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Old 09-11-2017, 04:44 PM
Earl49 Earl49 is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Idaho
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And so it begins...... At first I had a D-28 but wanted a second guitar for alternate tunings and to also use as a beater. Seagull S6 filled that slot acceptably. Over time I grew to use 6-7 different tunings, so kept 6-7 different guitars out and ready.

The last few times performing, I brought three guitars to avoid so much re-tuning time on stage. Some tunings required changing all six strings, which simply took too much time. One guitar handles standard tuning and changes of one or two string like Drop D, CGDGBE, or Open G (admittedly three strings change here, but easily). A second guitar covers F Wahine (CFCGCE), and a third does a variation of Open C (CGEGCE). With some of these, there is enough overall tension change on the neck that all six strings need to be tweaked, which takes two full passes to get right.

I am slowly learning that when playing solo it does not have to be at absolute pitch. When changing three strings and the others are off by 3-4 cents, I simply tune the altered ones off by the same increment to match. David Wilcox uses a different tuning for almost every song, but he has memorized the numbers of turns of the peg to get roughly where he wants, and does a quick check during the banter before starting the next song. That would be the advantage of using only one guitar (or just one model / gear ratio of tuning machine).

Congrats on the Larrivee OM, BTW. Nice!
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