Unorthodox sounds/ways of playing guitar

[James]

Ok everyone, I want to know all the ways you know of making the guitar sound like a different instrument. Maybe by using percussion techniques or different tunings, or whatever... I'll start the ball rolling.

Try tuning your entire guitar to D (not the D chord, every string is D). Obviously tune up or down dependin on what the shortest distance is to D... dont' break a string. Now you have a pseudo-sitar. Keep melody on one or two strings and use the rest as drones.

That's the type of thing I'm looking for...

[Christoph]

Try playing your guitar like a bass. While doing hammers and pulls on the lower strings, slap the strings with your middle finger or thumb. If you have an acoustic, you can also slap up on the frets to get multiple harmonics. It'll sound really celtic and folksy.

If you have a volume pedal and a delay processor, you can try the Satch thing where he makes his guitar sound like a flute . . . like at the end of the 3rd song on the Extremist. With the volume pedal all the way off, reverse your whammy bar so it's back over the body of the guitar parallel to the neck. Pick a note, push your pedal forward, and lightly give it some whammy. You can slide around to different notes while you have the pedal forward too.

[Bardsley]

A volume pedal and delay can let you make chords swell in and stay around for ages, while you move to another chord for instance.

[James]

those are some great ones... here's another. This is something that flamenco legend Carlos Montanyo originated (it only works with nylon string guitars). Pull the sixth string right overtop the fifth string and hold it there, now hit those two bottom strings. He used it to try to imitate the sound of Spanish snare drums (or something like that).

[Christoph]

I have to confess my ignorance concerning sitars. Are they tuned like that? . . . all to one note? How are you supposed to play a chord?

[James]

Essentially yes, that's how they are tuned. Now, whether or not they're turned all to one note or to more then one note, I'm not quite sure but I think it depends, kind of like whether a guitar player uses standard tuning or an open-chord based tuning. All strings are used as drones except for one, which the melody is played on. I don't believe chords are ever played with the sitar. I might be wrong however.

[Joseph]

Originally posted by Christoph

Try playing your guitar like a bass.

Heh, everyone thought I was nuts when I first started off on guitar, because that's exactly how I started. I was playing the darn thing like a bass, slapping the strings, and practicing hammer ons more than chords. However, all of that changed once I was heavily influenced by the classical style.

I think we're always looking for ways to change the sound of the guitar, although there ar so many endless possibilities, we never really run out of ideas. Hey guys those are all great ideas you've mentioned, which I've untilized on more than one occassion. However, the best advice I could give you is to just go nuts, practice like a mad :mad: man, and try yourself to create a style that has never been heard before. Lately I've been tuning my guitars down really low, where some of the strings are flabby. When doing this, in order to achieve a strong sound, you have to use really thick strings. But after all is said in done, I always go back to standard tuning.

Just keep several different guitars handy, tune them all differently, create new possibilities. Rely on technique...

-Joseph

[Raskolnikov]

Sounds like you aught to check out Scissorfight (http://www.scissorfight.net). Detuned New Hampshire 'Necker hard core... or something. I suggest you download Granite State Destroyer off their web page- simplistic, but it rocks.

I can also assure you all that they are much better live.