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Duane and open tunings

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shane-o
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Ok so I read somewhere that when John Hammond was recording at Muscle Shoals they were playing slide together and John did something that Duane asked "how did you do that?" and Hammond showed Duane open tunings...(if need be I will find the book I read it in or interview I just don't have time this morning) So my question is this IF John Hammond is correct in this statement then were all the slide songs Duane Played or recorded at MS prior to that (November 69) in regular tuning??? Arethas the weight, and a slew of other tunes....on the spencer wiggins tune" I never loved a woman the way I love you" he switches between slide and regular fingering and that was prior to John Hammond.....Have any of you other Duane heads read that or thought about this... I think John Hammond even says he was surprised that he knew something Duane did not about guitar playing because Duane was so good....

 
Posted : July 30, 2016 2:55 am
BIGV
 BIGV
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Ok so I read somewhere that when John Hammond was recording at Muscle Shoals they were playing slide together and John did something that Duane asked "how did you do that?" and Hammond showed Duane open tunings...(if need be I will find the book I read it in or interview I just don't have time this morning) So my question is this IF John Hammond is correct in this statement then were all the slide songs Duane Played or recorded at MS prior to that (November 69) in regular tuning??? Arethas the weight, and a slew of other tunes....on the spencer wiggins tune" I never loved a woman the way I love you" he switches between slide and regular fingering and that was prior to John Hammond.....Have any of you other Duane heads read that or thought about this... I think John Hammond even says he was surprised that he knew something Duane did not about guitar playing because Duane was so good....

I do remember reading a Duane quote (Maybe even hearing it on a bootleg) that after LAFE began to soar up the charts, Duane said, "Thanks!, now I can afford to buy a second guitar"....Also on the Winterland 9/26/73 recording, right after "Wasted words" & "Done somebody wrong" Gregg says "We got a little tightening up to do" and you can hear Dickey changing back to standard for OWO. Just thinking that was the way things were back then, one favorite axe used for the whole show. So, I'm guessing that if DA changed his mindset on tunings it happened pretty early on....Add, the same sort of thing happened to me in almost the same way when at a living room jam in my early days, another player turned me on to open E. "BAM"!...when that door opened I walked into a brand new world...

I've scratched my head numerous times over Warren stating he prefers slide in standard and "Just never learned to do it in open"....

 
Posted : July 30, 2016 11:00 am
homeboy
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Very interesting point that I have always wondered about. I have heard the John-Hammond-showed-Duane-open-tuning story too. And I too wondered how Duane could have then recorded all those classic slide parts (you can throw "Road of Love" in there too) prior to his meeting with John Hammond. Not that it's impossible to play slide in standard tuning, but those tracks sound an awful lot like they are in open tuning. Hmm

 
Posted : July 31, 2016 12:31 am
shane-o
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well as far as standard tuning...I can play slide in standard or open though its easier in open...but if you want to hear monster slide players in standard tuning try Mike Bloomfield...I think Duane even said that once...but there is a cd called at the old waldorf that bloomfield plays in regular tuning slide on all but one cut....and we all know Mountain Jam and dreams were in standard tuning....so he could and did do it...I just wondered about some of those songs as homeboy noted "Road of love" that is a monster...but the early version of Melissa Duane plays in standard for sure...I was just curious if he learned the taj mahal album in standard when he had that infamous cold....

 
Posted : August 7, 2016 7:05 pm
nlitndrog
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Duane's guitar tunings for recorded songs featuring slide:

Open E:

Statesboro Blues, Done Somebody Wrong, One Way Out, Trouble No More (live), Drunken Hearted Boy, Standback, Don't Keep Me Wonderin', Little Martha

Standard tuning:

Dreams, Mountain Jam, Midnight Rider, Trouble No More (studio debut album)

[Edited on 10/9/2016 by nlitndrog]

 
Posted : October 9, 2016 6:15 am
shane-o
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yeah we know the tunings of the ABB songs the question is "if John Hammond taught Duane open tunings as he stated when they met were all the songs at muscle shoals and NYC duane recorded in standard tuning?? like the weight and road of love etc..??

 
Posted : October 23, 2016 6:53 pm
homeboy
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yeah we know the tunings of the ABB songs the question is "if John Hammond taught Duane open tunings as he stated when they met were all the songs at muscle shoals and NYC duane recorded in standard tuning?? like the weight and road of love etc..??

exactly

 
Posted : October 24, 2016 9:26 am
philipag
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I believe the songs you mentioned were done in standard tuning. I don't think he used open tunings during the Muscle Shoals era.

[Edited on 10/28/2016 by philipag]

 
Posted : October 28, 2016 9:25 am
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