Garage Guitar Tunings?

[Gonzo]

Being a big fan of bands along the likes of Jay Reatard, Eddy Current Supression Ring, The Black Lips, Sic Alps, The Saints, The Sonics, 13th Floor Elevators, UV Race etc. I sometimes I wonder if they use any sort of odd/wierd specific tunings to achieve there sound. Obviously a lot of the time they're tuned to each others instruments and god knows how out of tune they are,  but I'm trying to achieve that kinda trashy garagey type tone, I've got all the right gear and get fairly close but I can never seem to nail it. I generally will tune down a semitone, add bucketloads of treble, lower the mids/bass, bridge pick up with a Tele/Strat or what not into Fender & Vox amps and try to jangle punk it away but it doesn't sound completely there, something needs to be added to the flavour. Are there any obvious secrets I should know about ?

[Fuzzmeister]

Why bucketloads of treble? You need some mids in there to give some backbone to the sound!

I don't think tuning down a semitone will help you get the sound you want either. As far as I can tell all the bands you are talking about use standard tuning.

Also, you have mentioned a bunch of bands that all have quite different guitar sounds! Compare the Elevators' guitar sound to the Saints, for example. So is there really just the one Garagey type tone? Hell no! The tones are as different as the players themselves so why not just go for something you are happy with.

[Atomic Suplex]

One secret is to not care quite so much. Fannying around isn't rock & roll.

[Gonzo]

I can't help it, I'm a anal tone freak. As why lots of treble, I can't get enough of it .Unless it's like 12 on a Twin Reverb, then it's just cutting thin air.

[Doc Sanchez]

Hi!

Funny, when I started playing garage punk, I desperately wanted to sound like Billy Childish and/or The Sonics. I tried and tried, but after a while I just bought a 10€-Blues Overdrive, took my old cheap Squier guitar and my old Dean Markley amp and just played. And no, I don't sound like Billy or The Sonics, but I really love my sound now. I'd say: Don't think about it, Gonzo, just play. And don't use too much distortion, this half-distorted sound is my secret. On my cheap Behringer blues overdrive I only use the gain one third to one half max.

Hope you find the sound you like!

Stay cyco, Doc Sanchez

[Joey]

Yeah I agree with some of the posters. Sometimes we spend too much time worrying about tone and not enough time playing music!!!

[FREDDI]

I had a Danelectro DC-3 that I use only for open tuning playin'.
I have tuned it with one of the classic open tuning,the D one that is used by most of old
bluesmen and bottleneckers and Keith Richards too (Hear his sound on "Exile on main St.")

Check it if you didn't,and have fun!

D A D F# A D

[Michael Kaiser]

I say that if you get-in-the-ball-park (more or less) of standard tuning, you be in league with most 60's Garage bands; tuning wise. As far as tone... Its already been pointed out that that all depends on which particular band you desire to emulate.

[Duncan Damaged]

Cheap guitars sometimes do the trick. Like the Japanese Teisco. You can pick em up fairly cheap off Ebay and the like.

[Mardy Pune]

When you listen to those old recordings you have to remember that half the charm of what you're hearing is the old recording equipment. one of the techniques used to try to combat the 'rumble' that you can get from a record player was to cut the bottom end out of everything that was been recorded as well as the fact that the frequency response of a lot of the microphones and recording equipment was, to put it plainly, shit.

Your simply not going to get those vintage sounds from modern equipment because of a variety of reasons. Modern manufacturing is more precise, components used in electronics have better tolerances, pickups are machine wound instead of hand wound etc.

As already mentioned you can get close to those cool old school tones by tracking down vintage guitars or old microphones but as soon as you plug them into a modern DAW its gonna be modernized again.

Freddi's comment about the open D tuning is worth checking out also check out open A, really easy to use when you're super pissed.

Doc Sanchez nailed it when he said don't think about it just play.

[Jamie]

I read somewhere that Larry Parypa used drop-D for "The Witch" with a Jaguar or Jazzmaster. I have no idea if that's true.

I also have to remind myself not to care so much and just play. But then again why not put some work into the things you love to do.

[carlo rimbaudi]

first off you need some real vintage equipment... buy the worst 60's guitar you can find out there and the cheepest rotten tube amp. i swear nothing will sound more rotten garage then that. no need for high price guitars or amps, you can through that junk right out the window, and the best tuning is being untuned. as for the treble part, i agree, varies from amp to amp but i just crank it all the way up just to make sure.

[Rockin Rod Strychnine]

Seeing the Sonics in 2008, Larry didn't retune or switch guitars during the show but they might not have been playing in the same key as the old records either since Gerry can't really sing inthose high pitches anymore.

But the Witch is in the key of G (almost all their songs are) but Larry was one of the first guys to use barre chords as opposed to more standard style (like those used by country and western guys or rockabilly). So he did get a deep sound, like on Louie Louie for example. The Music Machine did use a drop D for Talk Talk though.

Be careful though if you learn garage songs straight off of sixties comps or singles. They didn't have electronic tuners to get correct pitch. A lot of the time they relied on a Keyboard player or sax to tune a guitar to. But a lot of groups that didn't have those instruments did a lot of guessing. I had to worry about my guitar strings snapping so I could learn Psychotic Reaction.

Jamie said:

I read somewhere that Larry Parypa used drop-D for "The Witch" with a Jaguar or Jazzmaster. I have no idea if that's true.

I also have to remind myself not to care so much and just play. But then again why not put some work into the things you love to do.