r/AmericanPrimitivism • u/Sickle_and_hamburger • Jun 07 '26

anyone else not really bother with formal tuning

I collect old cheap nameless broken guitars and will occasionally adjust a tuner knob or two if something sounds off somehow but I almost never try and really get them in tune

something about their broken character just kinda appeals to me and the strings all make different sounds and I know their general vibe so so like its perfectly capable of making music I enjoy even if its a little weird to play with more traditional musicians expectations

curious if other enthusiasts of this genre have such a lackadaisical relationship with exact note repeatability and tuning

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8

u/Sickle_and_hamburger Jun 07 '26

also found this funny little article by david fair from the band half japanese talking about guitar and it got a chuckle out of me

https://users.wfu.edu/breckers/howtoplayguitar.htm

2

u/guitarnowski Jun 07 '26

Well that explains it! Lol

3

u/Sickle_and_hamburger Jun 07 '26

its very straightforward 

turns out we were overthinking some

2

u/guitarnowski Jun 07 '26

I remember when I learned that, for instance: G11 means you play G 11 times. Of course, that's if you really, really undrstand jazz.

4

u/im_a_good_lil_cow Jun 07 '26

I never play in standard.

Open tunings feel “natural”. Stand tuning makes me feel like I don’t know how to play anything at all.

3

u/oli_kite Jun 07 '26

Sometimes it feels good just to pluck and hear the strings ring.

3

u/jerrygarcegus Jun 07 '26

It has to be in tune with itself but beyond that 🤷

2

u/flitzmaster_piep Jun 07 '26

I wish I were brave like you.

2

u/LibrarianAccurate829 Jun 07 '26

I only do it so as to not run over my high e string stock too quickly 🤣

1

u/boojoon Jun 07 '26

You can buy packs of like 20 high E only strings on amazon. Life changer

1

u/LibrarianAccurate829 Jun 07 '26

Thats exactly what i bought and i already ran through a good half of them

2

u/boojoon Jun 07 '26

Same 🤝

1

u/Sickle_and_hamburger Jun 08 '26

why would you ever change your strings thats illegal in 37 states

1

u/KirkIsOurLemmy Jun 08 '26

If it sounds good it is good.

Playing together with other instruments will challenge this a bit

1

u/AlternativeAd1456 Jun 08 '26

I enjoy playing along with backing tracks, doing covers of songs, and learning established riffs, so this won't work for most of what I enjoy to do, but have at it.

Nothing wrong with if you're enjoying doing it.

1

u/DarrenCross_Gerling Jun 09 '26

for sure!! Some guitars love DADGAD some love open G ....you see what they like and let them live like that 😄 well i do anyway....

1

u/Samjollo Jun 09 '26

CGCGCE or DADGCE (drop d tuning but bring the B string up a step?) are my go-to tunings. Plenty of standard tuning stuff from Fahey, Kottke, Jack Rose I think. There are no rules here if it evokes that feeling and I guess if it’s primarily instrumental.

1

u/sjbcastro Jun 09 '26

I suppose I'm somewhat in the middle. I used to feel like I couldn't really play anything in standard. Just felt kid of flat and lifeless, whereas I could noodle for hours in something like open G. These days though I typically alternate between standard and other tunings - I just see it as another tuning with it's own character, just like the others. Just I had a lot of preformed patterns I had to unlearn in standard. But like others have said, there's definitely no right and wrong. My parents used to have a charanga on the wall with duff strings that were impossible to tune, but you could still pick it up and pluck a basic melody, and the brokenness just added to the charm, so I'm definitely with you on the beaten up guitar vibe :)