some thoughts on alternative tunings

[ballynally]

I think drop D, open G and E tuning are all very much established tunings, as well as DADGAD for the folky stuff. There are some alternatives that are less well known which have advantages. Here they are:

Turn down a whole step for some Neil Young sounds. Drop D, i mean C, for 'dont let it bring you down'. I have my 000 turned down like that for some twangy blues. Plus side extra, you can really bend the notes and use vibrato for more expression, like you were playing an electric guitar. Leon Redbone uses it for all the bluesy ragtimey stuff.
To come back to Neil Young, his voice is very high and with the step down i can sing 'old man' and others. If you just use a capo on 2 for standard pitch, you have the option of removing it when a song is too high. I find some of Paul McCartneys songs a tad too high. Now i can reach the notes (especially in the morning, and when tired).

In normal pitch i find the low E dropped to C plus the A to G great. Then you have the bass drones G, C and D (normal D string or 2nd fret on C string) to keep it going.
Richard Thompson's 'Vincent Black Lightning' with or without capo.