[ZeroSignal]

Hey.

I'm forming a band with a guy who has a epiphone les paul and a fender strat. His style is primarily bluesy classic rockish (jimmy page and rory gallagher are his heroes), the total opposite style of mine, but that's cool because we're setting up an experimental type band.

But he uses E standard tuning. What I want to know is if anyone else here is in a band with a 6 stringer and how do you make it work? Or should I force him to buy a 7 or use drop-B?

Any help or tips would be appreciated!

[Plaschkes]

I'm in a drop D band, and I tune ADADGBE while the other guitarist to Drop D on his 6er, and I do a lot of harmony playing on the 7th string, it's actually really cool, or just play some stuff an octave below. B-I-G sound.

[HamBungler]

Strapping Young Lad has that same situation, though they play in Open C tuning, with Devin's lowest string tuned to G on his 7.

I'd do something eclectic, being nice and calm at times, then going into sheer heaviness. I think it would be pretty cool. You can even try using different tunings on both guitars to get a weird dissonant sound.

[Variant]

I played with a six stringer that employed a very different tone (very brown-ish, and midrange-y) than my 7-string + Ministry sound (lots of low mids & highs). We simply played counterpoint parts. We just didn't play even close to the same rhythm or lead parts. In the studio we'd still double our own parts, but when jamming (or live) one guitar through a good stereo setup is plenty good for a rhythm part IMHO. Pertrucci, Gary Hoey, Dino Cazeras, and Dime are all good examples of that.

There's no law that says you have to stick to the Priest/Maiden/Metallica etc. way of thinking when it comes to two guitarists.

[starsnuffer]

I play rhythm guitar in this band and the lead guitarist plays 6 strings. We tune to standard, and we've never had a problem.

I never liked it when 2 guitarists play the same part anyway, booooring.

-W

[Ancestor]

Depends on how good the guy is. If he know what he's doing it shouldn't be a problem. The real problems seem to present themselves when guitars are tuned a half step apart. Pedal tones.

[deadwinter]

In my band I play seven string and my other guitarist plays six it comes out really well and we stay in standard tuning. So it should work out fine

[NickCormier]

ill be in a band next month with a 6 player.. but its gonna be just like megadeth/that kinda stuff.. and some covers.. so I will just ignore my B string for this band, then hopefully have another band where I can do some more prog fusiony stuff.. So yea, just ignore the B for now, should be fine.. maybe pull it out in some riffs.. We're actually doing a cover of megadeths "Skin O My teeth" and I play the main riff transposed for 7 string, just because it makes it easier to play for me.. So it makes some things easier to play in terms of finger positioning..

Just thinking.. you could do some songs where its a harmonized rhythm, with you using the low B string first 5 notes, and he can do it like a 3rd higher or octave higher, or something.. That would work, since he would never need to use a low B/C/C#/D/D#, but you can.

[Brandon]

when i was in a band with a 6 player, i would play a chord an octave below him when i found the chance, really making it sound monstrous. i made up a riff based off of the seventh string, but we harmonized it with him having him play it up in seventh position. if you are determined enough, you can make it work, and end up making up some interesting things.

[Naren]

Originally Posted by Brandon

when i was in a band with a 6 player, i would play a chord an octave below him when i found the chance, really making it sound monstrous. i made up a riff based off of the seventh string, but we harmonized it with him having him play it up in seventh position. if you are determined enough, you can make it work, and end up making up some interesting things.

I've had two different approaches to this. In my more recent band that I was in last year with another 6er and a 4-string bass player, I would oftentimes play the same stuff as the other guitarist an octave lower and sometimes at the same location. But, there were some riffs that I wanted to play in unisson that he couldn't play, which was kind of annoying.

In the other band I was in about 4 years ago, it was the opposite. It was me on a 6-string in E standard and the other guitarist (TDW) on a seven-string in FCGCFAD tuning (drop-C/drop-F). The approach I took generally was just playing stuff in the same key that fit well with what he was playing. For example, he was playing a heavy chord progression based around C and F on the low end, while I was playing octaves slowly up really high on the g, b, and e strings. Or, in another song, he was playing arpeggios and I was playing slow lead riffs that would match with his notes in places for the verse and for the chorus we played roughly the same chords but in our respective different tunings which made them sound very different but fit together very well. For another song, he played stuff really really low and I played the same root notes as octaves about 1 octave above where he was playing it. In some other songs, I was playing absolutely completely different stuff than he was, but it was in the same key and based around the same basic notes.