Do you use alternate tunings?

[Caevan O’Shite]

I keep my Gretsch acoustic in open G. I'll have to try open G6 next time I pick it up. I expect one needs a string change to a pretty heavy gauge to get the D up to an F# in the open A6 version.

 

And I LOVE slack key.

 

Not to nit-pick, but you'd probably want a lighter gauge string for that.

[Scott Fraser]

I keep my Gretsch acoustic in open G. I'll have to try open G6 next time I pick it up. I expect one needs a string change to a pretty heavy gauge to get the D up to an F# in the open A6 version.

 

And I LOVE slack key.

 

Not to nit-pick, but you'd probably want a lighter gauge string for that.

 

Well, sure, that's what I meant, even if I didn't say it.

[Caevan O’Shite]

I keep my Gretsch acoustic in open G. I'll have to try open G6 next time I pick it up. I expect one needs a string change to a pretty heavy gauge to get the D up to an F# in the open A6 version.

 

And I LOVE slack key.

 

Not to nit-pick, but you'd probably want a lighter gauge string for that.

 

Well, sure, that's what I meant, even if I didn't say it.

 

[hurricane hugo]

[font:Verdana]Yes, I do. I use Sevastopol (both Es tuned to D), a variation on open G6 that I grabbed from Soundgarden's "Superunknown" song (lo E to D, A to G, leave the rest standard), regular drop D for a couple of things, and one of my own devising: lo E to D, A, D, G, B to A, E. Oh, and one that went C, G, D, G, B, E. I learned my way around DADGAD and CGDGAD as well back when I was learning Celtic fingerpicking styles, although I don't know how much of that I've retained. Oh, one last one for y'all: C, G, C, F, B-flat, F. Turned out to be a really good tuning for my soloing style back in the '80s and '90s; you could cover 3 octaves in the span of 7 frets. If you're not too tied to pentatonic blues box soloing, try it sometime. It's awesome on a nylon-string guitar, too.

 

Oddly enough, I do almost all of my slide stuff in standard, although I used to use a rather odd open B-flat that went like this: lo E to D, A to B-flat, D, G to F, B to B-flat...and the hi E would either get tuned down to D or up to F depending on what I needed to do on a given song. I never used that last one on any of my own stuff, but some of the rootsier players and Dylan freaks that I know loved it.[/font]