Addario XS PhBr 12-53 on them and that’s something I would go for as well.
detuned 24" scale can sound a bit “darker” but don’t forget you can always experiment with strings; you can stay in in the 12 range but go for a brighter material.
I read about that CNR system they developed. It’s ocol that they don’t limit that to their high end models and include it in this one as well. Although it is stated nowhere explicitely, I would suspect you don’t have to worry much about guitar setups.
Tranitioning between these nut widths wo’t be a big deal.
btw, we website lists it as:
|Nut width|45 mm|
|Available nut width|43 mm|
Make sure to request the 45mm one if that is what you wish.
@LievenDV Thanks for digging those informations. We got similar view on this.
That CNR Active sounds really promising… I am from Czechia, so I dont meet that extreme weather condition, but its always good to have option to adjust neck like this.
Also what I did not mention I think that tune down guitar and playing capo… is a trick that many YouTubers use, so when they are playing under the sun the shadow of string looks like it move really really big. Or I just think that trick is in this.
Just this week at my regular thursday jam at the local men’s shed, a guy had a guitar he had tuned a whole step down and he played it with no issues. He put the capo on the 2nd fret when necessary to be in tune with our guitars. He did it because it’s a 12 string and he reported no issues, and agreed when I commented that it would reduce the strain on the body below the bridge.
