adamgross
Oct-20-2016, 12:24am
So my teacher mentions to me tonight that Earl tuned to G#... After my lesson I come home, hang out with the family, eat dinner, put the little one to bed, hang out with my wife. At bedtime I decide to stay up a few minutes longer than her, tune my banjo to G# for S&G's and see what happens. Either the stars have magically aligned to help me out tonight, or tuning to G# is a speed trick. There's enough extra tension on the strings it feels like I barely have to touch them to get the sound. I let my right hand go nuts just to see what happens and boom I'm way faster than just earlier today. Anyone else try this out? BEST OF ALL -- that incredibly "tinny" sound all of my old Earl recordings have, now I've got it.
That brings me to another question... Since everyone at least most of the time tunes to G, doesn't that mean the strings are designed for that tension? If so, does anyone make strings "designed" to be tuned to Gb? Seems like you'd get the extra half-step of tension but still tune to G that way, best of both worlds.
Luck? Speed trick? At least one of you guys have to try this out and report your findings.
That brings me to another question... Since everyone at least most of the time tunes to G, doesn't that mean the strings are designed for that tension? If so, does anyone make strings "designed" to be tuned to Gb? Seems like you'd get the extra half-step of tension but still tune to G that way, best of both worlds.
Luck? Speed trick? At least one of you guys have to try this out and report your findings.