This Is Why You Should Tune Your Guitar LOW (w/ Philip Conrad)

there's something that a lot of my favorite guitar players have in common whether it's Madison Cunningham Joey Landreth Ariel Posen tosin Abbasi or some of the greats of the past like Jimi Hendrix Albert King Stevie Ray Vaughan and that is that they all like to tune their guitars down sometimes as low as C sharp or C standard it's not just for metal guitarists playing super low heavy riffs I actually think that the standard electric guitar sounds better in most cases when it's tuned down in today's video I'm going to show you why we're going to start with E standard and then go down chromatically E flat D C sharp and play each tuning and talk about what makes each tuning great for a specific purpose but before we jump into today's video I want to quickly plug my brand new video course that's dropping today the alternate tunings course this course takes you through open E open G Dad Gad as well as some low standard tunings and teaches everything that you need to know to play musically in those tunings whether you're trying to learn slide guitar or you're trying to write songs or riffs in those tunings we're going to cover chord Harmony as well as the scales major and minor pentatonic and how to use those ideas and those tunings to play musically for more information on what's in the course as well as a special launch Day discount check out the link in the description box down below and I appreciate the support so with all that out of the way let's tune up to e-standard put a Jam track together and uh go from there foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] E standard so standard sounds like a guitar is that the standard sound like so uh now we're in E flat [Music] that already sounds better to me yes let's roll it [Music] all right [Music] foreign [Music] yeah I mean to me that's like that's for this style of music this is how a stretch should sound made a video about this couple years ago but I there's a reason that Jimmy and and Robin Trower and Stevie Ray Vaughan like well-known Strat players like to go down to E flat I think it suits this guitar better it plays a little better because it's the longer scale length so the string tension is lower on this more in line with like the Gibson makes bending especially if you're on the 12th fret like you can over Bend [Music] foreign [Music] yeah you sound cooler than e it changes how I how I play and like the darker lower thing [Music] foreign [Music] yeah I was I mean I wasn't really thinking technically but just hearing you play I enjoyed playing music with you more in E Flat as opposed to e the idea sounded more inspired and more interesting and the tone sounded really cool I think in general a lot of times the electric guitar sounds better in E flat I think it has something to do with the string tension lowering and I think the the pitch lowering by just a half step so sounds it suits The Voice especially of a strat like you know if I play more kind of like standard chord less bluesy but more [Music] or even more complex chords like oh I just like it better I don't know it's hard to describe and it feels better it's lower string tension but I'm still playing I've got tens on this guitar right now just [Music] let's go down [Music] thank you I mean shall we [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] I mean okay so now it's like this is getting really really low but it's like um the version of Voodoo Child off of electrical ladyland where Jimmy plays in D standard ominous it's heavy [Music] but it's not too low that's the other thing it's like we're starting to tune down we're getting really low and and to almost base territory like if you're playing higher up on the neck well yeah we're playing like I'm not tuning down in this experiment just for the record I'm playing like I'm not tuning down with Rhett and you're playing some of the same notes as me but what's cool to me is not when you're down there it what's cool to me is when you're playing up higher because I feel like I'm hearing more like nuancing your vibrato or your bends yeah it's again the string tension is even lower now so like [Music] you have to be really careful because you can overshoot it cool thing to me isn't the increased range it's the increased like slinkiness yes yeah if if I was going to leave this guitar in D standard I would probably go to 11's instead of 10. it's a little slinky for me but what's cool is like on a strat if you want to get away from the base territory you just go to the bridge pickup and then [Music] that's the other thing I like about standard tunings lower standard tunings is your normal stuff is still reachable it's still attainable so yeah if I was playing in the key of E and I'm tuned down to D standard I'm just going to think about playing there off of the ninth fret instead of the seventh fret for example or the the second fret instead of the open position right like you can still do all your normal stuff and it sounds somewhat normal I do think the guitar is changing like the sound of the guitar is changing because the string tension is changing yeah I think you're right it has a different tone so do you like D or E flat better uh honestly I think like not like d really yeah because again like I can do all my stuff right like here's the C but I can go lower now like I can go to [Music] that's the other thing that's cool about tuning down is it changes your positions where you reach stuff so like normally this would be a like that's what's cool is that's that's now G major [Music] it sounds fresh yeah like it's like my ear is like this sounds different yeah in a good way the way we differentiate instruments with our ears is like Timbre yeah all the instruments play the same notes but it's Timbre and you're just changing the Timbre yes so it's almost like you're getting a new instrument exactly without getting too nerdy the harmonic structure of the guitar is changing because the string tension is changing so the way the string vibrates over the pickups is changing and the way pickups work is they're basically like it's almost like a little camera taking a snapshot of how the string is vibrating in that particular spot so a big reason why the bridge sounds different than the neck [Music] is because where the pickup is placed on the string because back here it's closer to the bridge the string is not vibrating as much or in the same way that it is up here by the neck position and that's because the string doesn't move evenly across the whole length of the string there's like modes in in areas where the string is moving lots and then there's areas where the string is barely moving at all and so basically where you are in the length of that string determines what it sounds like when we tune down we're changing how that string is vibrating over the pickup and where those modes are yeah and it's changing the sound of the guitar so like with your metaphor where you're talking about the pickups being little cameras pointing at this spot this spot sounds different now because the string tension has changed exactly that's cool so it's like a different tone in a different Sonic aesthetic of the instrument right so so the harmonic structure of the guitar is changing the way you play the guitar and the way the guitar feels in your hand is changing which is changing how you approach it what parts you play what licks you play what ideas you come up with and it's also giving you other options for your voicing [Music] playing G in that position is not something I would typically should we go to C sharp yeah [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] third the setup is still fine I'm not getting fret buzz like it's still playable but it is I mean I can like the whole court but again like listen to how [Music] that doesn't sound like the same guitar to me like even if I played that like um okay in fact give me a capo [Music] [Applause] that's e and then [Music] thank you [Music] I mean it's just a different sound now it sounds more like a baritone because we're almost in baritone tuning but yeah it's still again all the same stuff applies I can [Music] do all my normal chords the difference now though is in C sharp we're getting to the point where your normal stuff like e is so up here we're like to play e we're getting pretty high up in the neck to get down there but [Music] foreign it's greasy yeah some of those notes are getting pretty low kind of like stay off my lawn when you get down low yeah I mean you get down like you want me to just leave or yeah I mean you're fighting it's almost like a base six like a base six tuning to like double the baseline or I think this is getting a little too low for my yeah again for me like what's cool about this isn't the notes that you're able to get to it's how it's changing everything else but it's just interesting that like the electric guitar doesn't sound its best in standard tuning what tuning what standard tuning you think sounds best is subjective for me if I were playing like my music and my band I think I would be between E flat standard or D standard C sharp is a little low because again I can feel that like like when I was just playing that solo there I was fighting you down here and so it kept me out of this range of the neck I wanted to be more up here and so and that way I felt a little Limited uh yeah because I was like oh this this is now off limits down here thanks for being respectful in this space uh but in D standard I didn't feel that way and then E flat I didn't feel that way yeah I was actually going to say the same thing like I think you sounded best in either E flat or D I think it's D D standard is my that's my happy place because especially on Strat because it's dark and it's punchy and it's heavy and you can do that like low Jimi Hendrix kind of [Applause] so it kind of depends on what you're playing depends on which play should we get on to see you know so which one was your favorite tuning let me know in the comments section down below I actually think I'm Gonna Leave This guitar in D standard I think it suits this Shabbat links don't forget you can get a special discount on my brand new alternate tunings course via the link in the description box down below it'll never be this discounted ever again and while you're down there be sure to subscribe it really helps my channel out when you do so hope you enjoyed today's video my name is Rhett Scholl and I will catch you on the next one

Channel: Rhett Shull

Views: 165,685

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Id: LfpDOTaJlJk

Length: 16min 12sec (972 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 07 2023