DADDAD tuning

Dave Zielinski · From: Pennsylvania, USA

anyone use this tuning???
i know it is a "rock guy" tuning... I am lookign for something different...

are the "D's" in the middle tuned the same, or is one a higher/lower????

kinda weird.

dave

Gary Lynch · From: Creston, California, USA

Hey, I tuned to that but not for long. The sound was just not in my head.

I am a hopeless open D guy; High D A F# D A D LOW. I found two other tunings that are almost identical to straight open D that are easy and fun are; raise the high A to a B and you get that open jazzy/swing/or a touch of Hawaiian sound, or drop the F# to F and you get an open minor sound. Real easy, real quick, and real fun changing only one string.

Chris Drew · From: Bristol, UK

I've played around a bit with that tuning, the 2 ds together are tuned in unison, swap your 3rd string gauge to one the same as your 4th string.

Thanks for that B tip Gary, I'm gonna try that out now!

Also, DADGAD (low to high) is easy to get to ... kinda celtic/folky... from openD, just raise the F#.

Dave Zielinski · From: Pennsylvania, USA

cool. i will try all of these. but please dont tell my wife all you need to do is tune one string.... ive been telling her i need all these lapsteels around because they are all tuned different.

hahahahaha!

Dion Stephen · From: Kansas, USA

i believe Ben Harper uses that 1 for 1 of his tunings.

David Doggett · Posted 30 Sep 2007 9:27 am

It's a good modal blues tuning. But I don't really see the point of the double Ds in the middle. I have used (low to high) ADADAD (or BEBEBE, which works out better for playing E blues with a second guitar). This is one big power chord, and so is a very powerful tuning for both major and minor blues. It's good for working the bass strings with your thumb, folk blues style. Melodies can be played very powerfully by playing easy octaves with your thumb and fingers. This can be very effective when playing alone on an acoustic reso, and is dynamite when playing electric blues, hard core and metal. On a simple tuning like this with no wrong strings to skip over, you can play very wild and slap happy. But it is a very slide oriented tuning, not conducive to shredding.

The low 5th lets you play the 5 1 ba-dump in the bass line the same way folk blues guys like Son House did with their 5th on top tunings (ADADF#A, or DGDGBD). However, for playing really slap happy, some people don't like that 5th in the way of the tonic on the bottom. For them, DADDAD may work better, and further emphasizes the tonic with the doubles in the middle.

What you give up with those big gaps between 1 and 5, and 5 and 1 is nimbleness in finger picking melodies, as well as strumming any chords with major or minor thirds, much less 6ths, 7ths, or 9ths. Your melody work ends up being all sliding around on single strings (or doubling single strings as octaves). That is a very powerful style, but is limited in variety. For that reason, it is a good tuning to have on a second instrument to reach for when you want raw power with a lot of sliding. But most people want something more versatile on their main instrument, or if they have only one instrument.

Gary Lynch · From: Creston, California, USA

'ba-dump in the bass line'

Makes sense to me. Cool

Dave Zielinski · From: Pennsylvania, USA

I played around with the DADDAD and CGCCGC tunings all weekend. I like it alot. Its amazing what something new will do to your playing.

I wrote a tune or two around this tuning and I love the way the guitar (weiss) sounds with the low tuning. I'll need to get better at it before i take it out (on gigs) but it is fun. oh, and yes, as mentioned, it is a very ben harper sounding tuning.

Keep giving me alternates to try!!!!!!!thanks everyone.

Dave

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