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Here's my trick, when I need it. I don't think it un-guitars the guitar, but it certainly makes other guitarist's ears prick up a little. I put my elektric in Nashville tuning. This'll only work for certain songs, it's pretty limited but when it's called for it sounds excellent. Replace your low E, A, and D with a high E, B, and another high E string respectively, but tune 'normally - that is , with the 1st string the same as the sixth, the 2nd string only a step below the fifth, and the third a step below the sixth. It's still EADGBE. Run through a slight chorus and strum hard with a thin pick.

M_a_x wrote:Here's my trick, when I need it. I don't think it un-guitars the guitar, but it certainly makes other guitarist's ears prick up a little. I put my elektric in Nashville tuning. This'll only work for certain songs, it's pretty limited but when it's called for it sounds excellent. Replace your low E, A, and D with a high E, B, and another high E string respectively, but tune 'normally - that is , with the 1st string the same as the sixth, the 2nd string only a step below the fifth, and the third a step below the sixth. It's still EADGBE. Run through a slight chorus and strum hard with a thin pick.

It looks like you've got your string numbering backward. The thinnest string on a guitar is the 1st string, and the fattest is the 6th.

So the 5th (A) would be a step below the 2nd (B), and the 4th (D) a step below the first/sixth (E).

This sounds like a pretty weird way to string a guitar! I want to try it!

Do you run into problems with the nut not being cut for such weird string gauges, with the action on these strings being off? Or with the neck tension not being as the guitar was designed for? Or is this standard practice in Nashville, to do this with normal guitars?

scott wrote:
It looks like you've got your string numbering backward. The thinnest string on a guitar is the 1st string, and the fattest is the 6th.

Oh, I probably do. I put my guitar neck up and look left to right.

Do you run into problems with the nut not being cut for such weird string gauges, with the action on these strings being off? Or with the neck tension not being as the guitar was designed for? Or is this standard practice in Nashville, to do this with normal guitars?

Haha, I just did a small internet search and realized my Nashville tuning isn't a 'proper' Nashville tuning...apparently they use a G string for the low E string (tuned down, so it's an octave below the high E).
I've come upon no problems guitar-wise using this tuning. The only thing is with the strumming, you're so used to having those big thick strings you have to play lighter, or it goes out of tune in a second. I don't know if it's 'good' for the guitar per se but I have a Mexican tele I always have strung up like this, and it hasn't complained that I can see.
Nashville tuning got it's name from country records and is primarily used in said town to double 6string acoustic guitar parts. Normally only acoustic guitars are used. The only semi-contemprorary use I can think of off the top of my head would be the intro to "Wish You Were Here" - you think it's a 12 string but it's a regular six plus a Nashville.

the freakiest shit u can do to a guitar's sound is by running it through a piece of software.

<drum roll>

Native Instruments Reaktor 5

scott wrote: 13's tuned to E are madness, so hard to play! If your guitar can handle them, you'll find that not only does it sound different from normal, but you'll be playing different things than usual. Like, barre chords kinda go out the window unless you're the hulk or something.

I find that this is a common reaction to 13s. Did you play 13s? Did you like them? I know they're not for everybody. I started using 13s about a month after I started playing because I kept breaking 9s; I wasn't looking for tone so much as I was looking for durability, because buying a new pack of strings twice a week got very old, very quick. (That's probably why my allowances started disappearing when I was a kid and my comic book collection became frozen in time around 1995.) I haven't had any problem with 13s, but that's probably because I've been using them for 10 years and they're what I learned with.

scott wrote:Another fun one is to use a shitload of effects, and aim a teevee remote into your pickups and press buttons. Or use a ton of effects, and lay your guitar flat and set a couple marbles between some strings, and balance it and have them roll back and forth, and tap them so one rolls one way and the other rolls the other way. Or hold a strong magnet so it grabs the strings, and then drag the magnet back and forth. Again, "tons of effects" is always a helper. Use an envelope follower/dynamic filter, whatever they call the auto-wah pedal.

These are all very, very fun. As I've said once before, listen to Scott.

Pickup phasing is something ive been investigating, i guess if its just which frequencies you allow to "get through" so to speak?

I haven't had a problem with 12s, I don't think I'm badass enough for 13s though. Yet.

Antero wrote:I haven't had a problem with 12s, I don't think I'm badass enough for 13s though. Yet.

They're not all that different. What's your low E, a .052, I'm assuming? A .056 low E shouldn't really mess anything up at that point.

Shotgun-Charlie wrote:

Antero wrote:I haven't had a problem with 12s, I don't think I'm badass enough for 13s though. Yet.

They're not all that different. What's your low E, a .052, I'm assuming? A .056 low E shouldn't really mess anything up at that point.

.054. It wouldn't fit through the tuner first time I tried it, so I took a drill to it while friends looked on in horror.

Shotgun-Charlie wrote:

scott wrote: 13's tuned to E are madness, so hard to play! If your guitar can handle them, you'll find that not only does it sound different from normal, but you'll be playing different things than usual. Like, barre chords kinda go out the window unless you're the hulk or something.

I find that this is a common reaction to 13s. Did you play 13s? Did you like them? I know they're not for everybody.

I have a guitar strung up with 13's that I tried tuning up to E and found it totally unmanagable. Like I could play power chords, but it was such a strain on my forearms, and playing chords that moved around fast was a lost cause. I ended up tuning it down really low, I dunno how far, I wanna say to C. And then it was nice.

This makes me wanna dig up the thread from so many months ago where I said I'd report back after I got the D'Addario EXL115W's I was gonna buy. 11's with a wound G. I *LOVE* them tuned to D. Perfect strings for me.

My baritone has LaBella Electric Baritone Light strings that are .014 - .070. That's with a 30" scale length. I'm gonna try and get a set that's just a touch lighter next time. Cause as it stands, I find it just a bit too tight tuned to A, and have knocked it down to Ab, which makes for all kinda complications with my normal guitar and bass tuning only going down to D. That one fret difference is kinda meh for coordinating with a second instrument. But it just feels so much better that one fret lower. So maybe I'll try and go for these, from .013 to .062...

Sorry for getting so far off-topic here.