2 Guitars, 5 Tunings and an FM9

[DrewJD82]

I managed to join a cover band that plays every song in its original tuning and they have songs from every tuning from E standard down to B standard. I haven’t come across any C/C# stuff yet, but I’m only halfway through the massive fucking setlist. Everything else, there’s a song using that tuning.

Rig for this band is the EVH 50-watt and the FM9 in 4CM. Currently only using the amp’s channels for the tones and the FM9 is doing effects and the Virtual Capo is doing some heavy lifting.

Main guitar- Solar in D standard
2nd— Not sure, but it’ll be in E standard, I’ll probably rotate this one depending on how I’m feeling that day. There’s only one song (Pearl Jam’s “Rearview Mirror”) where I feel compelled to play a Strat and I’m making more excuses to use my Orville because that thing just sounds so good.

At most, I’m just tuning a low E/D string down a step then relying on the VC for everything else. Gave it a try at practice the other night and it held up fine, there’s barely any clean guitars in these songs, no noticeable latency irritating me at all.

Gonna snag some video tonight since it’s a full band practice. I’m chomping at the bit to get into those Slipknot tunes again because goddamn that shit is fun to play with a loud ass amp whacking your back with SPL’s chugging on that low B.

Anyone else using the VC to do a lot of heavy lifting?

 

[la szum]

Man, I am stoked you are doing this, Drew! It sounds hella fun!

Probably mentioned elsewhere I am using the FM3 and it's Virtual Capo.
I am good with it up to about 1 and 1/2 steps. That means going from
Drop D to Drop B is about as far as I can stand it, and even then I could
quibble. My Buddy does the same with the Helix and he agrees. You start
getting more latency and that subtle detuning/wobble/warble.

We are doing tunes from E Standard to Drop B and all parts in between. I
don't think we are going to stick with staying true to EVERY different tuning
of the songs. It's just too much for what we are doing.

My hunch is we will move a few up and down as needed to get to 3 or 4
different tunings. I personally leave my guitar in Drop D all the time and
play the E Standard and Eb Standard stuff in Drop. As long as there are
no pedal tones riding that open string I can fudge it enough to not have
to tune my guitar up and down. Which is fun and lets me work on my
transposing everything up 2 frets on the E string.

 

[DrewJD82]

Man, I am stoked you are doing this, Drew! It sounds hella fun!

Probably mentioned elsewhere I am using the FM3 and it's Virtual Capo.
I am good with it up to about 1 and 1/2 steps. That means going from
Drop D to Drop B is about as far as I can stand it, and even then I could
quibble. My Buddy does the same with the Helix and he agrees. You start
getting more latency and that subtle detuning/wobble/warble.

We are doing tunes from E Standard to Drop B and all parts in between. I
don't think we are going to stick with staying true to EVERY different tuning
of the songs. It's just too much for what we are doing.

My hunch is we will move a few up and down as needed to get to 3 or 4
different tunings. I personally leave my guitar in Drop D all the time and
play the E Standard and Eb Standard stuff in Drop. As long as there are
no pedal tones riding that open string I can fudge it enough to not have
to tune my guitar up and down. Which is fun and lets me work on my
transposing everything up 2 frets on the E string.

I agree with the 1.5 steps, I can just start to detect the latency a bit and only because there’s some tight chugging parts and those palm mutes whackin’ your back don’t lie.

I found out last night they do the majority of their E standard tunes down a half step. Guitar buddy failed to mention that “standard” meant “standard for me because I tune down a half step”, just glad I already setup presets for all the tunings. But that also changes some things based on which guitars I was using for which tunings. I’m decided on the Edwards in Eb and the Solar in D standard/drop-C, which will drop the VC use a bit.

I’m too much of a bonehead to transpose stuff, I can obviously move power/barre chords around and shit, but when to do it with a song I’ve already learned it’s like forcing myself to forget it and starting over.

 

[la szum]

Hey man, I only transpose because I am a lazy ass fuckface who can't be bothered
to tune up and down every other song.

We are going to try and group our songs based on tuning to help remedy that. But
the issue there is getting stuck doing a few songs consecutively that sound oddly
and eerily similar.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Dude, that's SO cool that everything's going great right from the start!! Totally psyched for ya!

Not gigging now, but yeah, I'd absolutely use the VC! I use it for songs I play, and I feel no latency. Clean/clean-ish arpeggiated parts..., seem to be ok, if you don't deviate more than ~1.5 steps.

For solos, if it was one I already knew, then yeah I agree with you- probably not gonna transpose it. But for anything I learn that's not in std, I transpose it, so I can turn off the VC. I'll even transpose parts of the song, if no portion of that section drops too low for whatever tuning I'm in. And if I gigged, I think I'd tune down to Eb, using 10's on a 25.5" scale. I just messed with Are You Gonna Go My Way, and damn that song is murder on your fingers in std., with 10's/25.5"!

And I also like Dave's idea re leaving everything in drop. We used to do Blur's Song 2, but played it in our E std set (we'd do 2 sets, one in Eb, then tune up to E for the other), and since the song is in Eb, all I did was drop my E down to Eb, and played all these, what would look like b5, chords! The song was so easy, it was fine.

+1 for technology!

 

[Stone]

Wow drew that is so awesome Super happy for you, and well they got lucky they got themselves a bad ass Mofo on the axe




Cheers
Mike

 

[MadMaxG79]

This is probably/most likely the wrong crowd for this but this thread reads like the perfect use case for the Variax...

 

[riffy]

LOVE to hear the band video!

 

[DrewJD82]

LOVE to hear the band video!

Well, that period has already come and gone.

I was in the band for 3-4 days when I got a text saying their buddy/original guitarist wanted back in/figured out how to make his situation work and I was out. I got a video of a couple tunes but already deleted them to make space on my phone for more failed guitar solo attempts.

 

[riffy]

That totally blows! I am sorry!

 

[Badonkey Kong]

Jeez... I stumble over this thread today, giving likes/smileys from the beginning, then hit this at the end! Sorry @DrewJD82... But sounds like you're taking it in stride.