Thinking Outloud:

Robert Herndon said:
I rode the volume on and off back in the day. Hated it. Knew there had to be another way, but didn't know how to achieve it. Now, 28 years later, I have evolved. I chose to engineer my rig so that I do not have to turn my volume down. I just plug in the guitar, dime the guitar volume. and the guitar will hang there all day - at 1/2 amp volume - and never squeal. I am beginning to realize now why it was easier to just be a part of an existing band and not deal with all the inner-workings of creating your own band.

So, it works out to be like this...either I put up with all the silly things in this group, for the benefit of playing the songs I love and at the expense of my sanity, or play songs that I do not love and just go it as a solo artist....My wife cast a vote to go solo.
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A lot of that BS is why I completely quit playing !!
Twice!!
 
Last night I was able to achieve musical feedback at tv volume!!
With the LP, and Dsl40c’s. !!
I can stop playing on the origin’s and not have to kill volume knob.
Dead silence, but my old ways of taming a screeching amp automatically go to the volume knob!!
As for separate tunings I always have a different instrument in that tuning to begin with, because I don’t want to bore anyone with my having to tune a guitar!!
Cheers Mitch
 
Mitch Pearrow SJMP said:
Last night I was able to achieve musical feedback at tv volume!!
With the LP, and Dsl40c’s. !!
I can stop playing on the origin’s and not have to kill volume knob.
Dead silence, but my old ways of taming a screeching amp automatically go to the volume knob!!
As for separate tunings I always have a different instrument in that tuning to begin with, because I don’t want to bore anyone with my having to tune a guitar!!
Cheers Mitch
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I have 3 Les Paul's, so it's easy for me to have guitars in different tunings...but, what is hard for me to understand today is why one member was so against playing in Eb, that we changed the entire band to Standard Tuning, and now, he wants to add a song in Drop-D????
 
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Robert Herndon said:
I have 3 Les Paul's, so it's easy for me to have guitars in different tunings...but, what is hard for me to understand today is why one member was so against playing in Eb, that we changed the entire band to Standard Tuning, and now, he wants to add a song in Drop-D????
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Drop D is a quickie change..E flat is such a great rock key & in male voice range..i prefer to tune that in the proper flat tuning for making full chords,Drop D is generally is the avoidance of conventional chord shapes.....
 
I only have one song in dropped tuning!!
Film at 11, and that is in dropped C I believe, because the rest of the guitar is in D standard!
I typically don’t play any thing in dropped tuning!
Cheers Mitch
 
I've been avoiding talking to a guy from Big Bear who wants to join forces and create a duo for wineries, coffeehouses, private events, etc.

I'm gonna call him.

It's not that 'Drop-D' is an issue in itself. It really isn't a big deal, but the absence of logic and reason behind the change - right after a movement to standard tuning - really irritates me.
 
Robert Herndon said:
I've been avoiding talking to a guy from Big Bear who wants to join forces and create a duo for wineries, coffeehouses, private events, etc.

I'm gonna call him.

It's not that 'Drop-D' is an issue in itself. It really isn't a big deal, but the absence of logic and reason behind the change - right after a movement to standard tuning - really irritates me.
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put that gig together..i enjoy them the most....cuz & i used to strip down to guitar & bass for events...
 
Robert Herndon said:
However, if you start out in A440 with a ... 'D5' power chord at the 5th fret, you will match the pitch of the recording.

Why make things needlessly difficult????
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A few questions:

1. If you play it in standard tuning, can you still play all the chords with the same voicing as the original? Or, are there some chords you would have to replace with barre chords or power chords?
2. Are there any individual notes that need to be played lower than the low E (in standard tuning)?
3. Are there any chords in the original tuning that you would have to play in a different octave in standard tuning?

One reason for going to the lower tuning is to reproduce the timbre and voicing of the original. This may be part of what the other guitar player meant when he said that it wouldn't sound the same.

This goes beyond just matching the pitch.
 
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good points there smitty...the tension in drop tuning def has a dif sound or timbre with some wobble. My biggest prob when i switch live is..where the heck am i for leads..lol..always think standard..fixing my prob..from here on out ..all in standard..even put the Firebird back up...what a screamer in E
 
smitty_p said:
A few questions:

1. If you play it in standard tuning, can you still play all the chords with the same voicing as the original? Or, are there some chords you would have to replace with barre chords or power chords?
2. Are there any individual notes that need to be played lower than the low E (in standard tuning)?
3. Are there any chords in the original tuning that you would have to play in a different octave in standard tuning?

One reason for going to the lower tuning is to reproduce the timbre and voicing of the original. This may be part of what the other guitar player meant when he said that it wouldn't sound the same.

This goes beyond just matching the pitch.
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All very good points and things I took into consideration before deciding on staying in standard tuning. I really need to make you a short video, because this is very difficult to explain...

1. The song is all barre 'root/5th' chords anyways, so there isn't much of a change except moving the guitar parts higher into the register which sounds better than the original
2. All individual notes can be nailed in A440
3. Tuned to A440, you can play a D5 (starting note) along with the recording and nothing drops off the end of the fretboard

So, my question to the guitarist was this, "Why change this song now when you complained about songs we did in Eb because they didn't sound right to you, to such a degree that we cut those songs from the list???"

My phone started ringing, but I just quit taking calls. I took the entire day off from anything to do with the band and worked on other projects....

They (Judas Priest) dropped the song to accommodate Halford's vocals, but our singer doesn't need the accommodation, and to be honest, lowering the snog takes away a lot of dynamics from his vocals.
 
BFT Gibson said:
good points there smitty...the tension in drop tuning def has a dif sound or timbre with some wobble. My biggest prob when i switch live is..where the heck am i for leads..lol..always think standard..fixing my prob..from here on out ..all in standard..even put the Firebird back up...what a screamer in E
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The neck relief changes when you drop tune, as does the action and the string tension..unless you dedicate a guitar from basic setup to that tuning. See what happens when you have a hot pickup and reduce string tension....the magnets began acting on the strings which reduces sustain and pulls them into an oscillation too.
 
Robert Herndon said:
The neck relief changes when you drop tune, as does the action and the string tension..unless you dedicate a guitar from basic setup to that tuning. See what happens when you have a hot pickup and reduce string tension....the magnets began acting on the strings which reduces sustain and pulls them into an oscillation too.
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i keep every guitar in a constant set up & intonated. Maybe each one goes 2 months at most but SG's probably every other week. I enjoy that for some reason..have the 'set-up" tool tray under the end table in LR. was just thinking...would be lost without this music thing..house bound 3 years,,,anything to tdo is good . We used to hike-run-climb trees-very physical..crazy what 1 nano second event can do to alter life..
 
Robert Herndon said:
All very good points and things I took into consideration before deciding on staying in standard tuning. I really need to make you a short video, because this is very difficult to explain...

1. The song is all barre 'root/5th' chords anyways, so there isn't much of a change except moving the guitar parts higher into the register which sounds better than the original
2. All individual notes can be nailed in A440
3. Tuned to A440, you can play a D5 (starting note) along with the recording and nothing drops off the end of the fretboard

So, my question to the guitarist was this, "Why change this song now when you complained about songs we did in Eb because they didn't sound right to you, to such a degree that we cut those songs from the list???"

My phone started ringing, but I just quit taking calls. I took the entire day off from anything to do with the band and worked on other projects....

They (Judas Priest) dropped the song to accommodate Halford's vocals, but our singer doesn't need the accommodation, and to be honest, lowering the snog takes away a lot of dynamics from his vocals.
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Ahh...I understand.

So, you're really just trying to transpose up a full step?

I thought you were trying to play the song in the same key as the original, but without detuning. That's what prompted my questions.

But, it seems you're really trying to play a step higher?

That's a different story!
 
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smitty_p said:
Ahh...I understand.

So, you're really just trying to transpose up a full step?

I thought you were trying to play the song in the same key as the original, but without detuning. That's what prompted my questions.

But, it seems you're really trying to play a step higher?

That's a different story!
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Well, it's even more simple than that I guess.

Ok, yesterday, I commuted to Burbank and back for work in the studio. This is why I have 218,000 miles on my Mustang. I am actively trying to replace my income from this job with something closer to home.

YesterdayI was stressed because we had several projects that needed to go TODAY, so we completed them yesterday. I didn't really have the time - or the reserve mental capacity - to engage in a discussion about the band, but I did.

So, guitarists says the song is in 'Drop D.' Ok, where I work, if an engineer says "tune to drop D," that means tune all six to D-G-C-F-A-D . This is not the tuning used on the song 'No Surrender.' Priest is only dropping the low 'E' to 'D' and I play it without doing that.

(NOTE: Some refer to this as 'D Standard' tuning D-G-C-F-A-D )

But because we have had issues before with complaints about tuning and guys wanting to change up the song from it's 'already learned' format, I got upset and flew off the handle.

I had some apologies to make...
 
Robert Herndon said:
So, guitarists says the song is in 'Drop D.' Ok, where I work, if an engineer says "tune to drop D," that means tune all six to D-G-C-F-A-D . This is not the tuning used on the song 'No Surrender.' Priest is only dropping the low 'E' to 'D' and I play it without doing that.

(NOTE: Some refer to this as 'D Standard' tuning D-G-C-F-A-D )
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I question your engineer's interpretation.

Drop-D means you only detune the 6th string to D. The other strings remain in standard tuning. The resultant tuning would be D-A-D-g-b-e.

If Judas Priest is only dropping the 6th string to D, then they are playing in Drop-D.

Tuning in what is referred to as "D Standard" (a term I dislike) is, in fact, tuning to D-G-C-f-a-d.

Drop-D and "D Standard" are not the same thing.

Your engineer's statement baffles me.
 
smitty_p said:
I question your engineer's interpretation.

Drop-D means you only detune the 6th string to D. The other strings remain in standard tuning. The resultant tuning would be D-A-D-g-b-e.

If Judas Priest is only dropping the 6th string to D, then they are playing in Drop-D.

Tuning in what is referred to as "D Standard" (a term I dislike) is, in fact, tuning to D-G-C-f-a-d.

Drop-D and "D Standard" are not the same thing.

Your engineer's statement baffles me.
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OK, I wasn't the only one that ended up a little confused then.
 
smitty_p said:
I question your engineer's interpretation.

Drop-D means you only detune the 6th string to D. The other strings remain in standard tuning. The resultant tuning would be D-A-D-g-b-e.

If Judas Priest is only dropping the 6th string to D, then they are playing in Drop-D.

Tuning in what is referred to as "D Standard" (a term I dislike) is, in fact, tuning to D-G-C-f-a-d.

Drop-D and "D Standard" are not the same thing.

Your engineer's statement baffles me.
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we always thought of the "drop" as in E string drop..being the string is dropped 1 whole step..so its a power chord from the door soon as ya hit it
 
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