i notice on the getting started in surf page it doesnt really talk about tuning..is the normal standard tuning or open B???

i am probably going to get a jazzmaster after reading the articles on here and use 13 - 52 or so flat wound nickel strings

JAM OR BE JAMMED

yea ... i been looking around the site and and no one mentions anything about it... guess so

JAM OR BE JAMMED

i think the problem might be that surf guitarists don't really ever tune their guitars at all...they just pick them up and play. I think all that reverb and tremolo and whammy bar action just about covers up any tuning a surf guitarist might do.

I think I read somewhere that Dave Wronski from Slacktone tuned his guitar once, but, then again, he's all professional and works at Fender and all that...

From what I've heard, I think most surf guitarists tune their guitars like this: E A D G B E'...like someone else on here said, there are a few who tune to D...I think Dick Dale tunes to Eb...but, like most surf guitarist, I don't think DD has tuned his guitar since about 1963, or so.

I think that tuning your guitar to B might be kind of cool...the strings would be all floppy and baritone sounding...I'll give it a try...

good luck

zak

EARTHLING
open B???

Open B_? What the hell kind of tuning is open _B?

Randy Holden is tuned a full step low on all the Fender IV stuff, and I'm sure it wasn't uncommon to tune to standard tuning below concert pitch, but there just wasn't much open-tuned guitar in rock'n'roll at the time. Bo Diddley (who played out of open E tuning, sometimes tuned a full step low to open D) was pretty much the only guy on the radio at the time playing open-tuned electric guitar.

Excuse Zak, i know you're talking full open tuning here but i'm interested in your Randy Holden comment. I occasionally try to play along to Margaya but have difficulty seeing the fretboard patten. I've got a pc gizmo that will produce a pitch altered mp3 so i'll give that a go later. I guess you are talking detuning a half step down but here's the weird thing.. with my guitar in concert pitch Margaya seems to play in major and my ears are saying bottom E is dropped to D. I'm not one for tabs either but i like to check youtube to see how bands tackle the problem. Seems quite a tricky tune to get right, in fact here's a complement! I can only find two bands that do the song justice - The Bambi Molesters and The Treblemakers. You're a good person to ask i'd say.

zak

crumb
Excuse Zak, i know you're talking full open tuning here but i'm interested in your Randy Holden comment. I occasionally try to play along to Margaya but have difficulty seeing the fretboard patten. I've got a pc gizmo that will produce a pitch altered mp3 so i'll give that a go later. I guess you are talking detuning a half step down but here's the weird thing.. with my guitar in concert pitch Margaya seems to play in major and my ears are saying bottom E is dropped to D. I'm not one for tabs either but i like to check youtube to see how bands tackle the problem. Seems quite a tricky tune to get right, in fact here's a complement! I can only find two bands that do the song justice - The Bambi Molesters and The Treblemakers. You're a good person to ask i'd say.

Not a half-step, it is a full step, so your ears aren't deceiving you. Randy's tuning was DGCFAD, from low to high.

I actually played (and recorded) Margaya in drop-D tuning, it was only afterwards that I found an interview where Randy said he tuned his whole guitar down a whole step.

It is a cool song, I notice some bands dispense with the modulation, and that kinda sucks, because the key changes are such a big part of why I love the tune...

You are a good person to ask, thanks much.

Here was our early attempt to interview Randy. He kind of dodged our serious geeky questions, lol. But in this interview he states he tuned down to D:

http://surfguitar101.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=61

This interview, conducted by Wavy and originally appeared on the Cowabunga email list is more entertaining:

http://surfguitar101.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=193

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Woodsurfer
Good point about the placement of the root and fifth, zak. Didn't occur to me since I don't use alternate tunings much. Just figured this'd be a way to achieve an open B with a minimum of re-tuning.

EARTHING -- the "open" part of open tuning is the fact that when you play all of the strings open (un-fretted), it makes the chord for which the tuning is named. B Major (as pointed out above) is B (the root) D# (the third) and F# (the fifth). Open D would have all strings tuned to D, F# or A.

-- Woody[/quot

OK... i dont know that much about tunings other than standard, open and some DADGAD... when i had someone set up my 7 string i told them ADGCFAD... i thought he said B tuning... i hadnt used it until about a month ago

JAM OR BE JAMMED