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Old 02-15-2023, 07:38 AM
nplural nplural is offline
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Smile Mahogany - What tuning pops?

I've owned and played a decent amount of guitars in my life, but always found Mahogany guitars to be a bit bland. The wood is softer than spruce and for the most part has flat tone with the low E and A string with normal intonation.

HOWEVER.... the other day I picked up an Eastman E10OO-M. A full Mahogany OO sized guitar, perfect for travis style picking. I was doing my classic new guitar touch ups - checking the truss rod, saddle/nut height, replacing the strings, polishing frets as needed - when I stumbled onto a brilliant discovery. I was replacing the strings one at a time, replacing with some Elixir Phos Bronze lights, and heard/felt a greater vibration that normal during the string tuning.

The low E string (normal tuning low E) had much more resonance closer to the drop D tone. I didn't want to "D"tune the entire guitar, but decided to try out Open D tuning on this guitar.....

I've got to say it sounds and plays better now than almost any other guitar I've tried this tuning on! Not sure if anyone else has opt'd to just lower the pitch on a Hog and found it actually sounds good, but if you havent give it a shot!
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Old 02-15-2023, 08:31 AM
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ljguitar ljguitar is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by nplural View Post
I've owned and played a decent amount of guitars in my life, but always found Mahogany guitars to be a bit bland. The wood is softer than spruce and for the most part has flat tone with the low E and A string with normal intonation.

HOWEVER.... the other day I picked up an Eastman E10OO-M. A full Mahogany OO sized guitar, perfect for travis style picking. I was doing my classic new guitar touch ups - checking the truss rod, saddle/nut height, replacing the strings, polishing frets as needed - when I stumbled onto a brilliant discovery. I was replacing the strings one at a time, replacing with some Elixir Phos Bronze lights, and heard/felt a greater vibration that normal during the string tuning.

The low E string (normal tuning low E) had much more resonance closer to the drop D tone. I didn't want to "D"tune the entire guitar, but decided to try out Open D tuning on this guitar.....

I've got to say it sounds and plays better now than almost any other guitar I've tried this tuning on! Not sure if anyone else has opt'd to just lower the pitch on a Hog and found it actually sounds good, but if you havent give it a shot!
Hi np
A lot of guitars have a 'sweet' spot for certain tunings, and bass strings can be particularly enhanced with dropped or alternate tunings.

This is often 'amplified' even more when you have a pickup and are playing through an amp or PA.

I play about 60% of time in Dropped D (in a variety of keys) partially for the reason you cite (better bass with less force) and also for revoicing fingerstyle arrangements to increase my capability to keep a smoother bass flowing for my arrangements.





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mahogany, opend, parlor, tonewood, travis

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