Flattening the string to suit song

Danny1969 · January 2020

I've always found playing certain VH songs like Dance the night away and Running with the Devil sounded slightly more in tune if the I tuned the B string slightly flat. After reading up on Just tuning versus TET tuning I can see why and it's made me start thinking about slightly altering the tuning ...mainly the B string at the moment because that's often where the major 3rd of the chord is played to suit the song rather than always just using your tuner bang on. If the songs got a lot of open G chord with a the open B string ringing than flattening that seems slightly better to me .... other chords can then a little off but you can fret a little harder to compensate those.

So who else is mucking around with this and what other tricks are there ?

Rocker · January 2020

I always use the sweetend tuning option on my Peterson tuner. Never actually tried to find out what it alters to sweeten the sound but it works well so I use it. The BFTS on my Anderson always sounds great and so much more 'right' than normal tuning on a standard guitar.

sev112 · January 2020

I agree - I found James Taylor’s views on tuning were weird at first but on my acoustics it just seems to work. On an electric it occurs to me to be reliant on pretty perfect intonation to be able to make a noticeable strategic decision to do so

viz · January 2020

Absolutely - I do this too but it’s probably more often the G string not the B, I guess because for me it’s the major 3rd on the E-shape chord that jars, and my style of playing requires a good 4th between the top two strings - I play a lot of barres on those two strings.

But yep, in E, tempering the 5th to match the fretted (tempered) B does make a lot of sense.

clarkefan · January 2020

Van Halen detuned the B string slightly so that the g# note at the 9th fret on that string was more in tune with the E power chord at the 7th/9th frets. Then he tuned the high E string to that B string.

He also detuned the other strings slightly; he gave the details in a magazine interview sort of recently, but the B and high E are the significant ones.

viz · January 2020

clarkefan said:

Van Halen detuned the B string slightly so that the g# note at the 9th fret on that string was more in tune with the E power chord at the 7th/9th frets. Then he tuned the high E string to that B string.

He also detuned the other strings slightly; he gave the details in a magazine interview sort of recently, but the B and high E are the significant ones.

Ahh! Cool. So he kept the B-E pure. Nice one.

EricTheWeary · January 2020

I was trying to understand Jerry Donahue’s approach which I’m not sure I entirely understood but, I think, it’s about intonating the G string flat and then he has it tuned slightly flat so that it is perfectly in tune at the 12th fret. This gives you a more in tune 3rd on E shape chords, so like Danny describes but moved across a string.

lysander · January 2020

I tend to tune so that A, D and G open chords sound nice, which usually involves flattening the G and B strings a bit compared to a tuner.

kennedydream1980 · January 2020

There is a You tube clip where Tim Pierce explains how Black or White by Michael Jackson was recorded with one of the strings slightly out. It was the main rhythm part.

I think there is also a chillie peppers song where there was something similar happening.

bluechargeboy · January 2020

I've done it for recording specific parts of songs where it sounded a little off. Like a G-shape C, the C on the 8th fret of the bottom E sounded wrong-diddley-ong without flattening the string a little. I wouldn't bother for live purposes.

Guthrie talks about in one of his books IIRC, especially when playing with a keyboard.

Danny1969 · January 2020

kennedydream1980 said:

There is a You tube clip where Tim Pierce explains how Black or White by Michael Jackson was recorded with one of the strings slightly out. It was the main rhythm part.

I think there is also a chillie peppers song where there was something similar happening.

Would that be Scar Tissue ? love that record !when you play along with the record you can hear he's flattened the B string .... being as it's just a root and third it's quite obvious

gjonesy · January 2020

Danny1969 said:

kennedydream1980 said:

There is a You tube clip where Tim Pierce explains how Black or White by Michael Jackson was recorded with one of the strings slightly out. It was the main rhythm part.

I think there is also a chillie peppers song where there was something similar happening.

Would that be Scar Tissue ? love that record !when you play along with the record you can hear he's flattened the B string .... being as it's just a root and third it's quite obvious

this?
https://youtu.be/Daw93bRHe4Y

Funkfingers · January 2020

EricTheWeary said:

I was trying to understand Jerry Donahue’s approach

This applies specifically to Telecaster-type guitars with the stock three saddle bridge.

With three compensated (drilled at an angle) saddles, the slack G is not strictly necessary. A milder offset may still suit some keys.

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Flattening the string to suit song

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