De-tuning

[Shawn]

For inspiration I like to try lots of different tunings, keeps things fresh and interesting and forces me out of my all too frequent "routines" that I get trapped in. But these alternate tunings aren't that easy on my 34 year old Gibson, so I'm wondering if some setup changes could help with keeping it in tune, intonation, etc.

I tend to de-tune quite a bit, I almost never tune above a D, but sometimes I'll also go as low as C#, C. Due to the lock nut system on the guitar, I can't really go much heavier than 10's in string gauge. But I'm wondering if anyone can offer any suggestions for getting a little bit more consistency at lower tunings.

Eventually I'm going to buy a second guitar for this purpose and give my old Gibson a break.

Thanks!

Edited February 19, 2008 by Shawn

[7/4]

The folks at http://thegearpage.net are great for this kind of question.

[Guest bluenote82]

Some good tunings you can try and please take notice that most of these are variations of DADGAD:

BADEAB

DACEAD

EADEAB

BADGAD

DADCAD

GADEAG

And so on, there's so many possiblities.

[stuartjewkes]

Besides neck tension I'm not sure there's much you can do mate. The string gauge is the only thing I've found that works for me.

I now keep a 'noise box' classical electro acoustic guitar detuned for dirty sounds but that's for feedback work etc.