Do you DADGAD players dedicate one guitar for it?

[egordon99]

My Larrivee lives in DADGAD.

[PHJim]

I'm not a DADGAD guy, but my brother Gary has one guitar dedicated to DADGAD. I mess with DADGAD at his place, but don't use it at home.
I do use open tunings (G, D and C a bit) and drop D, but don't have guitars dedicated to those tunings.
I do have a guitar dedicated to high strung (Nashville) tuning.

[latentaudio]

I try to but it never works out. I use those little D’Addario clip on tuners on most of my guitars so retuning is easy.

[donlyn]

Always have at least one six string guitar in DADGAD. Sometimes two if I'm rotating another guitar into it. Currently my Taylor 512ce all mahogany is in DADGAD mode. Somehow keep coming back to this one for that tuning.

Don
.

[islandguitar]

Yep, always one in DADGAD, but as others have stated, there are times when I'm working on something that three or four guitars might be in one tuning as I test out what I like to eventually record on that guitar. The last few years I've been constantly in: DADGAD, CGCGCD, and DGDGBE.....need to break out to some others!!!

[mawmow]

I am too lazy to retune each time... And strings suffer from tune changing.
And I guess pressure changes with retunings my tire guitar structure.
So, I have one in DADGAD, one in CGDGAD (with stronger strings),
one in Open D and one in Open G, besides the bunch in standard tuning.

[Dru Edwards]

Hi Paul, I don't dedicate a guitar to DADGAD but my Taylor BTO has been in that tuning for sometime and currently my Lowden is in standard. At some point I'll put my Lowden in DADGAD and it will probably stay there for some period of time.

Those are the only two guitars I use for DADGAD.

[Erithon]

I have one that's dedicated to DADGAD. Though like folks have said, my others migrate to DADGAD if I'm working on a DADGAD tune; and that one occasionally is tuned back to standard--just for comparison, you know. I can rarely resist playing the same repertoire across several guitars and hearing the timbral characters of each.

The short answer is yes. The long answer ... see above.

[Ed66]

I keep my Seagull Artist Element in DADGAD. It sounds so sweet in that tuning I've been able to put off any significant GAS in the Avalon/McIlroy/Lowden area, so that's saved me some real coin. I also keep another in FACGCE. I enjoy being able to dedicate a guitar to a specific tuning, as it makes sure I play each of them on a somewhat regular basis.

[LakewoodM32Fan]

Originally Posted by edcmat-l1

1 in DADGAD
1 in open G
1 in "Rainsong" tuning (open Gsus)
1 in drop D
2 in standard
The rest have their strings loosened because they aren't played much.

This is almost my identical workflow.

• DADGAD (which occasionally goes to DADF#AD)
• Drop D
• Half step down (for my college grunge songs)
• Full step down (for Elliott Smith and some Neil Young)
• DGCGCD (aka The Rain Song)
• Standard

I have no scientific proof but I see others have said that strings suffer from constant alt-tuning. I will say I tend to use the same strings on most of my guitars (EXP16s, 17s on the dreads) and before I used to have one guitar which I constantly re-tuned, and I'll be darned if that one's strings didn't wear out more quickly. And no it wasn't because I played it a lot more, I try to "load balance" my guitars to some degree. My theory is, since my finger oils like to eat guitar strings, even though I wipe down after every play, constantly re-tuning stretches the windings more, allowing the oils of my skin to penetrate them more than something left in whatever tuning I keep it in (minus the small adjustments needed when they lose pitch slightly after a couple of days).

[Brent Hahn]

Maybe some food for thought. I used to mix a live radio show and the policy was that if the musical guest had songs in different tunings, they had to bring a guitar for each tuning. The idea being that, with the host talking with the performer between songs while also retuning, neither the talking nor the retuning would go well.

An an FOH mixer it's pretty clear to me that separately tuned guitars is the better idea if you can manage it. Most people's onstage banter won't make retuning less tedious. And your worst guitar, if it's in tune, will give your audience a better experience than your best guitar if it's not.

[blindboyjimi]

I have one in open G for taro patch tuning (slack key). I dedicated one of my Franklin OMs and have it set up with mediums, so it’s technically not a “slack” key but close to normal tension.

[bsman]

Originally Posted by blindboyjimi

I have one in open G for taro patch tuning (slack key). I dedicated one of my Franklin OMs and have it set up with mediums, so it’s technically not a “slack” key but close to normal tension.

Similarly - wrt to electrics. I normally have one guitar (an 09 MIM tele) in either open G or open E so I can throw out a little Gimme Shelter, etc.

[M Sarad]

No. I tune my guitars down and up all the time.

[PHJim]

Originally Posted by blindboyjimi

I have one in open G for taro patch tuning (slack key). I dedicated one of my Franklin OMs and have it set up with mediums, so it’s technically not a “slack” key but close to normal tension.

Jim, I'm familiar with two open G tunings. They are Spanish tuning (DGDGBD) and Dobro tuning (GBDGBD).
What is Taro patch (slack key) tuning?