Sawmill tuning

[John Hill]

On Compton's website there are a couple of tunes he mentions using "Sawmill" tuning: AEAE. I've never heard of it and was curious about it's history & usage on the mandolin. Any info?

Thanks,

John

[Adam Tracksler]

Its a fiddle tuning. It gives you a ton of drones, especially when you are playing in A.

[hokelore]

I use it on fiddle quite a bit. I've tried it on mandolin, and it sounds good, but I rarely use it. Probably because you have to retune twice as many strings.

Tim

[jmcgann]

The cousin of that tuning, GDGD, is easier on your mando since you are lowering the top 2 rather than raising the bottom 2...I wouldn't crank my low strings two whole steps without restringing to lighter guages.

[howbahmando]

"Sawmill" is a banjo tuning that goes gDGCD. AEAE or GDGD (both in common use by Old-Time fiddlers) are simply open A or open G tuning.

[swampstomper]

I thought gDGCD was called "mountain modal". The B string raised to C. Very effective in songs like Pretty Polly. To me, sawmill is indeed the open fiddle tuning either G or A. Where do you get the name "sawmill" for gDGCD?

[Ken Sager]

Whatever it's called, Mike Compton had his Gilchrist F4 tuned AEAE the other night and it sounded like a million bucks. He only played one tune with it, though. I've used that tuning, too, but somehow I just don't quite sound like Mike.

Must be the Gilchrist...

[otterly2k]

I use ADAE on both mando and OM nearly all the time. I don't know what it's called... just that it works well for me...

[JGWoods]

I thought gDGCD was called "mountain modal". #The B string raised to C. Very effective in songs like Pretty Polly. #To me, sawmill is indeed the open fiddle tuning either G or A. Where do you get the name "sawmill" for gDGCD?

Mountain Modal, or Sawmill- same tuning around here gDGCD.
I have heard it described that way since the 60s.
Fiddle tunings AEAE, GDGD, FCFC even are called crosstuned. I never hear that called sawmill.
That's in New England.

[bradeinhorn]

any tabs in this tuning or tricks to playing in it?

[JGWoods]

Many fiddle tunes in AEAE (GDGD=same)will be 2 string tunes- play'em through on the high AE pair and you can play'em again an octave lower on the other AE pair. On the occasion where the fiddle might dip down to the lower E you can still play it on the low pair and just finagle the lowest notes- change the structure a little to leave out the lowest note.

old names among fiddlers for the changed tunings - the lowest/fattest string is the bass, the next lowest is the counter. Playing high bass means playing tuned ADAE having raised the "normal" bass note from G to A, and high bass and counter is AEAE with both raised.

I've already told you more than I know....

[Shana Aisenberg]

Sawmill is a common name for banjo tuning gDGCD. I've never heard anyone refer to sawmill for fiddle tunings, AEAE is generally called A cross, GDGD is G cross.

Seth

[acousticphd]

So, I've been playing around some on the fiddle in AEAE. Before we let this thread die, it occurs to me that it's strange that players would call AEAE or GDGD "cross" tunings at all. What is the history on that? If anything I would think of these as "straight" or open tunings, at least when playing in A and G respectively, not "cross" anything. From harmonica and guitar, I considered "cross" to refer to using a D tuning but playing in G, for example.

[Walter Newton]

FWIW I've heard Old Time players around here refer to AEAE fiddle tuning as "Sawmill" - makes sense to me, I think of it as "even" like the teeth on a saw (imagine a many stringed instrument tuned AEAEAEAE...) - though the terminology for these kinds of things is surely nonstandardized and regional.