Preferred Reso Tuning

Robert Cook · From: Collierville,TN

I've just bought a squareneck and need to know what the best tuning to use for country and bluegrass is. Would you recommend the open G or like Jerry Douglas the open D? I'll take any and all suggestions. Thanks.

Howard Parker · From: Maryland

Open G

Which is what Jerry usually uses. Learning D tuning is also fun and worthwhile.

hp

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Howard Parker
poobah@resoguit.com
www.resoguit.com
ListOwner RESOGUIT-L
77' MSA Classic D-10

David Doggett · Posted 1 Sep 2005 9:13 am

Jerry Douglas will typically have several resos on stage with different tunings. Some of the tunings are identical, but in different keys, to match the singers voice. If you only have one instrument, the G tuning is the traditional one for bluegrass and country. Josh Graves, the father of bluegrass Dobro, was a banjo player before he took up Dobro. That explains a lot about his style and his G tuning.

Mark van Allen · From: Watkinsville, Ga. USA

On first glance, the Open G tuning appears simplistic, and some folks only associate it with bluegrass. There's a whole lot there, and the tonality seems to be well suited for acoustic reso. It's really great for almost any style of music.

Mark Eaton · Posted 1 Sep 2005 10:46 am

Jerry Douglas plays the majority of the time in G. He plays in D sometimes, especially during his solo portion of an Alison Krauss and Union Station concert. On their latest album, where he plays dobro on I believe 14 of 15 songs, one song is done in E. The vast majority on that album are in G.

Seven-time winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association award for top dobroist, Rob Ickes, rarely plays in any other tuning besides G. I saw him play last December in a duet with multi-instrumentalist and former David Grisman Quintet member Joe Craven. Along with some bluegrass and folk tunes (like "Oh Susanna"), they played the Allman Brothers "Midnight Rider," Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely," and a few pieces from Gypsy jazz king Django Reinhardt. Rob may have tweaked a string for a slightly altered tuning once or twice-but he had one guitar, his 1998 Scheerhorn-which was mostly tuned to open G. Two of Rob's solo CD's are built around quite a few jazz numbers-as in small combo jazz with piano, stand-up bass, drums, and horn players. I'm pretty sure on most of these pieces he plays in G.

As Mark Van Allen suggests, open G tuning is pretty versatile. As an amateur I might think "this tuning is pretty limited sometimes." Then I go see Rob or Jerry play live and I realize that it isn't the tuning that is limited...

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Mark

[This message was edited by Mark Eaton on 01 September 2005 at 11:47 AM.]

Bill McCloskey · Posted 1 Sep 2005 10:54 am

I play a lot in open D but for bluegrass dobro, its open G or nothing.

D Schubert · From: Columbia, MO, USA

It's hi-bass G for bluegrass...GBDGBD

I keep my 2nd squareneck tuned to D which can be easily retuned to lo-bass G and to D6/Bm and even to DADGAD...they're all pretty close...

DADF#AD
DGDGBD
DADF#BD
DADGAD

Pete Grant · From: Auburn, CA, USA

Open D is vastly better for country. I manage to use it effectively for bluegrass, but I no longer copy people's solos or style. There are far more learning materials for G. Do a search of open D from my postings over the last great many of years and you can see some of the reasons I love D.

Chuck Fisher · From: Santa Cruz, California, USA * R.I.P.

G is the most Dobro-y, the expected tonality so-to-speak. I like D a lot, with its varients, and those low string power chords are so down in the river-bottom-mud. (I mean good) E is cool too, just higher and maybe less transposing brainwork for the standard-guitar-converts (like me), but D is fatter sounding to me.

6th and 13th tunings don't sound "Dobro-y", the close voiced harmonics do odd things to the vibrations of the cone/bridge, its a very unusual (and not necessarily bad) tonality that folks haven't heard much.

Twang,
CF

Peter Jacobs · From: Northern Virginia

I read that David Hamburger, who's written a number of Dobro books, uses Open G exclusively.

The few times I've tried open D, I found myself falling into more cliches (Dust My Broom, anyone?). Obviously, this is my limitation, not the tuning (see: David Lindley).

I use a Gsus4 tuning -- low to high GDGBDC -- so I can get that power chord thing like open D but still play melody lines in G (I'm a banjo player. Sorry). Incidentally, Keith Richards also uses GDGBD for open G -- he leaves the 6th string off.

Peter

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Really, for bluegrass playing it's GBDGBD or nothing. Books may throw in a tuning variation here or there for one tune or another for very specific reasons, but bluegrass players simply use that tuning and no other for 99% of their playing.

I might also mention that dobro players use capos often, though - there are special "floating" capos made for the instrument that allow easy shifts into keys of A, Bb and B, where many tradiitional bluegrass songs and fiddle tunes live.

It would seem odd to me that Douglas would keep guitars on stage using the same tuning in different keys when he endorses a capo. Are you sure about that?

[This message was edited by Jim Sliff on 04 September 2005 at 11:11 PM.]

Don Barnhardt · From: North Carolina, USA

By all means concentrate on the G tuning. You'll be an old man before you get all the music out of it. The D/E tunings are nice and I like them occasionally but you may notice that the top four strings are tuned in the same sequence as D/E so just play them if you want a change.

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Stephen Gambrell · From: Over there

Open G, then look at variations. Mike Auldridge tunes his 6th string down to E for "Killing Me Softly," which gives an A minor triad on the fifth fret. And I think on "Rider," he tuned his 5th string to Bb, which gave a Gm on bottom, and Gmaj on top.
But I think we're getting to a point where GBDGBD is, for most of us, "standard" tuning. And as Mark Van Allen said, we've only scratched the surface of that simple little tuning.

Dan Tyack · From: Olympia, WA USA

If you want to learn bluegrass dobro licks, then stick with the standard G tuning. If you want to find your own way with the instrument, then experiment. I personally find myself going back to the open D tuning all the time. Playing bluegrass in G using DADGAD is very cool, as Pete Grant has shown. Here's an example from my web site, which is kind of my take on Fireball Mail, using a couple of overdubbed Weissenborns in DADGAD:

Playing in G using DADGAD

Note that I'm not saying that there isn't plenty of music in the bluegrass G tuning. Anybody who has listened to Ickes and Douglas knows that there is. But especially for solo playing the D tuning has a lot going for it.

Jim Sliff · From: Lawndale California, USA

Dan, that iis excellent.

But it's about as bluegrass as Ry Cooder. Not a knock, jjust a stylistic observation.

I really thing for somebody just starting on Dobro...and who wants to play bluegrass dobro ala Douglas, Ickes, Graves, Huckabee, Conover and a couple thousand I don't know...the standard GBDGBD tuning is the best way to go. It's simple, logical, and there is a ton of instructional material. If you already play steel, you can get a dobro in that tuning and download enough free tab to keep you busy for a couple years. And it'll be useful stuff that will teach you "stock" licks so you can jam as well.

The other tunings are fun for "spice" - but with bluegrass dobro - unlike steel - there actually is a "standard" tuning that's been in use for quite some time and a method behind it.

HowardR · From: N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville

"The Dobro Book" by Stacy Phillips is a must have instructional book for G tuning. There are chapters for bluegrass, country, blues, western swing, and Hawaiian.....all in G tuning (except the blues I think).

David Doggett · Posted 5 Sep 2005 6:30 pm

Jim, S., I'm just guessing at what Jerry Douglas has on all those resos he has sitting around on stage. Some of them may have completely different intervals. But it sounds like on some of them he is using the usual G tuning hammer-ons and pull-offs, but in different keys. A capo can take G up to A, and maybe B. But beyond that you are loosing alot of tone and playing space on those shortened strings. Having a separate instrument tuned say in C with appropriately gauged strings is going to work a whole lot better. It would make sense to have instruments tuned say in G, C and E. That covers some main keys open; and with a capo you'd be in good shape for almost any key.

[This message was edited by David Doggett on 05 September 2005 at 07:31 PM.]

Stephen Gambrell · From: Over there

Currently, onstage with AKUS, Jerry's using:
(2) Beard style-E guitars, tuned in G and D
(2) Scheerhorns, one in E, the other is a backup, tuned in D
(1) Guernsey, tuned in open F, for "Man of Constant Sorrow."

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