Forums » Gillian Welch and David Rawlings "Guitar Tabs"

Faking a 2 instrument texture on one guitar

    • 2 posts
    December 8, 2012 10:45 AM PST

    Would anyone like to share ideas for cunning guitar tunings or capo/multicapo/partial capo which help to fake the rich sound of 2 guitars and guitar and banjo? I read somewhere that Gillian used EADgae, but I can't remember which song. 

    As contributions to set the ball rolling, here are a couple of examples.  

    1) For my duo, "Kazoo Keepers", 'Scarlet Town' works well in standard tuning and D modal positions, with a full capo on the 2nd fret and a 5 string partial capo on the 4th frets of the thinnest strings. With the low note on the 6th string, but the 'tinkle' on the higher strings, you get a really rich sound.

    2)I have found that 'Caleb Meyer' works well in D modal and in standard tuning without the capo.

    Our version can be heard at:

    https://soundcloud.com/cogs48/caleb-meyer


    Looking forward to some inventive ideas.....


    • 2 posts
    December 8, 2012 12:39 PM PST

    Jason

    Well done on pronouncing "Frome" correctly!

    The examples I gave were of my attempts to get a decent key for the singer, and to get a bigger sound from the only instrument in the band. I use them on a few songs, not necessarily GW and DR ones. I'm hoping others are exploring the same, or have suggestions

    I did write a longer reply, but it flew off into the ether.

    Thanks for responding.