Top 10 FAMOUS Guitar RIFFS with WEIRD Tuning | Walrus Canvas Tuner

[@DaniloVicari]

What's the weirdest tuning you have ever encountered?🤯👇🏻

[@danby8880]

Iris goo goo dolls

[@Gordanovich02]

Code Orange use a curious variant of Drop B with the 2nd and 3rd strings tuned down a further whole step, so it's B F# B D F# C#

[@stoppax]

acdc - highway to hell

[@diogoferraz6475]

Daughter from Pearl Jam

[@buiomega1420]

The rains song dei led zeppein, without you I'm nothing dei placebo.

[@foughtstatue1023]

2 riffs I thought of at first were Kool Thing by Sonic Youth ( F#-F#-F#-F#-E-B) and Rock Lobster by the B-52s (C-F-Bb-Eb-F-F). 2 pretty recognizable riffs with incredibly weird tunings.

[@gutbucket6184]

The 4 lowest strings on the b 52s tuning are c standard

[@TimHareMusic]

Ricky Wilson used a few interesting tunings. Added to his trademark sound

[@antonio_sousa28]

Two great songs, although I'm pretty sure Ricky Wilson removed the middle two strings, and kept only the C-F and two F's.

[@timothyo718]

Sonic Youth used that tuning on a quite a lot of songs. Pretty much the entire Bad Moon Rising album is in F#F#F#F#EB tuning. Great for droning.

[@BaBaBaBenny]

C-standard tuning was carried over to QOSTA by Josh Home from his old stoner/sludge band Kyuss, a lot of the bands earlier material leaned in that direction too.

[@catkkidcat]

Robert Fripp of King Crimson invented a tuning called "new standard tuning" or "Guitar Craft standard tuning" that tunes the guitar in fifths and then a third: i.e. CGDAEg

[@namtsur]

I was looking forward to see Mayonaise by Smashing Pumpkins, Eb Bb Bb Gb Bb D is pretty strange.

[@Richard-ec8xy]

My favourite tuning to play around with is Open Cm11 - C, G, D#, F, A#, D. Beautiful single finger barre chords most notably used by John Martyn on his gorgeous tune Solid Air, i dont know any other uses of it but its so fun to play with

[@madmaxronnie]

Mark Tremonti uses these kind if tunings a lot like the open D5 tuning DADADD in 'My Sacrifice' and 'Open Your Eyes'.

[@zakkfps910]

Time from Creed is in a very interesting tuning too, thought I’d add that since you said Tremonti

[@simonogg1376]

Crosby Stills & Nash have EEEEBE tuning on Suite Judy Blue Eyes, Carry On (1/2 step down) and 4+20. Stephen Stills called it Bruce Palmer Modal Tuning after the Buffalo Springfield Bassist. Sounds cool on an acoustic.

[@andrewpappas9311]

As soon as I saw this I knew Soundgarden (who have so many other really weird tunings), Hey You, Stones and Zeppelin (I know Jimmy Page uses a lot of other open tunings as well) but props for including Bad to the Bone (which is one of my favourite riffs to play) and QOTSA (not familiar with that song but I’ll check it out), also here are some other examples in case you might do another one of these - CFCGBE (Soundgarden - 4th of July) - Drop A (Muse - Citizen Erased) - C Standard (Alestorm - Drink (and everything else from their discography)) - DGCGCD (Led Zeppelin - The Rain Song) - Open E (ZZ Top - Just Got Paid) - Open D (Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now) - DADFAE (Opeth - Ghost of Perdition) - AADGBE (Foo Fighters - Stacked Actors)

[@dj011392]

I was gonna comment “Stacked Actors”! Glad someone mentioned it 😃.

[@Viper-dz2kw]

Drop A is a relatively standard tuning in heavier rock and especially in metal

[@andrewpappas9311]

@@Viper-dz2kw Yeah, especially on 7-strings or guitars that have heavier gauge strings

[@reptarien]

You could do a whole video just on all of the weird one off tunings that Devin Townsend has used, not to mention his most common tuning, Open C, which is rarely used by other bands!

[@AnthonyStatenMusic]

It looks like you actually had it correct for the playing demonstration, but FYI the low E is actually TWO octaves up on Hey You, so both E strings are the same pitch. One of the acoustic parts on Comfortably Numb is tuned that way too. Also for any Keith Richards parts in open G, he traditionally takes the low E string off so he has a 5-string with G as the lowest pitch (GDGBD). Anyway, some others...Seven Nation Army is in open A (E A E A C# E). Linkin Park had some weird ones. Lost is tuned DADGCE, Easier to Run is Db Ab Bb Gb Bb Eb, and Somewhere I Belong is Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Bb. The acoustic guitar on Castle of Glass is tuned EFDGBE when they play it live, the rhythm guitar on Final Masquerade is in drop D but UP half a step (Eb Bb Eb Ab C F), and Figure.09 is played with only 4 strings - Db Ab Db (x) Db (x). The Db in the second string slot is tuned to the same Db as the lowest string and used for the tapped harmonics in the intro. Nookie by Limp Bizkit is a pretty well-known one, it's on a custom 4-string guitar tuned F# F# B E.

[@pietropojer806]

Rispetto per tutto il tempo che hai impiegato a realizzare tutte le accordature di questo video!✊🏼

[@DOGSPAWN]

Radiohead Bangers + Mash uses AADGBE. Very cool tuning, heavy as! I believe Matt Kwasnieski-Kelvin formerly of Black Midi used that same tuning in early versions of John L as well.

[@user-mp7fn4zc9r]

In their song Electioneering one guitar is tuned in drop D and second one is tuned in double drop D (DADGBD)

[@xXg4m3r.g1r1Xx]

"formerly of Black Midi" still hurts

[@DeceptiveSS]

My brain displayed some BSODs and 401 errors by experiencing Devin Townsend and open C/B tunings. These tunings changed my guitar playing. Mixed with an earlier experience of Mastodon's AGCFAD, I tried AGCGCE tuning which basically mixed that low bottom string with open chord and it was amazing.

[@roblivorr7523]

Polvo and Sonic Youth are probably the best at writing songs in weird tunings. Chavez also have a couple of weird ones. I believe Brian Gibson of Lightning Bolt plays in CGDA and CGDAE.🙂👍

[@mellowcorpsep6665]

shame polvo arent talked about much

[@gjod6997]

For me, one of the weirdest guitar tunings is F# F# B E how Wes Borland use this in songs like Nookie or Full Nelson. How ever, he's using a special 4-string guitar a guitar/bass hybrid.

[@c0n0r_BRADY]

Another one could be Gojira’s “At of Dying” off of their 4th studio record, “The Way of All Flesh”. The tuning for that song is C, G, C, D#, G, and C.

[@mxvega1097]

Swervedriver use GCDGCd a lot. Look up "Duress"- there's a live clip in Sydney which is very cool too. I've used C-sus feel tunings for ages, including on 12-string - takes a while to tune, but great results.

[@baschdiro8565]

I wonder if there is also a song in the Bagdad tuning.

[@PianoMan347]

Zeppelin’s Rain Song I believe is DGCGCD, open Gsus4. That one is pretty cool

[@HemiSlant6828]

The song that was on my mind the whole time, yet wasn't mentioned was Daughter by Pearl Jam, which is in Open G tuning, which has been a really weird tuning to me.

[@electricpollusion]

open g i a normal tuning

[@buff.m.s]

It’s the easiest to tune with your ear and to make open chords.

[@vk3fbab]

It's open G but low D up to G. Easier to play as you have the root in the bass and gives it a thicker sound.

[@garywatson3778]

I figured you were going to have a Zep tune in there, but I was thinking of The Rain Song. DGCGCD... Page is a tuning monster.

[@gabrieldipasquale02]

Mayonaise by The Smashing Pumpkins (Siamese Dream). The tuning is: Eb - Bb - Bb - Gb - Bb - D

[@robertcop8825]

Not too weird, but Shadow on the Sun by Audioslave is one of my favourites. It's tuned to BADGBe.

[@thomastameris3343]

So like a 7 string but without the low E string? interesting

[@crustyjpeg7064]

A few more songs in that tuning are Prison Sex by Tool, Rusty Cage by Soundgarden, Break It To Me by Muse, and Maggie's Farm by RATM. I've heard it referred to as "Drop B" a few times, though it isn't the real Drop B. Kind of a weird predecessor to it, I suppose.

[@jessejohanni]

"Save it For Later" by The Beat is a great one. Theres a clip here on youtube where Dave Wakeling tells a funny story about when Pete Townshend and Dave Gilmour called him 'cause they could not figure out the tuning (and PT was planning to cover the song, which he did).

[@Lintmusic]

Nashville tuning was originally done with using the thin strings only from a 12 string guitar if I remember correctly.

[@cactustactics]

Yeah it was so you could take a 12-string set and put them on two 6-string guitars instead, and get some cool 12-string sounds playing them together!

[@AMESLARI]

I had absolutely no idea that "Iris" was in such a weird tuning! One riff that springs to mind is "The Cave", by Mumford & Sons, which is in open D (D-A-D-F#-A-d). Great song in an unusual tuning ^^

[@musicjimbutler]

Joni Mitchell used more tunings than anyone. There is a website listing about 80 tunings for her songs.

[@KevyNova]

That’s true! I read an interview with her and she said that on all of her albums, she’s only ever written two songs in standard tuning!

[@ryangirard9739]

Love this series. Great work man. If I can give any feedback, it would be nice to have the tunings up on the screen while you play.

[@DookyShoes1]

Suffering Overdue is one of my favorite songs, thanks for including it.

[@evolutisband]

Another slept on unusual tuning is the acoustic guitar on “God Put A Smile Upon Your Face” by Coldplay. Great song too (and I’m a “metal guy” lol)

[@Rowe4900candymachine]

The song Boris by the melvins is in e standard but the low e is dropped to a1, Slomatics does a similar thing in C#standard dropping to F#. The band lightning bolt is a 2 piece band and their bassist brian gibson just tunes his 5 string bass to fifths like a cello, CGDAE to accomplish this he uses banjo strings along with bass strings.

[@xSijnx]

Those zach wylde harmonics were outfuckingstanding. subbed.

[@shadowxtulhybridtheoryep2780]

I love the sound of two strings tuned to the same thing. Sounds awesome.

[@B---tw3kh]

For weird tunings galore, Sonic Youth or the Velvet Underground are where it's at. But a personal favourite is Moya by GY!BE which is D# A# C# F a# d#

[@MostMetalRowan]

The entire "Songs for the Dead" album uses C Standard for the most part!

[@WordsDarkerThanTheirWings]

I instantly thought of Alter Bridge when I saw the title of the video, but I never expected you to actually include them!

[@kirkbolas4985]

I’ve played guitar for about 42 years now and I’ve utilized a number of open tunings when I play slide. Not too unusual. I think one of the odder tunings I’ve played was for Aerosmith’s “Janie Has A Gun”. It’s been probably 20 years since I’ve played the song; I seem to recall the tuning (low to high) F Bb Eb Ab C F for the song.

[@jibicusmaximus4827]

its not odd is it, its just up a semitone..

[@jibicusmaximus4827]

i guess its unusual though, yes...

[@predeterminedmeat5024]

The tuning for Incinerate by Sonic Youth is pretty fun

[@gwugluud]

B-E-D-D-B-B. Of Kim Gordon's band project, Free Kitten, her full time band was as bassist in Sonic Youth. Also personally, tuning all strings to the same note (which respect to octaves of course due to string gauges), but leaving one of the strings at a different note, is a really interesting tuning. Such as all "E"s but with one string tuned to B#, for instance.

[@FilhoDudu]

On hey you the lower E is actually 2 octaves higher, meaning it's the same octave as the higher e.

[@keganlapointe7617]

Periphery has a few songs including Reptile thats in a GGCFAD tuning, which is honestly fun to use

[@ScheduledChip]

Scarlet is in Open C# add9 as well

[@rickwilliams967]

They get boring really quick though.

[@henrypaulsen9033]

I call that the Sikth tuning though I’m pretty sure they got the idea for it from Dimebag

[@Moozart]

First thing that comes to mind is SikTh that used something like a low Ab - Ab octave up - Db - Gb - Bb - Eb on their masterpiece Death of a Dead Day. At the time, it was groudbreaking and paved the way for modern metal bands like Periphery

[@T4gProd]

If you like DADGAd and solo acoustic. Pierre Bensusan is AMAZING! Intuite is probably my favorite album.

[@dejagravy204]

If I remember correctly, Buzz from the Melvins where 4 strings are in standard but 2 are dropped. Low to high its CGDGBE. It's a fun one to experiment with!

[@Nikbordoli]

Great job! As always ;) Was expecting to see neon, but maybe its tuning isn’t that odd! Ciao Danilo!😊

[@RRW276]

Ooh, that Tool tone was so sweet!!! 🤘🏼🤘🏼

[@merlin5476]

Geordie " Kevin " walker apparently used an unusual style of tuning on his Es295. R.I.P. Geordie .

[@tableface77]

For the song The Musical Box, Mike Rutherford of Genesis tuned his twelve string with the six top Ee/Bb/Gg strings tuned to F#

[@glaurung666]

On my guitars I use: 1. dAFDAD (acoustic guitar and Gibson LP) 2. dAEDAEA (on my 7-string Schecter 007 Elite) 3. geCGCGCG (on my 8-string Schecter Hellraiser C-8)

[@dio1304]

Damn that white LP is gorgeous. I thought nothing can beat white LP with gold furniture, but this thing is outstanding.

[@LordArikado]

Aurelio Voltaire at first appears to use a DADGBE tuning for his song "Brains!". However, by his own admission, he had tuned the guitar incorrectly before recording the album version, resulting in a sound that's juuuuuuuust slightly off from how that tuning should normally sound, and he hasn't been able to replicate it perfectly since.

[@eltiogenga1874]

Most of the songs of Superunknown (Soundgarden) have pretty weird tunnings. For example, 4th of july or Black hole sun (even tho you can play the last one just in ordinary drop D tunning, the original record tunning is DA#D#G#CF)

[@XFC856]

Periphery recorded Hell Below on a 7-string tuned C#-B-E-A-D-G-B Devin Townsend has 10 or so songs in A-A-A-E-A-E, and one song in an Ab variation of that tuning.

[@braidenlentz2790]

Love to see alter bridge on the list!!!! Tremonti is an altered tuning machine

[@TRUSTLBLACKMETAL]

Thank you for the interesting video! I love C standard, been playing in it for years, Queens of the Stoneage are one of the few bands I know of that consistently use that tuning.

[@Fritz-the-Brat]

My first thought on C-standard went to the queens as well. Afaik Arch Enemy and Hatebreed use it too (and Soundgarden used it for 4th of july)

[@wouldukindly8628]

Dream Theater have a few songs in this tuning too

[@curtismabbitt6963]

I'm a drop tuning guy n honestly haven't heard of most these tunings before. I've heard most of the songs/riffs here but had no idea 😮 mind is blown. Great video!

[@rickwilliams967]

Yeah, drop tuning is not even close to this, so there's no reason you should know.

[@curtismabbitt6963]

@@rickwilliams967 should know....? It never hurts to have understanding and playability in a variety of tunings. Versatility is huge attribute in a guitarist arsenal. Not even close..., a lot of the finger patterns and intervals are relatively close and pretty easy to pick up when all the strings are tuned to the same note.

[@Owen_plays_music1049]

I think i would add Seven Nation Army. Jack White plays the song in Open A tuning :)

[@JohnDegen_aka_Jeehannes]

Didn't Nick Drake also use various non-standard tunings? I'm not very familiar with his work...

[@santitaboada1460]

Great video! So interesting. I always wondered why hey you have that distinctive sound

[@franklarouche8612]

100% the weirdest tuning of all time is Genesis' Cinema Show 12-string: dDgGaDeGbBeE - those middle 4 strings are insane

[@RaphaelFilt]

Have you seen the tuning from Strapping Young Lad? It’s very nice (and weird). Great video Danilo!

[@TheErsatzMode]

As a new guitarist, I'm wondering how the musicians arrived at the point at which they decided, and determined how, to alter the tuning of their guitars. Any thoughts?

[@Dwightpower88]

It goes back to the beginning. Tunings varied by area with a lot of open tunings being used (open tuning means you're tuned so that a chord plays when you strum the open strings). Standard tuning developed at some time in the 1800s.

[@TheErsatzMode]

@@Dwightpower88, thanks, that's interesting. I appreciate your reply.

[@Dwightpower88]

@@TheErsatzMode That's what makes the guitar so cool. You can make up a completely random tuning if you want.

[@tarkenton3895]

It's all about Karnivool for me when it comes to weird tunings. They used BF#BGbe on their debut album, and BF#Bf#be on some later songs. That second tuning combined with the UK Milton Cleans bands (Fellsilent, Monuments, Tesseract) tuning to low tuned 7 strint DADGad variants are why I tune the way I do now (BF#BEf#be). Sadly I cant play in normal tunings anymore 😅

[@andrezitox-]

I don't know if this tuning is that "weird" but Wes Borland uses in some Limp Bizkit songs F# F# B E in a 4 string baritone

[@isaacbetancourt8289]

Great list by the way but you forgot mayonnaise by the smashing pumpkins

[@therareplatypus7121]

My band has been playing in an unconventional tuning for over the last year. We play 8 string guitars in... E1 B1 E2 B2 F#3 A3 C#4 F#4

[@igorcruz5869]

Deja Vu, by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young has a quite unorthodox tuning. Love that song.

[@xXLethalLama]

I knew AB would be on here. Tremonti and kennedy use so many weird tunings

[@dropd1039]

Josh Travis tops them all. One example: A D A D C(16 cents sharp) C G Ab E (he uses a 9-string)

[@ricktheexplorer]

Chris Cornell - Seasons. That tuning is wild. All these songs in this video are $million dollar songs. Evidently, it pays to tune differently. I can't believe I got to see Hey You played live by somebody, good work on all of this.

[@FairfaxJack]

Also Stephen Stills acoustic in Suite: Judy Blue Eyes by CSNY

[@nixdawegda]

Blixa Bargeld used a DADAAD tuning with The Bad Seeds. It sounds very percussive.

[@CamCo55]

My Sacrifice by Creed (THE BEST BAND EVER, YOURE JUST IN DENIAL) is in DADADD tuning 👍

[@TheAqualegend]

Hey You is my favorite Pink Floyd song and I had no idea that was how they got that sound. So unique!

[@DeathMetalDuelist666]

I’m a heavy metal guy so I see tons of weird tunings, my favorite tuning is EAEADgbe, I have a friend who tunes to DGCGCfad, and of course, slipknot took drop B into a double drop F# in scissors

[@sheepdavis]

I know nothing of tuning!!! But love these songs and finding out their stories.

[@bestboy897]

I was wondering where is led zeppelin 😅 great riffs. Also, are you wearing a Tudor?

[@seanhammer6296]

Two by Led Zeppelin, "The Rain Song", I can't remember how that one goes. And then "When the Levee Breaks," Fmaj/Robert Johnson tuning.

[@MisterRorschach90]

Every early 2000s pop punk emo fan who played guitar thinks specifically of dashboard confessional when the topic of open or weird tunings come up.

[@jibicusmaximus4827]

as a slide and lap player i find most the tunings called weird in the comments are not that crazy, if you look at the intervals instead of just the letter names it helps break em down

[@natrixxvision6997]

Waiting for the Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago by ZZ Top. D G D G B E. Frank Gambale also uses a tuning similar to the Nashville tuning on some of his stuff. And Allan Holdsworth also used some different tunings as does Pat Metheny.

[@Pallequellevere]

DADGAD isn’t so weird, three strings are the same and the 6th, the 5th and the 1st are one step down. EEBBBb and BDDDDd are way more weird than DADGAD. (In my opinion) Comunque grande e continua così che ti adoro! ❤ 🤟

[@mauser5680]

I can't think of any guitarists that use it on electric, but CGCFCE is a fantastic tuning that Nick Drake used on quite a few of his tracks. I have it on my Jazzmaster and it sounds amazing. Been playing around with 'ethereal tuning' on this thinline I got semi-recently (DAC#F#C#D). That said, the tuning I really want to try out is New Standard (CGDAEG), and I might try and put it on a 12 string I've been looking to get.

[@iliketrains3495]

Basically every Placebo song. Great choice for Mosquito Song though

[@dameonwalker8994]

Davey Graham (more latterly his friend and student Bert Jansch) have never received the credit they deserve for establishing the DADGAD tuning system, particularly Mr. Graham for having invented it. Try Davey Graham's 'She Moved Through The Fair' and Bert Jansch's 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' to hear the masters at work. Another odd tuning is the 'ostrich' system, all strings tuned to A. Given the infamy surrounding Gary Glitter I was surprised to hear his song 'Rock 'n' Roll - Part 2' used in the Joachim Phoenix vehicle 'Joker', a chance to hear the 'ostrich' tuning in action.

[@ndSpaz]

Never Meant by American Football caught me off guard, I think that was the first weirder one I encountered.

[@carloslonmoer6285]

List got more and more normal as he approached #1 😂

[@michaellorah9051]

Another weird tuning in a fantastic song is Carry On by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.

[@spikereynolds8615]

DADAAd and BADGBe are a couple fun ones as well.

[@andrerenault]

Mike Rutherford of Genesis uses a ton of Open D. Turn It On Again is a great example

[@fuzzylumpkinns]

Never Meant by American Football is in FACGCE and its fantastic

[@rocketpigrecords3719]

SYL is in CGCGCC iirc, basically a C5 power chord. GCGCGCC on 7 string material. Makes his shredding insanely easier, but there's a video explaining how useless it is for, say, a blues jam or folk/cowboy chords etc.

[@LuisCarlos-oo9im]

Dude your gibson les paul it's gorgeous.

[@markthehammer]

Eebbbb?! What the cazzo di tuning is questo??

Amazing video and effort! Thanks!

[@dr.winstonoboogie7302]

Led Zeppelin have so many! In My Time of Dying, Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp, That’s the Way, Friends and many more!

[@recordingwithriley2550]

One of my fav tunings used by Daniel Johns (silverchair) is Db Ab Db Ab Db Db

[@shinaniganz4453]

Awesome tuning that often break my strings . Chris cornell seasons ffcccf

[@fabriziosolinas]

Video figo Dani. Molto interessante