Hey all! I just had my first lesson with Greg, which was fun and informative. (Shameless plug for Greg, yes.)

After sharing the direction I want to take my stick playing (more for comping while singing), Greg suggested I tune my 10 string down to baritone or deep baritone melody to easily get into the lower and mid-guitar range.

I've been playing with MR since I started, so either of these tunings will be a mental adjustment for me. Has anyone tried either tuning or can you make comments on your experience with them?

Regular baritone melody seems to be a good idea since much of Greg's instructional materials and song books are written for regular baritone. Although transposing up a step wouldn't be too difficult ...

There is a similar thread here:
viewtopic.php?f=2&p=56963
But since the question is Deep Bari melody vs. Deep Bass reciprocal, I figure the comparison is different enough to warrant a different thread.

I took Greg's advice on tuning choice and haven't looked back. Dave Brosky suggested the same thing as well. Went from Classic to Baritone Melody. Granted I only had a couple months under my Stick belt at the time, but I much preferred the access of the lower notes in the right hand. Now I just need to find someone to trade Stick Books with

As you're already aware, you'll have an easier time with the instructional materials in baritone rather than deep baritone. I ordered my 10-string in classic tuning and quickly switched to baritone melody (also on Greg's suggestion). I've been perfectly happy with that choice.

You don't state here what your goals are or how long you've been playing in MR, but I've generally found Greg's advice to be spot-on.

Maybe I should have been more specific

I've been playing off and on for a few years. I've had my Stick since 2005, but it's sat ignored for some time and at this point I'm trying to fix that problem.

My goals are to sing and play Stick, mostly solo. Whenever I hear various pieces in acoustic guitar, I instantly start thinking of ways to adapt them to the Stick. I also want to cover some Opeth songs and adapt them into Stick versions as well, either by myself or with a band behind me if need be.

I can relate to what you are saying. To start, make the change that you feel is necessary and commit to it. Changing your tuning will not make you play better - but it might make you play more and that might be just what you need.

I played standard 10-string tuning for 2 years and then switched to Baritone tuning - never looked back. That was a pretty pivotal moment in my journey - but you have to do what feels right. It will require a new set of strings, a new setup and a big investment in time re-learning some aspects of the fretboard you were just coming to know.

Emmett changes his tuning every few years, for inspiration and to keep things fresh - my vote is do it!

If you're already familiar with the pitch arrangements of MR, then moving to Deep Baritone makes more sense as 4 of the strings will already be familiar to you.

The best thing about Deep Baritone Melody is the guitar's low E is in an accessible spot on string 5 at fret 5, and the bass low E is on string 6 fret 4, so you can play that with fingers 3 or 4 and reach back toward the nut:

http://www.stick.com/instruments/tunings/10/dbm/



So if you want to play guitar + bass rock tunes, you can do it with this tuning, in the original key.

Hey Gene! Thanks for the input.

I agree that changing tuning will probably do wonders to freshen the experience a bit. What I didn't share earlier was that I had been thinking about tuning my Stick down for some time. I guess after Greg made the suggestion during our lesson it finally hit me that I should stop thinking about it and just do it.

Hi Greg! Thanks for the response.

I didn't realize about the stacked E's a fret apart from each other. That could come in very handy!

I play Raised Matched Reciprocal (RMR) with the low bass D at the X-fret (first tappable note) and the high melody D also there. I'm very tempted to lower the melody strings by a 4th interval, basically moving each melody string over to the next higher position, adding a new lower 4th at the interior and eliminating the high melody string.

Not considering the bass side, this would be a Baritone Melody tuning, but the bass is raised by a whole step (a major 2nd).

This would be Deep Baritone relationship between the sides, but with the entire string set raised a whole step with correspondingly thinner gauge strings (still heavy, medium or light according to your preference for tone and feel).

Whether raised a whole step or not, the Deep Baritone relationship is most like MR (as Greg just mentioned) but with high melody string removed and a low string added. Hand positions are alike, including distances between the hands.

And there's one correspondence I like best. With MR or its 4th down equivalent Deep Bari Melody, it's the first scale position that's comfortable between the hands, index fingers three frets apart. With MR, the two lowest interior strings on each side have the same notes and fingering wherever you are on the fretboard (it's a keyless concept). And with Deep Baritome Melody, there are three such corresponding low strings on each side.

"Deep Bari Melody", but raised a whole step together with the bass. "Raised Deep Bari?" Conflicting name. What to call it.? "Unburied Melody".

Thanks Bsharp - I have pondered the possibilities of the deep bari tuning, but I am too big a fan of the tuning I have enjoyed since you turned me on to it back in the day. Once upon a time this was simply called the Baritone tuning (I think that would have been ~1992).

What to call it? How about Full Baritone?