why is a lead guitar not tuned in like a bass

[Wookieonbass]

I'ts just the traditional way and I suspect it is for ease in playing the greatest range of chords with as much fullnes as possible. However no one says you have to tune it that way. A lot of cats use alternate tunings like tuning to an open chord like G major. If an alternate tuning works for you then 'nuff said.

[line6man]

Originally Posted by khutch

Guitars have been around for centuries and if you think everyone who plays one is a "guitard" then you have not been paying attention. The standard guitar tuning is the one that has proved the most useful for most guitarists most of the time. It and every possible alternate tuning is a compromise between several factors that cannot all be optimized by any single tuning. Does this surprise anyone? It shouldn't when you consider how many tunings are in use on TB. A lot of us use non-standard tunings and so do a lot of "them". If you want to play a regular guitar you can tune it any way you like within whatever constraints the available strings impose, just as you do with your bass.

Ken

You said it perfectly.

It should be obvious, though, that guitars are traditionally tuned as they are, because it makes certain chords easy to play. Additionally, changing the tuning alters the sound of chords that utilize open strings.

[Randyt]

i was always under the impression,.. they could play louder and bend notes more out of tune more easily>>>
and...Yngwie Malmsteen says no to any other tuning...LOL

[Steve Dallman]

Keith Richards has no idea what you are talking about.

[TolerancEJ]

I always assumed guitars transitioned tuning at the B string to make the top & bottom strings both E.

[awilkie84]

Originally Posted by bill reed

E-A-d-g-c'-f'
This tuning is like that of the lowest four strings in standard tuning. Jazz musician Stanley Jordan plays guitar in all-fourths tuning; he has stated that all-fourths tuning "simplifies the fingerboard, making it logical".

I would of thought it would make finding chords much easer as you would use the same finger pattern just like you do with a bass. so the same pattern works all over the fretboard if using the root as the lowest note. you cant do that on a guitar as the finger pattern has to change!
just something I have always been puzzeled by!

Shouldn't that be E-A-D-G-C-F#??? That would be fourths, would it not?

[Kwesi]

Originally Posted by awilkie84

Shouldn't that be E-A-D-G-C-F#??? That would be fourths, would it not?

Nah, it's F.

[charliefreak]

I'm not going to get into explaining it cause I know I'll say something wrong and cause a whole upstir- but it actually has to do with the tuning on a piano. Some piano tunings (i believe it alternates every other fourth and fifth note from the lowest note) aren't true to the note because they're tuned offset a 1/2 in either direction (again... don't remember which) to accomodate for overtones and how the human ear hears the intervals on a piano starting at the lowest note. From what I figured a few months ago (wish I took notes for the sake of progression and intellectual conversation) that b string on guitar is technically a Cb.

All I'm saying... the answer is in piano A=440 tuning standards - as per a wisconsin music professor I spoke with a few weeks ago.

Happy learning!

[3234718]

Cuz guitars are stoopid.

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by bill reed

what is the reason for a lead guitar to tuned the B string to a Major third when all other strings are tuned like the bass to a perfect fourth, would it not be better to tune in all six strings in fourths and then you could use the same patterns like on a bass!

Originally Posted by bill reed

E-A-d-g-c'-f'
This tuning is like that of the lowest four strings in standard tuning. Jazz musician Stanley Jordan plays guitar in all-fourths tuning; he has stated that all-fourths tuning "simplifies the fingerboard, making it logical".

I would of thought it would make finding chords much easer as you would use the same finger pattern just like you do with a bass. so the same pattern works all over the fretboard if using the root as the lowest note. you cant do that on a guitar as the finger pattern has to change!
just something I have always been puzzeled by!

Percy Jones, the greatest fretless electric bassist alive, plays 5 string bass with a low C (CEADG); this is logical to his way of thinking and playing. I have been playing guitar just shy of a few month of how long I have played bass (since early Winter 1971) and have never questioned the logic of a guitar's standard tuning, it just works. I also play in several altered/open tunings and they all work for what they are needed for.

[seang15]

Originally Posted by line6man

You said it perfectly.

It should be obvious, though, that guitars are traditionally tuned as they are, because it makes certain chords easy to play. Additionally, changing the tuning alters the sound of chords that utilize open strings.

Hey dude, you hit 10,000 with this post, congrats!