GDAD? CGDG? Anyone using these tunings? Advantages?

[Cornfield]

The title asks the question. I've been playing in CGDA and have the mandolins is GDAE so I'm just trying to learn fifths tuning. Besides these, I play ukulele in GCEA, regular six string and Vestapol tuned guitars.

Is there an advantage to switch a tenor guitar to CGDG?

[fox]

I think it is your guitar so you can experiment with any tuning you like
The best way is to get to grips with one of the on line string tension sites & find the correct string gauges to match your chosen tuning. Aim for 20lb per string & go from there....

[Cornfield]

I think it is your guitar so you can experiment with any tuning you like
The best way is to get to grips with one of the on line string tension sites & find the correct string gauges to match your chosen tuning. Aim for 20lb per string & go from there....

It would involve just dropping the A string two half steps so I don't think it would need tension calculations. It would be like the equivalent of DADGAD to play CGDG or GDAD on mando. Is anyone using this tuning and what do they see as advantageous?

[Baron Collins-Hill]

I play exclusively in GDAD (mostly for fiddle tune accompaniment), with heavy use of a capo to access different keys. I started out trying GDAE, but wanted that DADGAD or Irish bouzouki style sound. Definitely don't need different strings (though I do actually use a slightly heavier high D because I never tune it up to E).



I highly recommend it, it's a super fun tuning! CGDG is great too, just a higher pitched sound. I tune my mandola that way.

Thanks,
Baron

[Escaped Cellist]

I use GDAD, ADAD, and GDGD on my tenors, in addition to GDAE.

Not only are the alternate tunings great for bouzouki/cittern-style accompaniment (ah, drones!), I also use them for solo work. Particularly the open ADAD and GDGD tunings, which I've found to be really effective for singing against a countermelody on the tenor, with occasional chords. I'll often shift the countermelody to a different octave for different verses, to create some sonic variation, and the open tuning makes that very simple. And I really like the ambiguity of open 5th chords, because I tend to enjoy playing around in modal territory.

it's funny, because I originally got into tenor guitar because of the "just like a cello" CGDA tuning, which made it easy for me to find my way in. But now that I've arrived in tenor land, CGDA is the tuning I use the least. I do have the little short-scale Kala tenor tuned in CGDA, but the bulk of my plucking and strumming these days is in one of the other 4 tunings above.

[Seonachan]

When I started playing tenor a few [6?! - time flies!] years ago, I was coming from 3-course instruments (strumsticks and whatnot) tuned DAD, so GDAD was a natural choice. I've since shifted mostly to all-5ths, but really one isn't inherently better than the other. They do offer different trade-offs. GDAD & equivalent is primed for a modal sound, but jazzy things like maj7s and whatnot are easier in all-5ths (imo). Nothing absolute about it though - I was in a band playing Beatles/Van Morrison/Tom Waits kinda stuff, and it worked fine in GDAD.

[JeffD]

I might only add that multiple tunings might be a justification for multiple tenors. Just saying. TAS is a listed disease too.

[pheffernan]

I might only add that multiple tunings might be a justification for multiple tenors. Just saying. TAS is a listed disease too.

And here I thought it was scale lengths. I kinda need a 21" tenor in CGDA to complement my 23" scale in Irish tuning!

[Seonachan]

And here I thought it was scale lengths. I kinda need a 21" tenor in CGDA to complement my 23" scale in Irish tuning!

It's a multiplier effect: you need each tuning in each scale length, electric and acoustic (and reso - spider cone AND biscuit!)

[chuck3]

mmm ... now this has got me wanting a tenor ... TAS is contagious!

[Cornfield]

An early 1930’s National Triiolian was delivered this afternoon.Right now it is tuned GDAE to go with my hey 49 tuned to CGDA.

[Emory Lester]

This is a great subject......I started playing around with my mandolin tunings for certain pieces years ago, and loved the drone effect of GDAD, so I used it on the intro for my song 'Salt Creek Revisited' on my 'Cruisin' the 8' album, and again on several tunes on my 'Reminiscing Today' album. My song 'Hogwallow Flats', as well as a few others, were recorded with GDAD tuning.....the only challenge I find is that all the strings are slightly affected when the two E strings are loosened and tuned down to D, so it requires adjusting most of the other strings as well, when you tune them down, and then again when returning them back up to standard E.

[Nathan Kellstadt]

It's because of this reason exactly that I've always wondered whether you could use four Bill Keith banjo tuners on a tenor guitar? I'm not an expert on the Keith tuners, but it seems like it would work. If so, it would be easy to switch between a variety of the tunings in this discussion, on the fly. If there are any banjo folks out there who are more familiar with this, please chime in.

[Cornfield]

Let me throw another fly into the ointment here. I now have 2 resonator tenors, sometime I have to try playing slide. What tuning are you using for slide work?