Workshop: Nashville Tuning





A customer expressed interest in the Martin from the previous post as something to possibly use for Nashville tuning, so I strung it up in that way and recorded the clip (and took the pic) above so he could hear. Gauges are 30w, 18, 13, 9, 16, 12 tuned eadgBE with the lower-cased in that tuning up a whole octave -- as that's what "Nashville" tuning is!

Of course, to make best use of it requires a replacement saddle, thinner and floppier picks (if you're a flatpicker), and some time to adapt picking styles around the new sound. Most folks use it for straight-up strumming where, on record, it'll punch right through a mix and ring-out. I actually think it's under-used for pretty, "second guitar" fingerpicking on recordings, as the re-entrant tuning gives a sweet, chimey, sort-of 5-string banjo expression to the voice.
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Comments

Unknown said…
I have two guitars, one acoustic, one electric (an old Danelectro 63) tuned Nashville. I use the D'addario Nashville sets but I replace the .009 G with a .010. I find it balances better tonally, and in volume, and has more tensile strength.

I use these babies all the time in my recordings. They're a great addition to my sound set.
June 10, 2016 at 3:00 PM
Oscar Stern said…
If you drop the Gauge of the High G String down to an 8, it'll last longer & feel bouncier. Let's take this a step further to New Nashville Tuning by replacing the B String with an Octave4Plus 6 Gauge High B String.
November 26, 2020 at 8:36 PM
Darshan said…
Octave4plus made b4 string 006 gauge plain steel string & octave4plus make plain strings thin enough to tuned to E5 . It tuned all octave at the 12 string electric guitar.
January 1, 2024 at 7:43 PM
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