Switching a guitar over to Keith Richards tuning... advice?

Re: Switching a guitar over to Keith Richards tuning... advice?

I've had a tele permanently set up in open g for 15+ years now, are you asking for playing advice or set up advice?

Playing in open G is pretty easy, a straight barre gives you a major chord, middle finger up one fret on the b string gives you a sus4 & ring finger up two frets on the d string gives a sus 2 alternating between the major & sus2/4 is the Keith sound. (think of an A7 chord)
Minor chords are more of a compromise, I use my index finger on the b, my pinky a fret higher on the high d (normally e in standard) & ring & middle on any two of the remaining 3 strings also a fret higher from the index finger & mute the remaining string. Like a mirror image of a Cadd9.
You get to keep all the b string fills from standard tuning & have mini pentatonic boxes across the D G & B strings I tend to play melodies almost exclusively on the G & B strings

Listen to Southern Harmony & Amorica by the Black Crowes, Rich Robinson is far more accomplished than Keith in open G, (but Keith wrote the better songs) I think Dancin Days by Zep is in open G also,

Expect to tweak the the truss rod is you leave it in open G permanently hope that helps.

BTW some people leave the high E as an E DGDGBE (i think a track or 2 from Exile utilise this variant) you have to decide whether the trade off of muting the high E or placing your pinky 3 frets higher than the barre during rhythm playing is for you.
Another variant is to tune the low E to a G so off the top of my head here are some variants to play around with:

dgdgbd
ggdgbd
dgdgbe
ggdgbe
 
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Re: Switching a guitar over to Keith Richards tuning... advice?

I like the Antiquity series, but I've never been a fan of the Hot Rails. I want something high output, but still warm for this guitar.
 
Re: Switching a guitar over to Keith Richards tuning... advice?

I've had a tele permanently set up in open g for 15+ years now, are you asking for playing advice or set up advice?

Playing in open G is pretty easy, a straight barre gives you a major chord, middle finger up one fret on the b string gives you a sus4 & ring finger up two frets on the d string gives a sus 2 alternating between the major & sus2/4 is the Keith sound. (think of an A7 chord)
Minor chords are more of a compromise, I use my index finger on the b, my pinky a fret higher on the high d (normally e in standard) & ring & middle on any two of the remaining 3 strings also a fret higher from the index finger & mute the remaining string. Like a mirror image of a Cadd9.
You get to keep all the b string fills from standard tuning & have mini pentatonic boxes across the D G & B strings I tend to play melodies almost exclusively on the G & B strings

Listen to Southern Harmony & Amorica by the Black Crowes, Rich Robinson is far more accomplished than Keith in open G, (but Keith wrote the better songs) I think Dancin Days by Zep is in open G also,

Expect to tweak the the truss rod is you leave it in open G permanently hope that helps.

BTW some people leave the high E as an E DGDGBE (i think a track or 2 from Exile utilise this variant) you have to decide whether the trade off of muting the high E or placing your pinky 3 frets higher than the barre during rhythm playing is for you.
Another variant is to tune the low E to a G so off the top of my head here are some variants to play around with:

dgdgbd
ggdgbd
dgdgbe
ggdgbe

A little bit of everything, I guess. Though at this point some setup advice might be beneficial. The tele in question has developed a serious fret buzz, seems like its at the first fret, but I haven't done a lot of investigating. I ended up putting a different guitar in openG for the moment. I tried tweaking the truss rod a little bit last night, but it doesn't want to move. I'm thinking I might have to pick up a replacement neck, because this guitar has had other similar problems recently.

My lap steel is set up GBDGBD, so scales shouldn't be a huge jump for me. On an unrelated note, I've thought of going to GBDGBE for an odd G6 tuning.
 
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