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Baritone Alternative Tunings: The Ultimate Guide, Part Two

3/25/2017

7 Comments

 
Picture Baritone Guitar Tuning
In part one of our complete guide to alternative tuning for baritone guitar, we explored B and A standard tunings (perfect fourth and perfect fifth standard), multiple open major chord tunings, and Pat Metheny’s, “Half Nashville” baritone tuning.

Well, I hope your tuning pegs are rested, because we’re back with another tour de force of peg-twisting alternative tunings for your baritone. If you are ready to spark your creativity, expand your sonic horizons, and get out of that musical rut, let’s dive into our first tuning.
Double Drop A (or G) Tuning

Double drop tuning can be thought of as the slightly more musical cousin to the popular drop D tuning. To achieve double drop tuning, simply lower the 1st and 6th strings one full step. On a B standard (AKA, perfect fourth) tuned baritone, this means dropping your first and sixth strings down to A. On an A standard (AKA, perfect fifth) tuned baritone, this means dropping your first and sixth strings down to G.

This tuning is wonderful for adding color and distinctiveness to otherwise simple chord progressions. Try it with any progression featuring open chord voicings, anything in the key of A (or G, if tuning down from a baritone in A standard tuning), or any fingerpicking number that you have enjoyed in drop D tuning on your standard guitar.

If you are not familiar with drop D tuning chord shapes, don’t worry. Most chord shapes crossover from standard tuning to drop tuning with minimal adjustments. Just keep in mind that 1) you will need to transpose the letter names of these chords while playing on your baritone and 2) you will need to occasionally let your high A or G ring to take full advantage of double drop tuning.
Easy Double Drop Tuning (AKA, No Tuning Pegs Needed Double Drop Tuning)

With the right model of capo, you can achieve double drop tuning in seconds with no tuner and nary a single twist of the tuning pegs. My favorite model for taking advantage of this shortcut is the Kyser brand “Quick Change” capo. With the Kyser Quick Change, double drop tuning becomes a cinch. Simply attach the capo upside down, so the rubber brace that typically grips the back of the neck is on strings 2 through 4 (see picture) and achieve instant double drop tuning.
Kyser Quick Change Capo in Double Drop Tuning
Kyser Quick Change Capo, used in Alternative Double Drop Tuning
A E A D E A (AKA, Bari DADGAD)

DADGAD tuning has been a folk and fingerpicking staple of the standard guitar world for years. However, the open note drone tones it facilitates sound just as great (if not better) on a baritone. To achieve Bari DADGAD tuning on an a B standard (perfect fourth) tuned guitar, make the following adjustments:

  1. Drop the first and sixth strings down a whole step to A
  2. Lower the second string, F#, a whole step to E.
  3. Don’t touch anything else.

To get a feel for the tonal possibilities of A E A D E A (Bari DADGAD), try a simple exercise of moving your index finger to create the following chords (see graphic below).  First, strum your way through. Then, finger pick your way through the chords.
DADGAD Chords
Open A Tuning (revised edition)

In our last article, we offered instructions for achieving open chord tunings. However, I have come to the conclusion that my previous offering was way too complex. With that in mind, I believe slide guitar players and fans of early Mumford and Son’s albums will love this tuning. When the open strings are played, you get an instant A-major chord. Bar straight across the fretboard anywhere on the guitar and you get another major chord. Move your bar through a I - IV - V progression, and you’ve got the beginnings of some delta-inspired blues.   

To achieve open A tuning on a B standard (perfect fourth) tuned baritone, take the following steps:

  1. Lower the 1st (high B), 2nd, and 6th string down a full step.
  2. Lower the 3rd string (D) down half a step to C#

Of course, you can follow the same instructions for a baritone tuned to A-standard (perfect fifth) tuning. The resulting tuning will be open G. It should be noted that not all baritones will handle open G tuning well. Some models may display excessive string buzz once you go this low.
Wrapping Up

We hope you've enjoyed our second guide to alternative tuning for baritones. If you haven't already done so, check out part one of our guide. Once you have the chance to try out these tunings, we'd love to hear from you. Please tell us about your own alternative tuning experience in the comments section. Also, if you enjoyed this post, check out our growing list of baritone electric reviews andacoustic reviews.

As always, thanks for reading, thanks for checking out our affiliate partner links, and thanks for commenting.
7 Comments
Mark Lee
10/16/2017 05:39:49 pm

Hello, I am learning to play Hawaiian slack key guitar and thought an 8 string baritone would sound great. The problem is I don't know if it would accept slack key tunins and still sound good. Some Hawaiin tunings, 6 to 1 are: DGDF#BD, DGDGBD, CGDGBE for example. Any help would be great! Thx. Mark

Reply
Matt link
10/20/2017 08:36:51 pm

Mark,

So, I did some research and a lot of slack key players promote the idea of using a baritone guitar. The longer scale length of most baritones works well for slack tuning. CGDGBE shouldn't be too much of a stretch. As for DGDF#BD or DGDGBD, I might lower each tunning one whole step across the board, just to keep more in line with a baritone's traditional range.

Now, when you say "an eight string baritone" are you thinking of a Taylor 8 string baritone (6 normal baritone strings with the middle 2 strings paired up as a double course - a standard baritone string and a second string tuned one octave up).

If so, I haven't had the opportunity to play that particular baritone (if you are reading this and you work for Taylor guitars contact me... lets make a review happen!), so I dont want to comment on how it will handle a particular tunning. That being said, Taylor's other baritones, seem to handle alterntive tunings well and remaining playable. I would look into purchasing the Taylor from a dealer with a great return policy and try one out for a while.

Have you played a baritone of your own yet? If not, you could also purchase an entry priced baritone model and experiement with it for a while.

Reply
Ryan
8/13/2020 10:43:40 pm

What about G standard for those of us who dare?

Reply
Matt link
2/24/2021 02:02:18 pm

Ryan! G-Standard! I suppose its possible, but I am not sure I have seen any baritone tuned all the way down to G standard. Maybe a "Drop G" (A standard tuning with dropped lowest string)

Reply
Daniel Knudsen link
1/10/2022 06:58:14 pm

Very much appreciate your site! I have an electric Baritone..double cutaway-LTD..any information on using open tunings on that is very much welcomed:)

Reply
Volker Freitag
2/27/2022 01:33:58 pm

Hi,

I've been tuning to AEADEA for quite a while now, but only today it dawned on me that I may need to replace the high E and A strings as the tend to be too slack. Especially the D and E strings are just too half steps apart, but the E string is way thinner. Has anybody tried a wound .030 as their second and a 0.018 as their first string, respectively? Or am I approaching Bass VI territory here?

Best,
Volker

Reply
Missouri Gay Men link
12/27/2022 11:07:24 pm

Hii great reading your blog

Reply



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    Matt is a musician, educator, and baritone guitar enthusiast living in Washington state.

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