The title of this week's Junto project, "Share Yer Knowledge," comes from a great thread (excuse me, "channel") on the Junto Slack. The idea this week is to make (and annotate) a track that provides an example of a trick/skill/tip you want to share about a piece of musical software or hardware.
Last year I watched the Morphine documentary again and listened to their albums. I could hear Mark Sandman used a variety of tunings on his bass guitar and started experimenting. After trying a few keys I settled in D, in part because the guitar I wanted to use wouldn't take a bass A-string.
This year I've used this four-string guitar on an increasing number of tracks From the first Junto of 2016 to the Naviar Haiku track recorded yesterday.
Many tracks have practically written themselves and this one picks up where the last piece left off, as it uses a chord I stumbled upon at the end of the latter track.
The guitar is tuned DDAE. Last month I saw a commercial four-string guitar and noticed some similarities. That one was a Merlin model by Seagull guitars but was tuned DADD, with a unison high D.
Mine uses a D-string from a bass and then one from a guitar, which puts them an octave apart before the A- and G-string both come from a guitar -- the latter is tuned down to E, although at first I used F#.
In the opening of this track I pick through the open strings, as well as harmonics. It's mostly the kind of D chord you'd get from a tuned-down guitar and I think D is a great key.
The tempo speeds up throughout and there's delay feedback at the end, created adjusting the repeat rate as well as the intensity.
The four-note chords I can form seem to suit the deep pitch but I have been thinking recently about adding more strings. Just can't figure out what yet.
The Epiphone 335 guitar has really been improved with this tuning. It's a lovely sounding guitar but the intonation wasn't good for chords using regular guitar tuning, particularly the B-string.
I've more than half a dozen guitars with varying tunings but this has been my go-to instrument in recent months. For example, this track recorded earlier this month worked out very well, as well as this rockier one.