I've decided that what I'm going to do is talk about my approach to guitar. First, we have to hit some complex theory about sound acoustics and harmonic overtones, and that is a pain in the hiney to get straight without being overly recondite. Second, I'm still a beginner on guitar, just running my fingers over the board and thinking about what the instrument might mean. However, what I want to try to do is to describe what I've been thinking about with the instrument up to this point, and we'll look at a new breakthrough I just made with an instrument that is a lovable illegitimate problem-child.
So we'll start with what is called, Fripp Standard Tuning. Now, if you tune Fripp-azoid, you have to use the right string tensions, and you need to heavily adjust your bridge and truss, because the upper course are tuned very high in comparison to standard tuning. Really, the Fripp-azoid standard works better on a guitar custom-made for the tuning.
The tuning has some real nice advantages, but remember, a standard guitar with too much tension between bridge, nut and truss can become a destroyed guitar incredibly rapidly. If you want to try the tuning, you may want to go to a good guitar shop and have them adjust it custom, if you can't afford the custom guitar. Also, it would be good to detune the courses before you put the guitar in the case, so that the tensions are relaxed while the guitar is being stored. This stuff causes all kinds of problems, but the Fripp-azoid was the bouncing off point for my own thoughts.
So, the tuning: C2 G2 D3 A3 E4 G4. The advantage of the Fripp-azoid Standard is that you can work in fifths across the board, and the minor-third caveat at the top also makes lead-lines easy to play. Fripp has played almost nothing but the Fripp-azoid for most of his Crim' career on electric guitar, and continues to play it in his work on acoustic guitar. Just remember, applying the Fripp-azoid can be a great way to destroy a guitar.
If you value your instrument, then you need to carefully consider how to properly apply the Fripp-azoid to the instrument. You should never apply the Fripp-azoid to a guitar with a fixed-bridge, unless it is custom-made for the tuning. Say farewell to your standard dreadnought.
Harmonics, Acoustics, and Tuning a Guitar
This is the tough part. We'll try for minimalism, but these are tough concepts. In classical music today, precision instruments in America are tuned to A 440 hz, which is A3, directly in the alto range. In Europe, they tune to an A 435 hz. Now this 5 cents doesn't move you sharp a half-step, although even to my ear, it does sound similar to that. What it actually does is to shift you into a different series of harmonics. If you listen to European classical-music recordings and you're used to American tuning, you can get a bit of an ear-ache listening to the recordings, and I'm sure that is also true in vice-versa.
There are advantages to the 440 A series, and there are advantages to the 435 A series. However, most popular music, even popular music that originates in Europe, tunes to a 440 A. The argument over where to place things with these 5 cents rages on, but for certain types of music, the 435 A series produces a much better sound. Still - let us assume that as a guitarist - you need to tune into the 440 A series.
One of the reasons we tune to this A3 is that it means that all of our overtones in the alto range and above are what are called, "true harmonics." So our resulting higher overtones are simply subdivisions of our fundamental alto A. We want to highlight our melody, and this makes our melodies sound much more clear and tuneful. In the bass-range, we multiply our fundamental A downward, creating, "false harmonics," and this creates a muddy sound in the bass. We have sacrificed the clarity of the bass-range for the clarity of our melodies in the alto and soprano range.
So, if you look back at the tunings that are commonly used in professional-guitar work today, you'll see that not one of them contains a true A3 on the open strings. We have a couple of options if we want to tune into the A3 series. We can tune to a synthetic A3 on the fretboard, which will produce some intonation problems - but can work. The other option is to revise our approach to tuning, and this is another advantage of the Fripp-azoid. You have a true A3 on an open-string - on your 2 string - or in more traditional parlance - on your "second-course."
Revising our Tuning Approach for Guitar
We're going to set out a basic rule for tuning a guitar. You need to tune with a tuning fork. Now, remember, practicality is an issue. If you're at a show, you don't normally have the time to tune with a fork, and its impractical because of the noise in the club as well. So it is often good to have a tuner on your board, and then you can kind of tweak things to get a nice sweet spot with the tuning.
Tuning purely by hertz creates a very brittle sound, so you start out by tuning quick from your digital tuner, and then sweeten her up. This is something else you can use a hognose for, as it is hard to tune from an open-monitor. Keeping things tuned up during a show is pretty important, even if you are going for metal crunch or a hard-rock clash.
It will increase the clarity of your sound a great deal, and most clubs don't run a good PA, and it can save your hiney if you keep things as clear as possible. It is nice to have things as clear as possible in the first place. Still, it really becomes a problem with a muddy PA if you don't sweeten up your tuning between tunes.
So - when you aren't at a gig, you get your guitar out, and you hit the fork, and you tune up. You do this every time you get the guitar out - at least once - whether it sounds in tune or not. Do it multiple times when you're at home for practice. This is a very simple-method of training the ear, and if you keep after it, you can laugh at people with, "perfect-pitch." You will proceed to out-do a good hertz monitor with only your ear.
There are small tuning forks for violins available at your local music-store that strike at an A 440, and they cost maybe 8 or 9 dollars. The sound is not very loud, but they are perfectly fine. If you have the cash, you can shell-out for a proper tuning fork, and those run at least in the hundreds of dollars. I haven't shelled out for one yet, and even though I could use a much louder fork-vibration, the little cheapie-violin fork is working out just fine.
I had come up with a tuning, and it went like this: C2 G2 D3 F3 A4 D4. The advantage over the Fripp-azoid is that we are well within tensions for a standard guitar bridge. Also, the tuning is nearly the same as an old viol tuning. The viol in question was a great deal like a six-string cello. The modern precision-cello is a four-string fretless instrument tuned so: C2 G2 D3 A3.
With a cello you use an A fundamental on your first course, and then tune downward in reverse. The reverse-tuning makes the cello fairly problematic as an instrument, but it is also one of the most beautiful instruments used in standard classical repertoire. The goal with this tuning with an open-A3 is that you will strike your fork, tune your second course, and then tune your lower courses in reverse, and then tune up to your first course.
if you can, find some good string quartet or classical-music that features a cello. You can do a budget recording if you can't afford anything else. I'll see if I can come up with some suggestions for some pieces you might look for on recording.
So I've been running my hands over that tuning with that F on the third course, and I was looking over some things and I came up with a better idea. It is a great deal like a sawmill-tuning, and it places things in a place that is really - really - nice. So after fooling with the problem quite a while, I came up with this: C2 G2 D3 E3 A3 E4.
The only problem is that with a second between the fourth and third course, you get a lot of ninth-clusters with your standard shapes. However, after working over the SOB a great deal, I'm pretty sure I'm sticking with this as the standard-tuning for my principal guitar. The ones I'm planning to tune in other tunings we'll talk about in another article coming up. Next though - we're going to talk metal - and I admit that is not my specialty, but we'll hit what I can, and then we'll probably talk ROCK. So off we go!
