Ultimate Rhoads

I have been looking through old threads and can't seem to find the answer to my question.

What was Randy's tunings live on his guitars ?

Wasn't Randy's les Paul drop D and his PDV standard tuning



Thanks
Nick

I can say for sure randy never tuned to drop D....pretty sure LP and polka V were E and jacksons were Eb

sytharnia wrote:pretty sure LP and polka V were E and jacksons were Eb

That's what I always heard too.
One thing that still puzzles me though, is why he used the LP for Crazy Train live,
when he recorded it with the PDV

He may of wanted a more natural tremolo sound with the V for the dives etc. Instead of bending the LP's neck etc..

[quote="randy will never die"]I have been looking through old threads and can't seem to find the answer to my question.

What was Randy's tunings live on his guitars ?

Wasn't Randy's les Paul drop D and his PDV standard tuning



Thanks


No he didnt use drop d tuning on his Les Paul /pdv because i cant think of a reason why he wouldve used a drop d tuning playing the " Ozzy" songs....

I cant hear that tonality either in the live recordings ive heard anyway.....

I think he probably as people said tuned slighty flat sometimes however the songs on Tribute were all to standard pitch as far as i can tell!

The suicide solution solo as im told was taken from a different show but even so it seems that it was slightly " speeded" up in the studio when it was mastered ( not when he played it live) to make it stand out more after all it was Randys defining moment on the Tribute album ?

I worked out that it was roughly raised a semi tone...

Stiltzkin wrote:

sytharnia wrote:pretty sure LP and polka V were E and jacksons were Eb

That's what I always heard too.
One thing that still puzzles me though, is why he used the LP for Crazy Train live,
when he recorded it with the PDV

Interesting thats something i cant find a reason for hmm....

GUITARIDOL5682 wrote:He may of wanted a more natural tremolo sound with the V for the dives etc. Instead of bending the LP's neck etc..

Wolf Marshall Crazy Train teaches a tapped note then bending it , or release bend etc he did do that at times it sounds like a tremelo but theres so much fuzz and the solos were doubled and not always matched pitch perfect so at times its a bit confusing

I often wondered if he did both. Like that last part in the Over the Mountain, the Jimmy Page (Heartbreaker) minor third trill just before the final dive and return. I could see done with a whammy or with just the hands (like page). In double or in Randy's case, triple tracking, he knew that slight differences (slightly off) gave the sound a depth. Why not do one take with the fingers and another one with the bar. I (obviously) love Randy's playing but those albums are so uncommonly out-of-this-world sounding. You look at some of his guitar tablature and think there is something missing here.

Oh and as far as tunings, Randy does say on the guitar seminar that live they have different guitars tuned, well differently. E and Eb. The polka-dot was tuned to E, if my memory serves me well. That was the Diary tour. Although the idea is genius. Randy had remarked about how most rock groups had songs in E, A and B to use open strings. Iron maiden (great group) had a lot of songs like that. They had songs in different keys but in concert, I believe something suffered because some songs had the same sounding "strains." I'm not slagging Maiden at all but I noticed it in concerts. It could be the more popular tunes had open string riffs.

Sorry if I'm long winded but if you played a song in Em (standard tuning) and switched guitars to one in Eb and played a different tune in Em, it would sound different. Like a different key.

Here is some sloppy slide Page work in 1975.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTrQ7vUZsIo

hansolo wrote:Sorry if I'm long winded but if you played a song in Em (standard tuning) and switched guitars to one in Eb and played a different tune in Em, it would sound different. Like a different key.

Actually, it'd sound the same except for the actually pitch of the notes because the intervals between the notes doesn't change when you de-tune.

Paul Wolfe wrote:

hansolo wrote:Sorry if I'm long winded but if you played a song in Em (standard tuning) and switched guitars to one in Eb and played a different tune in Em, it would sound different. Like a different key.

Actually, it'd sound the same except for the actually pitch of the notes because the intervals between the notes doesn't change when you de-tune.

no one likes a corrector ... but this is right. For me tuning to Eb takes away the "punch" of E, Yes it sounds a tiny bit heavier but it loses the bite..



I should point out I hate tuning to Eb

sytharnia wrote:I should point out I hate tuning to Eb

If you hate Eb, you'd absolutely despise what I tune most of my guitars to. (Open C5, from bottom to top is CGCGCC, sometimes I go a half step down from that for live)

You don't lose much "punch" if you up the gauge of the strings like Randy did.

sytharnia wrote:I should point out I hate tuning to Eb

There was a discussion on the Metal Method forum a couple weeks ago about tuning down. DJ Nelson was wondering about doing a lesson video tuned down and it was determined that there is no point, since everything 1/2 step down is exactly the same as standard except for pitch, so doing the lesson in standard would reach more players.

Then the discussion turned to the DigiTech Whammy DT Drop Tune Guitar Effects Pedal ... Check this out:

DJ_Nelson wrote:I recorded the track at the link below with the DT and used a standard tuned guitar with the pedal 1-1/2 steps down. Tell me what you think of the tone

http://igod.bandcamp.com/track/dead-cursor

I'm really wanting to get my hands on one of these pedals to experiment...