Tag Archives: Alternate Tuning

GEAR 513 • TC Electronic UniTune

Acoustic, Fingerstyle, Gear, Open Tuningsacoustic guitar, Alternate Tuning, best guitar tuner, blue sky guitar, clip-on tuner, fingerstyle guitar, open tuning, polytune, sweetwater, Taylor guitars, TC Electronic, unitune

Most of you know I have been a fan of TC Electronic’s Polytune Clip for a while now (review linked below). The Polytune Clip does really well with alternate and open-tunings on acoustic guitar; it latches on to notes quickly, has good tracking, and even does well reading the lower bass notes we sometimes tune our sixth strings to which other clip-on tuners can have trouble with. So I still love the PolyTune Clip even though I spend most of my time in open tunings and hardly ever use the PolyTune function. Recently, I learned that TC Electronic had partnered with music retailer Sweetwater to produce the Uni-Tune, which is just like the PolyTune Clip in every respect but without the PolyTune mode. (Also it is about $15 less expensive.)

As with the Polytune Clip, I found that TC Electronic’s Uni-Tune clip-on tuner latches on to notes quickly and accurately, has excellent tracking, and picks up the low 6th string bass notes well (even down as low as Bb). So if you use mostly open / altered tunings, or can otherwise live without the PolyTune function and want to save $15, you might consider the almost identical UniTune clip-on tuner from TC Electronic.

LIVE 049 • Long Mountain Rag

Fingerstyle, Liveacoustic guitar, Alternate Tuning, apogee one, big island, double drop d, Elixir HD Light, fingerstyle guitar, Fred Kelly, guitar rag, Hawaii, john hardy preamp, Ki Ho'alu, kihoalu, long mountain, love, mauna loa, Neumann TLM 102, peace, rosewood taylor, Slack Key, Taylor 400 series, Taylor 412ce-R, taylor grand concert, Taylor guitars, thumbpicks

Long Mountain Rag was named in honor of Mauna Loa (Hawaiian for “Long Mountain”), the Big Island of Hawaii’s largest mountain and also the largest active (though not erupting as of this post) volcano on Earth. Measured from its base on the ocean floor, Mauna Loa is the second tallest mountain in the world, topped only by neighboring Mauna Kea (whose peak is 120 feet higher). Long Mountain Rag was influenced by both Bluegrass and Slack Key musical styles. Hope you enjoy.

Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, Gotoh 510 tuners, strings are Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and an Ear Trumpet Labs Edwina microphone.

GEAR 507 • My Taylor 412ce-LTD (Rosewood / Spruce)

Acoustic, Gear412ce, 712ce, 812ce, acoustic guitar, Alternate Tuning, bone nut, bone saddle, East Indian Rosewood, ebony, EIR, Elixir, eq, fingerstyle guitar, gotoh 510, Gotoh tuners, grand concert, guitar for recording, harmonics, k12ce, notched diamond inlays, open tuning, Ovangkol, short scale, sitka spruce, Spring Limited, Taylor Fall Limited, Taylor guitars, tonewoods, top wood, torrefied spruce, Tusq

After doing several tangential videos on the acoustic guitar I’ve been using for performances, lessons, etc. on this channel (see links below), I thought it would be fun to do an overview of the guitar and its features for those who are curious. The guitar is a Taylor 412ce, a Fall Limited Edition with what was then a non-standard wood combination of Rosewood/Spruce (400 series typically used Ovangkol/Spruce) that also featured notch diamond inlays not normally used on 400 series guitars. In addition to the grand concert size body and short scale length, I also touch on how the top has aged, the addition of Gotoh 510 tuners, and replacing the nut / saddle with another Tusq set.

OPEN 103 • How to Tune Your Guitar to C6 – Bron-Yr-Aur Tuning

Classic Rock, Fingerstyle, Open TuningsAcoustic Guitar Tuning, Alternate Tuning, Bron Yr Aur, C6 tuning, Friends, Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin III, Physical Graffiti, Poor Tom

While a lot of people use more common open tunings like Open D and Open G, this C6 tuning (C-A-C-G-C-E) is most often associated with Jimmy Page. Page used the tuning on the Led Zeppelin songs “Friends” (Led Zeppelin III), “Bron-Yr-Aur” (Physical Graffiti), and “Poor Tom” (Coda). It sounds great on acoustic guitar, providing you with lots of drones in the key of C. (The tuning may not easily work on electric, depending on your set-up.) I find the tuning tends to work well where you’re mostly on the I chord and vi chord, with a little IV and V chords thrown in. While I’m sure someone somewhere will figure out Giant Steps in the tuning, I try to play to the tuning’s natural strengths and focus on chords that are easy to play and make use of the open strings. I hope you enjoy using this tuning. You may also want to check out my covers of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” and Page / Zeppelin’s “Bron-Yr-Aur,” links below.

BlueSkyGuitar.com

Slack Key and Fingerstyle Guitar

Tag Archives: Alternate Tuning

GEAR 513 • TC Electronic UniTune

LIVE 049 • Long Mountain Rag

GEAR 507 • My Taylor 412ce-LTD (Rosewood / Spruce)

OPEN 103 • How to Tune Your Guitar to C6 – Bron-Yr-Aur Tuning