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E or Eb???


awel

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Hi,

 

I wonder how do you tune your guitars, most of the time?

I really like to tune down 1/2 step, I feel more comfortable to sing and like this kind of floppy sensation.

But most of the local bands are tune in E std, and the the feel of a 009-042 or 046 standard tuning feels different that a 010-046 in E flat.

 

Life is hard :)

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I don't sing well, so bad if I tuned my guitar to help with my singing, the guitar wouldn't be in tune at all...and the tuner would probably read "you suck" instead of a note.

 

Enough jokes (although it's true)....Most musicians tune to A440, and I think music, playing with others is a shared experience. So to fit in better with the most people, I tune to that. I adjust my guitars and practice with that as well.

 

I got no problem tuning to whatever...a half step doesn't change too much if that is what a 'boss' wants. And also I don't think an audience cares or notices if a band is in E or Eb.

 

But I would suggest that deciding on Eb just because, it might be more of a detriment to yourself than really help. If you learn or practice that way because you think it is a little easier or a little better, then you are stuck having to make the adjustment back, or having others have to make the adjustment to you.

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I have guitars tuned to E, Eb, and D. Eb is my favorite. It's low enough to give just a touch of heavy, but the strings are still tight enough that they're not flopping around. One of my bands tunes to Eb, and the other tunes down a whole step to D. To me, D seems a bit too low, but we have to do that to accommodate our singer.

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I like E flat the best of those, and keep at least one guitar tuned in it. With two new ones in the last week, I think I'll add another (easy to go to standard with a capo anyway), so I'll have two in it. Usually keep one or two in G also. But that wasn't an option. Still, the majority of my guitars then are in standard tuning. Funny, in the past I've thought of how with a lot of guitars, I'll have one in this tuning, that tuning and several more, but that never seems to happen. Generally it's one (or each) of these three.

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Interestingly I started liking Eb about 20 years ago because of the acoustic and not because of the Hendrix, SRV, Van Halen thing. I was doing an acoustic duo and the other guy suggested Eb might make some of our songs easier to sing (he had the high parts generally). Turns out it made the guitars sound fatter and thicker as well as making the vocals a bit easier. Loved it and never went back. Though I will gladly tune up to play with those who love 440 of course.

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People who tune to Eb because SRV or Hendrix did are kind of missing the point. They tuned to Eb because they're voices were comfortable there, and they used big strings because they had enormously strong hands. So if you want to be like SRV or Hendrix you should use a tuning that is comfortable for your voice and a string gauge that's comfortable for your hands.

 

If you're not singing you're only exploring half of the equation.

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Eb and .12-.52 (w/ wound g) on my pauls. switched years back to accomodate my voice, and upped the string gauge cause .10s broke on me, and the plain g on .11s felt weird. The srv thing was just extra motivation too keep at what i was doin...

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Generally, I stick to E (or 440). I'll occasionally drop down 1/2 step, especially if I'm trying to learn or play along with a song in that tuning. One of my bands always tuned down to Eb for the vocals but I never noticed much difference as far as the "feel" or playability between the two.

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I used to be strictly an E guy (with dabblings in open tunings and drop d and stuff), but I figured that Eb would make it easier to sing, as Voodoo Chile was always a hard song for me to sing in E, and especially now with the Rush and KISS/Ace Frehley stuff, which is hard to sing in E.

 

And it sounds heavier and thicker and makes my band sound big and ballsy!

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Is there any need for that? The search engine on this search engine isn't exactly spectacular; I was speaking in hyperbolic terms.

 

You keep saying this like it doesn't work in spite of the evidence presented to the contrary.

 

PM me if you'd like some tips on using it!

 

Happy Friday sir!

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You keep saying this like it doesn't work in spite of the evidence presented to the contrary.

 

PM me if you'd like some tips on using it!

 

Happy Friday sir!

Well, I'll send you one. Really, it does suck. Not saying it doesn't work, but I WILL say it's a lot easier for me to find a thread if I remember the thread. Just doing a topic search on it can be very frustrating (then again, I'm used to the V Bulletin "Advanced search" function being available on my home Forum, and even there we have tons of people who think THAT sucks). Anyway, I will gladly take you up on an offer of some pointers on it (seriously). Off to write the PM!

 

BTW, just because that last thread (and probably several more on the same topic) exist, doesn't mean there won't be new input in this one. The Forum exists for Gibson "fans" whoever they are, and whoever is here at the moment may wish to add something, post their opinion etc.- and regulars (who are not the sole occupants of the Forum) may have reached new conclusions, tried new tunings they wish to discuss, etc.).

 

Finally, a thread like this which is visible on the front page of the Forum may inspire some to finally try another tuning that they've thought about, but not yet tried. How can that be a bad thing? (And trust me, if the Mods decide there are too many threads on the same topic, they have the ability to close, delete, or even merge them). Okay, back to PM.

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