"Gambale Tuning" finally revealed.

[God Hand Apostle]

Same relative tuning as guitar but up a 4th with the two high strings down an octave.

6th string = A ( usually the 5th string )
5th string = D ( usually the 4th string )
4th string = G ( usually the 3rd string )
3rd string = C ( usually the 2nd string but up a half step )
2nd string = E ( same pitch as 2nd fret on a D string on a regularly tuned guitar )
1st string = A ( same pitch as 2nd fret on a G string on a regularly tuned guitar )


Frank says, "6th, 5th, 4th and 3rd strings of the Gambale tuning are A,D,G and B strings from a standard 10’s set. 2nd and 1st strings of Gambale tuning I use D and G string from a 9’s set tuned up a whole step."

 

[dpm]

that is rather odd

 

[Shawn]

It is odd. He smokes though. The Light Beyond is the last great cd I checked out of his.

 

[distressed_romeo]

Finally! Been waiting to find out about this for a while!
I suspected it was something like this, although I thought it was standard tuning with the middle two strings strung an octave higher, like the tuning Pat Metheny uses on his acoustic baritone guitar. Going to give this a try this evening!

 

[WayneCustom7]

Man that fucks me up...

 

[distressed_romeo]

Just strung up one of my sixes in it using the gauges Gambale suggested; it's going to take a while to really explore all the possibilities, but it's certainly interesting...it has a really bright, chimy sound, and normal chord fingerings sound totally different. I'm planning on sticking with it for a while and seeing what happens with it.

 

[dpm]

I think I might give this a try, maybe tuned down a bit.

 

[Roland777]

I guess I'll try out all fourths instead.

 

[dpm]

I guess I'll try out all fourths instead.

Do it, 4ths is it!

 

[Roland777]

Do it, 4ths is it!

Been meaning to try it out, but it means that I'll have to recompensate all the solo's I've written, reform the tapping patterns and get used to reshaped "wah"-chords (normally barring the top 3 strings across the same fret)... Tell me, is it worth the benefits in the end?

 

[dpm]

I can only speak for myself. When I switched to all 4ths I'd been playing for over ten years, and was pretty competant over the whole fretboard. All of a sudden, in 4ths, the guitar made a whole lot more sense to me, and my playing improved a lot (imo). Prior to that I couldn't help but see the fretboard as two entities, like - BEADG being the first, and GBE being the second. Now it's all one instrument, BEADGCF, and I can move any pattern or shape anywhere with the same relative result. As far as adaptation goes, all you need to do mentally is move the notes on the two treble strings down one fret, not really a big deal. My C and F strings are 1 gauge lighter than I normally use for B and E to compensate for the higher tuning btw

 

[distressed_romeo]

Reviving this thread again...

Experimented with this tuning for a bit now! It would be really interesting to use it in the same way as nashville tuning; double a strummed guitar to fill out the sound. It would kinda awkward to use live though, as it doesn't really work for anything except chordal stuff, and I don't have the cash for a doubleneck, so for now I think I'm just going to keep it in reserve as a recording tool.

 

[God Hand Apostle]

So, my favorite "internet shredder" Marshall Harrison had disapeared from cyberspace for a while...his web page is still gone. But a couple days ago, he uploaded 2 new vids to youtube. Seems hes been playing with this tuning enough to have Conklin build him a 3/4 size 7 string just for this tuning. Check it out.

Part I:
YouTube - Marshall Harrison plays a 3/4 scale, 7 string guitar

Part II:
YouTube - Marshall Harrison and the 0.75 scale guitar (part II)

Dude has some of the best taste in guitars. I love all the instruments he has.

 

[playstopause]

^
Holly shit, this guy's crazy:



Oh, and holly bump!

 

[distressed_romeo]

So, my favorite "internet shredder" Marshall Harrison had disapeared from cyberspace for a while...his web page is still gone. But a couple days ago, he uploaded 2 new vids to youtube. Seems hes been playing with this tuning enough to have Conklin build him a 3/4 size 7 string just for this tuning. Check it out.

Part I:
YouTube - Marshall Harrison plays a 3/4 scale, 7 string guitar

Part II:
YouTube - Marshall Harrison and the 0.75 scale guitar (part II)

Dude has some of the best taste in guitars. I love all the instruments he has.

Hmmmmm...that doesn't look or sound like the Gambale tuning. What he's done is more like taking standard seven-string tuning up a fourth, or if you like, taken the High A tuning on the seven-string (EADGBEA) and tuned the third string up a semitone, so the string relationships are the same as standard B-E tuning. It's a pretty cool idea. I'd actually thought about it myself as a potential eight-string tuning (BEADGCEA).

Anyway, nice videos...makes me wanna go practice my economy and hybrid picking!

 

[stubhead]

Hybrid picking is my dirty little secret: at high speeds doing strict alternate picking like Steve Morse and John Petrucci is really hard, because the changes in pick direction on odd-numbered notes is so hard to track - the only people who can do it are the ones who put in 8 and 10 hours a day for years. Both economy and hybrid picking let you sneak in a note now and then that let your alternate picking stay on even beats, though alternate is at the heart of it and still needs to be practiced. That's what the guy in this video is using the hybrid for, and I'm sure that's one reason why Zakk Wylde, Andy Timmons and John 5 throw in the middle finger. (If you listen to Paul Gilbert's picked "trills" carefully, they're all two or four notes long - try a three-note trill, and watch how bad it fucks up your picking....)

I spent more time learning Morse licks than any other (Coast to Coast & Southern Steel, two perfect ten-out-of-ten albums) and I figured out that if I was going to really get them, I just had to cheat. Both Petrucci and Morse pride themselves on playing through the most difficult sequences possible, and their songwriting reflects their exercises (sometimes too much, re Dream Theater ). To actually play each lick right without glossing over some notes, I need all the help I can get. Greg Howe hammers notes he doesn't pick for the same reason, but you're stuck with less dynamic control - it actually seems harder to me to play this way, without my right hand "knowing" where the notes are.

Gambale's tuning looks like he could use it to add in notes to a lick with an unexpected timing or location, but I don't really like his playing enough to want to listen to it long enough to learn anything... - nothing wrong with that, some people just resonate with you and some don't. Semi-latiny fusion grooves make my skin crawl these days, as does retread 70's blues-rock.

Mahavishnu for President! oh wait he's English....

 

[distressed_romeo]

Interesting post. Personally, I'm another one who slaved all through his teenage years to be a master alternate picker, but I've come to the conclusion that I'll never be a Morse/Fripp/McLaughlin in that department, and now it's just one of the approaches I practice and use in my own playing, along with legato/tapping, a little hybrid picking, and sweep/economy picking. Nowadays I just mix 'em all up in whatever combination's needed to get the notes out rather than trying to do everything with a rigid method, and I've found I've made a lot more progress that way than when I was trying to alternate pick everything. One thing that's been creeping into my playing a lot recently is the Al DiMeola/Mike Romeo/Shawn Lane thing of mainly alternate picking, but occasionally incorporating two successive down or up-strokes when crossing strings to make the picking more logical when it's based on odd note groupings like fives or sevens.
Personally, I'd say using alternate picking exclusively would be limiting (for me), but as foundation, it's absolutely essential.

 

[bostjan]

I used to be pretty good at alternate picking until I broke my elbow. Then I had to learn another way, and it was good.

I never saw this thread until today... ?

 

[Apophis]

Nice vids

 

[JasMiller]

Also like Nashville tuning--same as 12 string without the lower octave strings--but down a 5th. This tuning would be cool transposed to lots of pitches, like starting with drop D for instance. Love Frank. Starting on A is efficiently optimized, like everything else he does.

Same relative tuning as guitar but up a 4th with the two high strings down an octave.

6th string = A ( usually the 5th string )
5th string = D ( usually the 4th string )
4th string = G ( usually the 3rd string )
3rd string = C ( usually the 2nd string but up a half step )
2nd string = E ( same pitch as 2nd fret on a D string on a regularly tuned guitar )
1st string = A ( same pitch as 2nd fret on a G string on a regularly tuned guitar )


Frank says, "6th, 5th, 4th and 3rd strings of the Gambale tuning are A,D,G and B strings from a standard 10’s set. 2nd and 1st strings of Gambale tuning I use D and G string from a 9’s set tuned up a whole step."